Rebecca Thomas, Director of Minack Theatre, which describes itself as “the theatre under the stars!”, in an email to distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who spearheaded the protest, wrote:…We do recognise that there are certain outdated references and cultural sensitivities within many of the older theatre and opera productions…It would never be our intention to promote or misrepresent traditions and cultures…I have taken on board your points aimed at Surrey Opera who are hiring our theatre for their production and have withdrawn Lakmé from the programme later this year.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, thanked Thomas and Minack Theatre for understanding the concerns of Hindu community, which felt that such a display was insensitive.

Rajan Zed had said that host Minack Theatre “should not be in the business of callously promoting appropriation of traditions, elements and concepts of “others”; and ridiculing entire communities.”

Zed had indicated that this deeply problematic opera was just a blatant belittling of a rich civilization and exhibited 19th-century orientalist attitudes. He had also urged the producer Surrey Opera (Croydon) to apologize for such an inappropriate selection.

Surrey Opera should have shown some maturity before selecting an opera like Lakmé (Lakshmi), displaying Western caricaturing of Eastern heritage and abetting ethnic stereotyping, Rajan Zed had noted.

It was highly irresponsible for a world-famous theatre and Charitable Organisation like Minack Theatre, whose Mission includes "Enhance people’s lives", to permit performance of 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. Minack Theatre could do better than this to serve its diverse stakeholders; Zed stated.

Rajan Zed suggested Minack Theatre Director Rebecca Thomas to re-evaluate their systems and procedures and send their officials 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 the 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.

Even the Lakmé announcement on Minack website previously warned of “cultural bias” and stated: “Contains stereotyping or negative depictions of people/cultures”.

This two-hours and 20 minutes Lakmé performance was directed by Alex Pearson and conducted by Jonathan Butcher.

Lakmé, a French opera in three acts, was composed by Léo Delibes and set in India in the mid-19th century.

Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about 1.2 billion adherents, and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal.