Krewe surprised by objection to theme

The Ladies’ Krewe of Galatea is changing the name of its court members as they prepare for the Mardi Gras parade scheduled for Feb. 7 after being accused of displaying offensive representations of Hindu deities.

“I’m not using their god’s names,” Krewe of Galatea Captain Helen Solar said.

Rajan Zed of Nevada, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, urged the krewe to issue a formal apology for inappropriately “parading” Hindu deities during the ball held Jan. 23, said in a news release.

On behalf of the krewe, Solar issued an apology, saying she was “saddened and dismayed that Hindus were, themselves, dismayed at the Krewe of Galatea Ball Masque” and that it was “in no way intended to trivialize one of the world’s oldest, greatest and most revered religions,” according to the release.

“We didn’t even think about that honestly,” Solar said. “And that’s why I apologized for that. … We did it with the idea that we were visiting India and telling all the beautiful things about India, including Hinduism,” she said.

At the parade, members of the court will be introduced based on what the god or goddess represents instead of the deity’s name.

“The ball is over with. You can’t rectify that,” Solar said. “So the best we can do is just not use the name publicly at the parade. That’s the most we can do really to rectify it. And we intend on doing it, which is not a big problem.”

The attire was nothing physically similar to the deities’ appearance. For example, one of Hinduism’s deities has four arms.

“We didn’t do any of that,” Solar said. “We just got royal clothing from India. Nothing to do with their character at all.”

The krewe’s scriptwriter sent a copy to a friend in India, who is Hindu.

“He read and found nothing offensive, and thought it was beautiful,” Solar said.

The intent was to ensure accuracy of information not knowing anything related to the religion would be “felt this way.”

“We didn’t think about it in that sense,” Solar said. “We had no idea of that because we would have never done it.”

Script approval was more so focused on India’s history not religion.

“As far as checking out Hinduism as the religion, to be perfectly honest, we were not aware of that,” Solar said.

The krewe’s admiration for the country was solely focused on capturing its theme “Travel to India.”

“The whole thing was done in a very respectful manner,” Solar said.

“We just love the country. We just love the culture, exotic and the colors. It was just opulence. It was the country you really wanted to portray.”

Unfortunately, it was done without thinking an offense would be taken regarding the country’s ruling religion of Hinduism.

“And that’s what we did not knowing … not even thinking about the religion,” Solar said.

The scriptwriter’s reason for including religion is because 80 percent of India’s culture practices Hinduism, Solar said.

“That is their culture,” Solar said. “That’s the only reason it was put in there, because it was just a part of India.”