Hindu Spokesman Opposes First Ever Indian PS2 Title

Webnewswire has reported that leading Hindu spokesman Rajan Zed has voiced his objections to Hanuman – Boy Warrior (HBW), the first Indian developed PS2 title.

HBW is a 3D action title which depicts the life of Hanuman, a central figure in the Hindu religion. Essentially we’re talking about a kid-friendly God Of War clone aimed at an audience perhaps more familiar with Hindy iconography than that of the ancient Greeks. What Mr Zed seems to object to is the amount of creative license taken with the story of the game and the depiction of Hanuman’s life. I’m not a religious person myself but given that this game is targeted at children I can understand that a religious leader would not want their faith to be misrepresented. As a result, Mr Zed has called on Sony to not allow the game to release.

Beyond Mr Zed however, there doesn’t appear to have been much genuinely negative Indian Hindu reaction to the release. Mr Zed himself is based in the USA and although quite a well known speaker on religious issues does not by extension speak for the entire Hindu diaspora.

Nevertheless the original article on Webnewswire claims “Hindus urge Sony to withdraw Hanuman video game”. Even more disturbingly, by the time it reached Gamepolitics the story became “Hindus Protest PS2 Game Released in India”. This despite no reports of any mass protest or outrage against the title amongst the wider Hindu diaspora.

Given that the game was released on March 25th, it’s had plenty of time to stir up hatred and clearly failed to do so. In fact, the only truly negative reaction came from Tech 2 India who tore the game to shreds on the basis of its graphics and gameplay.

This kind of reporting, where the words of just one spokesman are transformed into the opinions of an entire demographic, is frankly repulsive. It’s scary that the calmly expressed objections of one spokesman can be taken as outrage from a wider community. Especially when no member of the American organisation Mr Zed represents will likely even play this game.