The Academics & Career Council (ANC) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur issued a fresh Diwali invite following massive online outrage over referring to Diwali as “Jashn-e-Roshni”, which translates to “festival of lights” in Urdu.
The new invite refers to the event as ‘Diwali Celebration’, a far cry from the previous attempt to secularise the Hindu festival.
The earlier invite describing Diwali as ‘Jashn-e-Roshni’ sparked quite a furore on X, formerly known as Twitter, with several social media users, expressing outrage over what they accused of being dismissive of traditional Diwali customs and potentially disrespectful towards Hindu cultural values.
“Is it too pedestrian for @IITKanpur’s Int’l Relations Wing to pronounce Deepawali, Diwali or Deepotsav? Why do you guys have to put your head in Urdu ar*e to sound cool?” tweeted Ajeet Bharti, a popular journalist known for his stinging takes on political affairs.
The post was subsequently removed in the wake of online backlash.
