In the last fifty years in India, brahmins as a class are attacked by every other people since it is easy to make the latter believe that brahmins are responsible for their ills.
Since brahmins never indulge in violence and physical fights, it is not possible for the perceived enemies to engage them in such warfare. The only next option is denigration. Further in line is discrimination through reservation in education and employment.
The denigration part has been found to be commercially very rewarding and hence Tamil Film makers freely indulge in it. They make easy money since the majority of their audience are brahmin-haters. No wonder that the Small Screen (TV) has adopted the same tactics too.
In the present case, what shocks us is that even an internationally reputed, western headquartered, web service company could be hoodwinked by their Indian branch to indulge in cheap gimmicks to increase their user base. The motive is clear. Competition has increased manifold among Google, MSN and Yahoo, what with the desi company Rediff too joining the bandwagon.
They know that the numerical strength lies with non-brahmins. Yahoo has started it. Mark my words. If it is left unchecked, what happened in the Cinema and TV area will happen to the Web in Indian region. It will spread to mobile phone downloads and you can see female figures dancing obscenely in madisAr (9 yard saree).
Had they included all other caste characters in their respective robes and appearance, muslims, christians and dalits in particular, their pseudo secularism could be viewed as in just bad taste only. I did not find any Sardar character among the 8 in the page. The other seven pictures do not infer any caste bias.
Please, read the petition for more justification of the protest.
namaskarams.
Bhahusruth.