Hindu faith mocked as Axis Bank features Santa Claus in Navratri and Diwali advertisement
India 
21 September, 2025
Case Summary
In a deliberate attempt at Christianisation of a Hindu religious festival, Axis Bank’s 2025 Diwali promotional ad campaign ‘Dil Se Open Celebration 2025’ featured Santa Claus appearing in the middle of Navratri Garba celebrations and Diwali lights. The video showed participants engaged in Garba dance during the Navratri festival, where a Santa Claus suddenly appeared and entered the scene, promoting festival offers for Axis Bank. Santa is typically regarded as a symbol of Christmas. By inserting him into Hindu festivals, the ad appears to push the idea that all festivals are universal and should be celebrated beyond religious boundaries. In other words, it is the familiar sermon on secularism, but once again delivered selectively at the expense of Hindu festivals. The advertisement triggered an uproar on social media, with users stating that Axis Bank is “Christianising” Hindu festivals and questioning why such concepts were only applied to Hindu traditions, and not to Eid or Christmas. Netizens demanded the withdrawal of the advertisement and called for a boycott of the bank. Many expressed outrage at the inclusion of Santa Claus in Navratri celebrations, describing it as an insult to Hindu festivals and an exploitation of religious sentiments for corporate gain. One user wrote, “Axis Bank has Christianised Navratri. Why is this tampering always done only with Hindu festivals? Can they show Santa Claus in an Eid ad? Or Islamic symbols in a Christmas ad? Then why Santa Claus in Navratri?" Several users also highlighted the inconsistency of secular messaging, noting that Ramadan or Christmas campaigns never incorporated Hindu rituals, while Hindu festivals were frequently diluted or universalised in the name of secularism. Time and time again, brands hide behind “secular advertising” to peddle propaganda that paints Hindus as intolerant and Muslims as perpetual victims. We saw the same in 2020 when Tanishq’s Diwali ad promoted ‘love jihad’ by glorifying a Hindu woman’s baby shower with her Muslim in-laws, a campaign that sparked outrage after grim real-life cases of Hindu girls being brutalised surfaced. This pattern suggested a deliberate strategy to use Hindu festivals as a platform to deliver hollow lectures on secularism, while other faiths remained untouched. At the time of documenting this incident, the Axis Bank video had already been taken down. Following strong outrage from various social media users, the bank quietly removed the ad but offered no apology or acknowledgement for hurting Hindu religious sentiments. However, Hinduphobia Tracker had saved a copy of the video, which has been uploaded for reference.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category in this case is: Hate speech against Hindus. The subcategory under this is: Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith; therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. The second subcategory selected here is- Anti Hindu subversion and prejudice. Hate speech is defined as any speech, gesture, conduct, writing, or display that is prejudicial against a specific individual and/or group of people, which is leading to or may lead to violence, prejudicial action or hate against that individual and/or group. Media plays a specific and overarching reach in perpetuating prejudicial attitudes towards a community owing to unfair, untrue coverage and/or misrepresentation/misinterpretation, selective coverage and/or omission of facts of/pertaining to issues affecting a specific religious group. This type of bias can dehumanise the victim group, making it easier for others to justify harmful actions against them, which aligns with the objectives of hate speech laws aimed at preventing such harm. It is often observed that the media takes a prejudicial stand against the Hindu community driven by their need to shield the aggressor community which happens to be a numeric minority, however, is the one perpetrating violence against Hindus. For example, the media is often quick to contextualise religiously motivated crimes against Hindus, omit or misrepresent facts that point towards religiously motivated hate crimes, justify and/or downplay religiously motivated hate crimes or simply present fake news to stereotype Hindus. Such media bias leads to the denial of persecution and is often used to dehumanise Hindus, leading to justification for violence against them. For example, the media covered several fake allegations of Hindus targeting Muslims and forcing them to chant Jai Shree Ram. Most of these cases were proved false and fabricated after police investigation. These fake news reports were subsequently never retracted or clarified. Such fake news led to the justification of violence and dehumanisation of Hindus based on the argument that since Hindus targeted Muslims and forced them to chant Jai Shree Ram, the dehumanisation of Hindus and violence against them was par for the course and merely a retaliation. Such media bias leads to prejudicial portrayal of Hindus and offers a justification for violence against them and therefore, is considered hate speech under this category. The Axis Bank advertisement inserting Santa Claus into Navratri Garba and Diwali festivities is not just a case of poor marketing judgment, but a calculated act of cultural denigration. The deliberate placement of a Christian symbol into the sacred space of Hindu religious festivals serves as a mockery of Hindu practices and a veiled attempt at religious dilution. While cloaked in the language of inclusivity and secularism, the underlying message is one of subversion: Hindu rituals and traditions are deemed incomplete, in need of external (often Abrahamic) symbols to make them acceptable, modern, or universal. This is where the anti-Hindu nature of the act becomes clear. Such campaigns are never directed toward other religions. We never see Hindu deities placed into Christmas or Eid celebrations in mainstream advertising. The asymmetry exposes the prejudice—Hindu festivals are repeatedly treated as a soft target where the sanctity of symbols, practices, and traditions can be tampered with under the guise of creativity. By contrast, Islamic or Christian symbols are guarded with caution, never subjected to the same dilution. This double standard is an unmistakable indicator of targeted mockery directed at Hindu identity. The outrage on social media over the ad was not incidental but a natural reaction to this systemic erasure of Hindu uniqueness. Such selective secularism is itself a form of hate speech, because it consistently undermines Hindu culture while shielding others from the same treatment. It sends a clear message that Hinduism is not worthy of respect on its own terms, but must be blended or subordinated to outside religious imagery. The psychological effect is to humiliate Hindus, diminish their confidence in defending their festivals, and normalise the intrusion of non-Hindu elements into sacred cultural spaces. The broader pattern also shows continuity. From Tanishq’s 2020 campaign that trivialised the lived trauma of Hindu women by promoting 'Love Jihad', to this Axis Bank advertisement that inserts Santa into Navratri, Hindu festivals are consistently targeted as platforms for pushing a secularised or Abrahamised narrative. This reveals not an isolated slip, but a trend of ideological hostility toward Hindu traditions. Finally, the manner in which Axis Bank handled the aftermath reinforces this intent. The ad was quietly deleted without acknowledgement or apology, signalling that Hindu hurt is not taken seriously and can be dismissed without consequence. This lack of accountability further confirms the systemic contempt directed at Hindus. In recent times, social media has increasingly become a platform for anti-Hindu hate, with derogatory memes, videos, and messages targeting Hindu religious symbols, practices, and deities. This case fits into the broader pattern of Hinduphobia and religiously motivated hate crimes online, as it involved the deliberate denigration of sacred religious practices. This deliberate targeting of a Hindu religious festival firmly establishes this act as a religiously motivated hate crime; therefore, it is being categorised under the hate crime database. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when the victim’s ordeal began or when the event occurred. Since the tweets were dated September 22, 2025, marking the start of the ad campaign, the date of the incident has been recorded as September 22, 2025.
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
Unknown
Perpetrators Gender
unknown
Sources 
