Just how inclusive is the festive space of Holi? Clearly, not much, if an ad about a detergent leads to speculations about ‘love jihad’, and a movement to ban the product. But rewind back to historical archives and we might find that Holi was not very harmonious to begin with. Men have been killed, women raped, and villages burnt and razed all because of Holi festivities.
15th century: Purity and pollution
The most prevalent and noticeable exclusionary social practice has been to physically bar a group from the space of festivities. That is where the paradigm of purity-pollution comes into play.
There is a reference to such exclusionary practices in the 15th-century text Virupaksha Vasantotsava Campu. Composed in erstwhile Vijayanagara, the text contains an account of the Rathotsava that took place during the Vasanta Utsava surrounding Siva and Parvati that would take place as a celebration of spring. Leona May Anderson, who has worked on the subject, talks about how the Turia varna (that she translates as shudras) were prohibited from the celebrations. The text mentions the people from this caste taking recourse to tall buildings outside the city and trees to watch the festivities.
Later in the text, when one does find a reference of shudras participating in the festivities, it is to draw the chariot (along with others) of a wealthy merchant. Eventually, their chariot ends up in a competition with one drawn by the Brahmins. And, the Brahmins, both Saivite and Vaishnavite, set aside their sectarian differences to verbally assault and attack the ‘enemy of Siva’ – the shudras. It is interesting to note how unity between two conflicting sects came about because an excluded group attempted to enter the festive space. The inter-caste divisions were maintained to preserve the privilege to celebrate and to partake in festivities.
Also read: Move over Bhang, the new Holi vice at farmhouse parties is Ecstasy
18th Century: Violence and spectacle
Social historian of pre-colonial South Asia Elizabeth Thelen has studied how Holi became a site of contestation and conflict in northwest India in the 18th century. She cites an incident, which took place between two wealthy merchant communities in Rajasthan’s Nagaur in 1764. The trouble started when the Agarwals (primarily Hindu) intruded into the Khandelwal’s (primarily Jain) gehar or Holi procession. The conflict escalated to a point that the issue was brought to the notice of the Marwar court.
In 1767, another such instance occurred when a Holi procession made up of Hindu Mahesri merchants harassed Jain ascetics.
While festive excesses discussed occur at the expense of exploitation of a visible minority, such transgressions are more likely to go unnoticed as the difference in status and power is not as visible.
Also read: Don’t tell women sexual harassment hurts Hindu pride, tell hooligans to leave Holi alone
Early 20th century: Exploitation and excess
Exploitation can also occur without any intrusion into the festive space. For instance, The Leader reported a case in 1916, wherein a man named Khima who was “a metal worker by caste” was attacked by upper castes who were part of a Holi procession. Khima had recently undergone Arya Samaj’s suddhi ceremony along with his two brothers and was wearing “sacred threads”. Coming to know of this, members of the procession decided to make him surrender his sacred threads and ransacked the houses. In this case, the dominant social group used the festive space to mete out punishment to men who tried to acquire upward social mobility.
Another report in The Times of India in 1938 demonstrates how a festive space is structured around the exploitation of an already marginalised group. It reported in March of a custom in Malwa known as Jabra wherein an earthen pot “containing ashes, chillies and water” was smashed on the head of a “Balai woman on Holi day” who was later paraded around the village. Although this custom was later stopped to “protect the Harijans if they were tyrannized”, there are many other instances of festive excess that took place (or still do) at the expense of exploitation.
Also read: TalkPoint: Has Holi become a festival of fear for women?
‘Bura na mano Holi hai’
In popular imagination, Holi has still successfully retained its status as a festival of harmony and joy.
But it was only as recent as 2017 when the Dalits of Uttar Pradesh’s Rudayan village began playing Holi again. They had stopped playing after 1990 when a Dalit man dared to apply colour on an upper caste villager, leading to his death and the razing of houses of 42 Dalit families.
And it was not long ago when Lalasa Devi (chamar by caste) was raped by an upper-caste Rajput man. Prachi Patil who has worked on the intersectionality of gender and caste violence, has noted how the man was a part of a Holi procession and called her by her caste name before raping her. The incident took place in 2013 in UP’s Dalan Chapra village.
Such instances are often treated as ‘stray references’ or with angry denial. Although Dalit scholars and activists have already written on how Holi, much like many dominant upper caste festivals, is an occasion to repress and exploit both the bodies and the labour of underprivileged castes, it has barely scratched the surface. However, for now, the simplest gesture towards a more inclusive Holi that anyone can easily partake in is to consider before they carry on their customs and ‘fun’, and whether it comes at the expense of another.
The authors are graduate students of history and art history at Mcgill University and University of Wisconsin Madison.
Completely useless article indulging in cherry picking data, a product of deracinated woke Hindu youngsters totally divorced from their tradition and conducting research with motivated agendas to further stereotypes about Hindus. It totally misses another aspect of Holi – that it is specifically referred to as a ‘Shudra Festival’ in Hindu scriptures including Tantravarttika, and celebrates the triumph of the devotion of the Asura Prince Prahlada (another Shudra?). Funny how the incident of Agarwals versus Khandelwals is interpreted as a Hindu aggression against Jains. On one hand, the Marxist oriented researchers deny that Hinduism even existed before the 19th century, but now they want us to believe that Hindu Agarwals conducted a communal riot against minority Jains. This totally overlooks the fact, true even today, that Agarwals have more affinity with Khandelwals than with many other Hindu Jatis. They quote obscure texts like Vasantotsava Chamou, making a mess of it, and then cite marginal scholars like Helen Khandelwal, who has a grand total of 1 book printed by a regional publisher in Rajasthan in 2018. When you check the names of the authors, the agenda becomes clear – Bhadralok Bengali Communists furtharing the agenda of Indian Communist parties by promoting Hindumisia – hated against Hindus. This kind of garbage ‘atrocity literature’ is only meant to provide further ammunition to Communists, Jihadis (like Chilman Saafi, who is apologizing for the horrific Jihad directed at all Kafirs and Dhimmis) and Missionaries. Stop spreading your hateful politics imported from Indian in the US please. The authors will of course never examine the excesses that have happened in the festivals of other religions because they hate only Hindus and Hinduism.
I started reading this article with interest after reading the title. The authors presented 6 incidents over a period of 600 years in the history of India which held a population of more than 50 crores at any given time (if you include Pakistan & Bangladesh).
The authors do not present any empirical data or statistical evidence.
On top of that, both do not live in India and are educated in foreign universities. I do not understand the fascination of “THE PRINT” with foreign university educated scholars writing on Indian festivals and traditions. I have read many such articles. Invariably, all these authors present anecdotal evidence rather than empirical evidence.
I am not saying that caste discrimination does not happen but when it is part of the religion, many people who are educated in that religion and follow it also follow the evil embedded in the religion. Same thing goes for “CURSE OF HAM” in the bible, the concept of Jihad in Islam (it was introduced by the 2nd Caliph, not by the Prophet). But, I do not see these NRI scholars writing articles about them.
Finally, both authors are from the upper castes they mention and have also left the country altogether. Pray, am I allowed to ask, HOW ARE THEY FIGHTING CASTE DISCRIMINATION BY SETTLING IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY? ALSO, DO THEY DARE TO DENOUNCE THEIR OWN RELIGION THEN?
It seems to be very fashionable for people who have run away from the battlefield when the fighting has become tough to call themselves soldiers and comment on actual fighting soldiers. This is a very common phenomenon even among children of so-called nationalistic & patriotic leaders like the RSS.
CAN WE HAVE SOME OF THESE HIGHLY EDUCATED AUTHORS TO DO SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS OF HOW MANY UPPER CASTES FROM INFLUENTIAL INDIAN POLITICAL FAMILIES SETTLE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES BUT WANT THEIR RIGHTS INTACT IN THEIR OWN NATIVE COUNTRY AND ARE EVEN DEMANDING VOTING RIGHTS?
A typical Hindu who will always cite other religions to divert the topic being discussed on Hindu atrocities. A typical Hindu extremist is does not call a fellow Hindu writer, as Hindu, but by the name NRI, because these Hindus will not even use this word when Hinduism is discussed. Why should an Indian Hindu discuss about other faiths, rather than his own? If a non Hindu writers, this Hindu would have told him again to concentrate on his own faith.
Ham and Jihad have nothing to do with how this evil practice of persecution of Dalits started.