One of my favorite things about Instagram is the amount of creative content one can find at any time: the work of graphic designers, calligraphers, poets, painters, or illustrators. This means I can see many different forms of art which serve as motivation and inspiration for my own artistic ventures. However, last week when I was exploring some of the pieces completed by a watercolor artist whose style seemed distinct for its subject matter, I came across one piece that struck me, and not for the aforementioned reasons. The artist had depicted a Hindu goddess, choosing to replace the usual female form of the deity with that of a cat’s. Considering that Hinduism is the faith that I practice, it would be no understatement for me to say that I felt very uncomfortable.
To provide a little background to my discomfort, I will detail my experience with the portrayal of Hinduism in non-religious environments. First and foremost, the Western explanation of Hinduism and its practices is almost always wrong. If you remember anything that your seventh grade textbook taught you about Hinduism, I assure you it is most probably almost entirely inaccurate. Hinduism is not a polytheistic religion, the caste system and its origins are far more nuanced than what is taught, and the words karma, dharma, vedas, and atman are not used the way McGraw Hill says they are. I can’t quite convey the irritation of having to remember wrong information for the purposes of being tested on a religion that I grew up with. Nor can I properly convey my disbelief at seeing the “stickers” my mom wore on her forehead become the most up-and-coming Coachella trend in 2015 when Vanessa Hudgens deemed it cool. All in all, it suffices to say that I have been conditioned to be very wary of the use of Hindu icons and beliefs in pop culture.
I am not so quick to generalize my own experiences to all Hindus that I won’t admit to the possibility of someone who unironically practices Hinduism finding the cat representation of Mahalakshmi flattering or amusing. However, it does merit the reflection of cultural/religious appropriation in artistic spaces. Cultural appropriation can be defined as the unacknowledged adoption of certain elements of a society’s culture, usually referred to when the adopting culture is the more dominant one (I will forgo the distinction between religious and cultural appropriation in this context because both imply a wrongful usage of some element of a community’s way of life). As such, it is important to remember that the label “art” does not eradicate cultural appropriation. Many artists want their work to elicit some sort of reaction from an audience and therefore accept the risk of offending people. However, there is a difference between offending someone and being offensive. Cultural appropriation is inherently offensive. It suggests a lack of understanding and exploitation of some symbol or tenet of a faith or culture. I do not know enough about the artist to say whether she herself practices Hinduism, has some relationship to the faith, or has understood it properly, but I definitely hope that at least one of these suppositions is true so that she may avoid the pitfalls of misappropriation.
I understand that cultural appropriation might not seem like a big deal. After all, mimicry is the highest form of flattery, isn’t it? But consider the Muslim student who has faced Islamophobic microaggressions from her friends’ parents all her life suddenly seeing Rihanna, one of today’s pop culture phenoms, using sacred hadiths as part of the soundtrack to her lingerie show under the guise of “artistic expression.” Or, more recently, the Chinese American classmate experiencing racial trauma due to increased hate crimes against Asian Americans seeing a group of three white women marketing a “respectful refreshed” set of “American Mahjong” for their own profit. The point of exposing such scenarios is not to invite the cancellation of these artists (we can talk about the evils of cancel culture another day), but rather to highlight the ambiguity between “art” and cultural appropriation. To avoid a seemingly subjective controversy, my advice is simple. When in doubt, ask the people who have the most experience with the symbols you plan on using.
The Doodling Duck is an Opinion culture column written and created by Pooja Rajadurai to discuss art as it relates to pop culture, trends, and students.
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