A subsidiary of India's tea-to-telecoms Tata Group has withdrawn a jewellery advertisement featuring a Hindu-Muslim family celebrating a baby shower, following threats to one of its stores and wide criticism on social media, reports Reuters.
Muslims make up about 15% of India's 1.3 billion people, most of whom are Hindu, and marriages between the two communities are still taboo in some regions.
Tanishq, a jewellery firm and unit of the Tata-controlled Titan Company Ltd, released the advertisement in its "Ekatvam", or oneness campaign, showing a Hindu bride and her Muslim in-laws holding a baby shower in the Hindu tradition.
On Wednesday, staff at the Tanishq jewellery store in the city of Gandhidham in western Gujarat state told Reuters they had posted an apology outside the store following hundreds of threatening calls.
"The Tanishq ad appearing in media today is shameful," read Monday's note, written in Gujarati, the state language. "Gandhidham Tanishq seeks forgiveness from the entire Hindu community of Kutch district."
Although some people had gone to the store seeking an apology for the advertisement, police official Mayur Patil told Reuters, there were no physical threats.
"They did get a lot of phone calls because of the ad, but there has been no attack or ransacking," added Patil, a police superintendent in the area. "Police are present at the store, and the store is functioning."
Calls to boycott the company over the advertisement were trending on social media on Tuesday, with some people accusing it of promoting "Love Jihad", a reference to the idea of a conspiracy by Muslims to forcibly convert Hindu women.
