British Brewery Withdraws Beer Named After ‘Ganesh’ After Row

A micro-brewery in northern England confirmed last week that it was withdrawing ‘Ganesh’ as the brand name of a special beer it had brewed a few months ago.

Wishbone Brewery Limited, based in West Yorkshire had launched a special beer called “Ganesh” in August. The beer contained lime, coriander, grape, and chamomile flavor, specially made to feature “Indian flavor profile” for a beer festival in Manchester in September, PTI reports.

However, the brewery faced objections from the Hindu community which found naming the beer after a Hindu god as inappropriate.

Rajan Zed, the president of the U.S.-based Universal Society of Hinduism was one among many who objected to it, the news agency reports.

In a statement, Zed said that inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts or symbols for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.

Hinduism is one of the oldest and the third largest religion of the world with about 1.1 billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled, Zed said.

“In Hinduism, Lord Ganesh is worshipped as the god of wisdom and remover of obstacles and is invoked before the beginning of any major undertaking,” he added.

After the row erupted, the microbrewery tweeted to say it will be withdrawing the name.

Blogged: We learned #Ganesh is not an appropriate name for a beer. @rickgoodman13 @rajanzed @KeighleyNews https://t.co/iNoo7NsVms

— WishboneBrewery (@WishboneBrewery) October 27, 2018

“We were completely unaware of the implications. We just used it as a word that represented India and the Indian flavor profile. Our intention was not to cause any offense and we certainly won’t be using it,” Adrian Chapman, head brewer at Wishbone Brewery, was quoted as saying by the PTI.

In an official blog of the site, the brand has also mentioned that based on “Cultural appropriation,” the company will be withdrawing the name and renaming the beer.

In another instance, a British-brewery named one of its beer (Indian Pale Ale (IPA)) ‘Kalika IPA,’ with a picture of Goddess Kali on it.

Tollgate Brewery, which is based in the small town of Ashby-de-la-Zou in the English Midlands stated brewing the beer for a limited amount of time and confirmed withdrawing the name after a row erupted over naming it after the Hindu goddess.

“Kalika is no longer brewed. We have no cask stocks at the brewery. There are no plans to brew it further”, a spokesperson of the brewery was quoted as saying by the news agency.