4^th July 2022 – As soon as the makers of the documentary film ‘Kaali’ informed the netizens about the movie being filmed at Aga Khan Museum on Saturday evening on 2^nd July, the global netizens expressed their outrage against the movie and accused it for being offensive to Hindu religious sentiments. The poster of the movie depicts Hindu goddess, Kaali, smoking a cigarette and holding a LGBTQ flag.

The movie was screened at Aga Khan Museum and was supported by public universities such as Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly known as Ryerson University) and York University.

Netizens demanded that the poster be removed from all offline and online sources and urged the Indian High Commission in Canada to intervene. Some netizens accused the maker, Leena Manimekalai, for being a hypocrite when she claims herself to be an atheist, but continues to mock Hindu gods. She was also accused of opposing films such as ‘The Lady of Heaven’ which was based on an Islamic historical figure Fatima.

One Twitter user mocked the Toronto Metropolitan University in a series of tweets and thanked the University for promoting Hinduphobia. Using satire, he said that the name change of the university was only namesake (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ryerson-toronto-metropolitan-university-1.6431360) ; it continues to promote colonialism by endorsing such anti-Hindu films.

In response to hundreds of requests, today morning, the High Commission of India in Canada issued a press release and urged the Canadian authorities and event organizers to withdraw the provocative content.

Hindus have been the target of both far-right and far-left academia and media in Canada especially after the ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ conference which took place in September 2021 and was supported by three prominent public-funded Canadian universities.

Of late, India diplomatic agencies have started raising the presence of religiophobia at global platforms and noted United Nation’s double standards in this regard. (https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/at-un-india-notes-double-standards-on-religiophobia-should-apply-equally-to-101655605130456.html). Indian authorities noted that the actions to fight against religiophobia should not only be restricted to Abrahamic religions and should apply equally to non-Abrahamic religions as well.