Controversy: ’GSB Fish Ban Video offends community’s age old Deepavali tradition’

Controversy: ’GSB Fish Ban Video offends community’s age old Deepavali tradition’

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, November 20, 2020: A video message produced by a group called ‘Youth of GSB’ has drawn flak from the GSB community members for offending their time honoured tradition of celebrating Deepavali eve with a fish feast. It is learned that the video was originally uploaded by the group on their social media page during Deepavali in 2019 and later abruptly removed. Though it did not attract much attention last year, it has raised a controversy during this Deepavali when it went viral in social media again.

Members of the GSB community as well as some prominent social activists have taken objection to the contents of the video titled ‘A special message about Deepavali to all GSB Samaj Bhandavas’ which called for the community to give up this generations old custom. While some community members see this as a killjoy, others have expressed hurt and anger. “This video offends our community’s age old tradition. At a time when we were all trying to come out of the trauma caused by Covid pandemic and enjoy Deepavali peacefully, this video came as a rude shock and an unnecessary disturbance,” said Nithin, a community youth.

The controversial video message is attributed to one Gopi Bhat, supposedly a priest. In the video Gopi Bhat is seen imputing the GSB community members of indulging in the ‘unholy’ practice of eating fish during a sacred festival like Deepavali. Claiming that the practice of fish eating is unsuitable for the occasion, he singled out only the GSB community of Mangalore for the ‘shameful’ behavior. In the same video, he also denounced the community members for bragging about their fish meals in social media posts. Emphasizing on the ‘Brahmin’ factor, he said GSBs should behave like puritanical role models for ‘other’ people.

Fish eating is an age old and well accepted food habit among the GSB or Goud Saraswat Brahmin community. There is no taboo attached to the practice and the community in fact proudly identifies itself as ‘fish eating Brahmins’. A large section of the community – except its priestly class – eats fish. Even marriages freely take place between those who eat and those who don’t.  However they abstain from eating fish during sacred days and festivals, including Deepavali.

A Typical GSB Pre-Deepavali Fish Dinner

Contrary to Gopi Bhat’s claims, the custom of eating fish for dinner takes place on the eve of Deepavali and not on the festival day itself. Generally the children and women folk have traditional oil bath, a cup of Kashaya and burst crackers. This is followed by a grand family fish dinner. Men mostly observe oil bath the next morning, on the actual day of the festival. Within the community, this tradition is synonymous with Deepavali. The community takes pride in it and eagerly looks upon the fish dinner as an annual feast or treat. Hence the disapproving tone of the video hit a raw nerve. “Even our forefathers used to celebrate Deepavali eve with fish feast. I have never heard anybody saying fish eating during Deepavali goes against our community norms,” said a community elder. 

The video seems to have rubbed the wrong way with everyone and elicited sharp reactions from activists and community members alike. Though the video is presented in persuasive language, it is loaded with shame inducing and guilt inducing content and instigation to assert caste identity. While the community response to the video has been emotional, social activists are seeing it as an attempt at moral policing of the community. One of the first to react was Prof. Narendra Nayak, President of Federation of Indian Rationalists Associations (FIRA). “This is a very dangerous trend and it should be nipped in the bud. What we are seeing is nothing short of how the progressive culture of Afghanistan and Iran was taken over by fundamentalist elements. This video is only the beginning and the demands will only become more aggressive. Society should show zero tolerance to such tactics, or be prepared to pay a very heavy price,” he said.

Prof. Narendra Nayak, who is born GSB, but has renounced religion to become an atheist, denounces the video as an attempt to manipulate and control society. “This is a typical right wing tactic to control society by attacking the people’s choice of food and behavior. If the people surrender to such attempts at moral policing, more demands will follow. This is no different from how the Taliban subjugated the Afghan people,” Prof. Nayak said. With typical sarcasm, he even posted a photo of his dinner thali on social media on the appointed day, November 16. The meal comprised fish and other non-vegetarian delicacies cooked by variety of people down the caste hierarchy, thereby making a mockery of the regressive caste based logic of the video.

Dr. P. V. Bhandary, an Udupi based psychiatrist and rationalist, too shared Prof. Nayak’s post along with a sarcastic message that he (Nayak) should be expelled from the community for sacrilege and blasphemy. Somanath Nayak, another social activist based at Belthangady, said: “It is a common practice in this community to eat fish during Deepavali festival. It has been going on for generations. It is wrong to criticize any one for one’s eating habits or way of life.  Though sandwiched between nice words, the gist of this video message is orthodox and regressive.”  

While some sections of the GSB community merely expressed hurt feelings, others have not been so forgiving. Soon after the video started circulating, several anonymous messages had gone viral on social media directly attacking the Youth of GSB, Guru Bhat and the other persons allegedly working behind the scenes. Using harsh language, these angry posts purported to ‘expose’ their allegedly scandalous backgrounds and questioned their credibility in trying to do moral policing of the GSB community. A community member who wished to remain unidentified said: “In olden days, our priests would shave their head, wear shendi and be bare chested. But here we can see Guru Bhat giving us a sermon on morality while wearing colourful clothes and sporting a head full of hair. Let him first practice what he preaches before telling us what to do.”

It is understood that the controversial video has since been withdrawn from the public domain.