An undergraduate student in the Department of Philosophy from Jadavpur University (JU), has again demonstrated the thinking that pervades social science departments of left-dominated Universities like Jadavpur and JNU.

The student posted the following image on his Facebook page (profile has been deactivated now) –

The image is from a poster for a 2011 rock concert in Denver, USA by the band ‘Ween’ and shows Maa Kali sitting nude in Jesus’ lap with a cigarette and wine glass in her hands, while Buddha can be seen sitting behind with a drink in his hand.

In the popular Christian imagination, Maa Kali is seen as an evil blood-thirsty demoness – she figures prominently in the myth of Saint Thomas, who is supposed to have arrived in South Bharat in 52 CE and later ‘martyred’ by a jealous Kali-worshipping Hindu priest. This evangelical comic shows how ignorant, fearful Kali-worshippers have a change of heart when they encounter Jesus.

Bengal is the nerve-center of Kali Puja celebrations in Bharat – Maa Kali who is the destroyer of evil forces and the Shakti of Bhagwan Shiva. Every Hindu, especially in Bengal, has a special reverence for Maa Kali -Dakshineswar Kali Temple near Kolkata is the most famous temple dedicated to her, and one where the saint Ramakrishna spent a major part of his life.

But such is the utter ignorance and deracination that has taken root in Universities like JU, that students like Nilambar Chakrabarti feel its cool and modern to share a poster created by an American who has no idea of what he is trying to depict. Is this what sub-altern studies have taught to students – to reduce profound Dharmic icons and ideas to the base level of sex and drugs? West Bengal today has become a state where it is illegal to share a cartoon mocking CM Mamta Banerjee, but denigrating Maa Kali is fine!

Given such mindsets, it is no surprise that the same Jadavpur University had held protest marches in support of Kanhaiya Kumar and his band of ‘Bharat ki barbadi tak jung rahegi’ JNU student ‘activists’, for the sentenced terrorist Yakub Memon, against Vivek Agnihotri’s movie ‘Buddha In a Traffic Jam’ which exposed the academic-Naxal nexus….if it’s anti-Bharat and anti-Hindu Dharma, it must be cool – seems to be the Jadavpur University motto! 

A Facebook user hit the nail on the head regarding hypocrisy of liberals and seculars with this post  –

“Yo Liberals – Seculars – Tolerants and JNUwaalaas… and their double standards… had this “artist” made the same “piece of art” drawing Mohammed in compromising position with a pre-teen girl, I am sure the artist would have faced a fatwa and would be in jail like Kamlesh Tiwari, while those who would have issued a fatwa calling for his murder would be roaming freely..

This is what Congress has done to our society and nation and likes of Barkha Dutt and NDTV would be obfuscating and working overtime to push bigotry of mullahs and seculars – liberals – tolerants under the carpet”

We wish Nilambar Chakrabarti gets some good sense, and makes an honest attempt to understand his own roots. Informed criticism & a questioning attitude is central to Hindu Dharma, but such ‘art’ just reflects base ignorance.

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