A Hindu activist group has made a public complaint about an American chocolatier that makes religious figures out of chocolate.
The Universal Society of Hinduism has called New York chocolate firm Bond Street Chocolate’s manufacture of figures of Hindu God Ganesh made from gold-coated chocolate “inappropriate” and said that it is “highly insensitive to create an edible Hindu deity.”
“Lord Ganesh is highly revered in Hinduism and is meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be eaten casually,” the group’s president Rajan Zed said in a statement.
In its “divine collection“, Bond Street Chocolate also sells gold, silver and bronze-covered chocolate figures of Jesus, Moses, Buddha and the Virgin of Guadalupe, but no Muslim symbols. The chocolate religious figures are priced between $10 for a Small Chocolate Buddha and $85 for a Dark Chocolate Moses.
Zed said that Hindus were for free expression and speech “as much as anybody else if not more, but faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it torment Hindu devotees.” He added that businesses should be respectful to all faiths.
It is the second complaint the group has made about a brand offending Hindus in a fortnight. Earlier this month, it took Australian brewer Brookvale Union to task over its use of images of Hindu gods on ginger beer bottle labels. The company has apologised but the group issued a new complaint, demanding that Brookvale Union remove all offending bottles from sale.