A few weeks back, leaders from some Hindu religious organizations protested against the new PS2 game –Hanuman: Boy Warrior and are planning to call for a worldwide boycott of Sony products. It was felt that it “trivialized” one of the main deities of the Hindi religion.
The game is only available in the Indian market and happens to be the first console title to be entirely developed by an Indian firm.
Largely waged through an e-mail, the protest has been led by Rajan Zed, the president of Universal Society of Hinduism. Zed has given Sony until May 21, 2009 to respond to the game protest. Sony officials say they would be looking into the issue however, they have not yet responded.
Zed says:
“If nothing was heard by Hindu leaders from Sony by May 21, then all the protesting Hindu groups and leaders would re-evaluate the protest and announce the future course, which might include calling for boycott of Sony products world over by Hindus and other likeminded people and supporters.”
Gist of the game
This game is has been developed by a Hyderabad-based company – Aurona Technologies Limited, and tells the “growing up” story of Hanuman, where he starts as a powerless being and regains his powers through the game. IIN the game, Hanuman meets Sadhus (Sages) and learns more about his powers. As e moves along, he realizes that he himself is Hanuman. From there on he starts regaining his powers, one by one. He finally gets his Gadhaa (mace) which is his primary weapon. He uses it to gain the ability to fight the Asuras and for every Asura he kills, he can accumulate their life force into his Gadhaa.
Zed adds,
“Reimagining Hindu scriptures and deities for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees. Controlling and manipulating Lord Hanuman with a joystick/ button/keyboard/mouse was denigration. Lord Hanuman was not meant to be reduced to just a “character” in a video game to solidify company / products base in the growing economy of India.”
Offended… are you?
Now the question that crops up is – how many Hindus are actually offended by this? The small sect of religious leaders from a religious point-of-view… definitely yes! But what about the rest of the Hindu population? I can’t speak for others, so I will just wait for your comments and thoughts on this.
But in any case, I am sure not many people will be interested in playing the game after the poor reviews it has received for its inferior character modeling and jerky animations and design.
Link: ps2 games
5 Comments
Well I myself am not very much surprised by the concerns of the religious sects. I mean we already know that Hindu religious leaders are not very much comfortable with the materialization and commercialization of Hindu deities, because this is not the first time such a thing has happened, then why do we go ahead and challenge them again and again.
If the company wants to tap into Indian market, they could have very well used Indian comic book characters. I mean a Nagraj / Super Commando game would generate an equal amount of curiosity minus the hulla of religious leaders. Even the US has games of Spiderman, Batman Mortal Kombat , but I don’t recall Jesus being in any of the games.
@Abhishek Kumar,
I agree… might as well use the Indian comic characters if the idea is to tap the Indian market. Choosing a religious figure for entertainment purpose is always a risky business.
@Abhishek Kumar
lol…what does poor America have to do with this issue?
sony is not an american compny idiot.and the game is compltly done by an indian firm
and who told u that even if u make a game on jesus they will have issues?
most of the anti-jesus stuff comes from america..u budhuu
Hi, swati dont you remember of Bal Hanuman. toon movie. that was seriously good. That toon got good popularity in USA, Europe.
But for game it is not good. do you like to play as god hanuman and loose while playing. this will hurt feelings of few peoples.
@Rahul,
Yes, using ‘Hanuman’ as a game character sure is a sensitive subject.