Xenophobes are basically terrified of anything different, in extreme cases believing they’re on the One True Way, and everyone else has it different. So how does this photo, found on this Indian website, speak to you?
Some odd, alien god? How about this one?
And this one?
Ooooooh, ripped is this God!
And for me, this all speaks to our shared humanity – because these are winners of contests! Just like any place around the United States, the Indians compete in artistic depictions. Whether or not it’s beautiful or gaudy, it is us, somewhere in there. All the way around the world in Mumbai, they compete, they go on tours, and they can be all the same.
Sigh. Yes, yes, yes, we all like to concentrate on differences – between Muslims, Hindus, Christians, religions to skin colors to even what we eat. Protecting our positions in the power structures is sometimes our motivating force, and leads us down dark and fell paths, slippery with the blood of our cousins.
Which is why these pictures of Ganesh make me laugh and hope. And, that last one, makes me wonder – an honest depiction of the artists’ conception of Ganesh in its Ganpati aspect, or a clever send up of the “ripped Jesus?”
