Hindus are urging Opéra National de Bordeaux (ONB) in Bordeaux (France) to withdraw Lakmé opera; scheduled for February 24-26, 2026; which they feel seriously trivializes Hindu religious and other traditions.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, indicated that this deeply problematic opera was just a blatant belittling of a rich civilization and exhibited 19th-century orientalist attitudes. He also urged ONB to apologize for such an inappropriate selection.
ONB should have shown some maturity before selecting an opera like Lakmé (Lakshmi), displaying Western caricaturing of Eastern heritage and abetting ethnic stereotyping, Rajan Zed noted.
It was highly irresponsible for an establishment like ONB to choose such an opera which had been blamed for caricaturing, appearance of mocking of “other” cultures, colonial terminology, degrading and offensive elements, dehumanizing portrayal, essentialism, narratives often failing to represent “other” cultures with dignity and humanity, imperialistic outlook, justifying ideas of superiority, looking down on people and customs, misrepresentation, considerably wrong about the culture it was supposed to be portraying, needless appropriation of cultural motifs, patronizing flawed mishmash of centuries-old orientalist stereotypes, pseudo and unabashed orientalism, reimagining Hindu traditions-practices-deities, shallow exoticism based on prejudice, etc. ONB could do better than this to serve its diverse stakeholders; Zed stated.
Rajan Zed suggested ONB Board President Dimitri Boutleux, Director General Emmanuel Hondré, Musical Director Joseph Swensen to re-evaluate ONB systems and procedures and send its executives for cultural sensitivity training so that such inappropriate stuff did not slip through in the future.
Like many others, Hindus also consider opera as one of the revered art forms which offers richness and depth. But we are well into 21st century now, and outdated Lakmé, which premiered in 1883 in Paris, is long overdue for permanent retirement from the world stage; Zed points out.
ONB claims to showcase 250 performances on average and receives 230,000 visitors.
Lakmé, a French opera in three acts, was composed by Léo Delibes and set in India in the mid-19th century.
Source: World Hindu News
