Irony is when the land from where Holi originated tries to disassociate from its rich heritage. Equally ironic is that the country which wants to teach the world a lesson on Islamophobia bars its own Ahmadi citizens from celebrating Eid al-Adha.
As if it isn’t enough that the Pakistani State has declared that Ahmadis are “non-Muslim”, they have been sentenced to a life of persecution. It has now become a ritual that every Eid al-Adha a controversy starts simmering around the Ahmadi’s freedom to offer Eid prayers and sacrifice animals.
Islamist groups and political parties like Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) partner with bar associations and are ever-ready to lodge complaints with the police to stop Ahmadis from offering Eid prayers inside their places of worship. The families are threatened with blasphemy charges if they so much as think of sacrificing a goat, even within the four walls of their house. A police officer announced at a mosque that any Ahmadi who wants to perform Eid rituals should first convert to Islam. Neighbours are tasked with keeping a watch on their activities on Eid.
Last month, a 77-year-old Ahmadi lawyer from Karachi was arrested for using the prefix “Syed” in his name. After spending a month in prison he was released on bail, but the lawyer was immediately re-arrested under the blasphemy law for a 30-year-old case. His crime was saying “Assalamu Alaikum”. The charge could carry a 13-year prison term.
This was not the case before the Partition, then Ahmadis were as Muslim as Sunnis or Shias. At least outside Pakistan’s border that is still the case.
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Easy triggers
Holi festivities are barred for students in the land of the pure. Never mind that Holi originated from Multan.
Last week videos surfaced on social media of students from Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad celebrating Holi on university premises. It was part of their cultural event. The students were also seen performing Pashtun and Baloch traditional dances of Attan and Chaap.
But nothing triggers the thekedars (stakeholders) of the State and Islam as much as Pakistani students playing Holi on campus. A glimpse of colours gives them sore eyes. And laughter and enjoyment is a recipe for sleepless nights.
“Pakistan wasn’t created so that you could celebrate Holi here. People who did this should drown in shame,” said Saad Rizvi, TLP chief.
Equally furious was the executive director of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), who lamented that a Holi party “caused concern and disadvantageously affected the country’s image”.
Interestingly, “the fervour exhibited in marking the Hindu festival of Holi” caused more concern and outcry than the notorious Jamia Hafsa madrasa students beating a police officer with their sticks and their principal threatening police officers that they will attack the force with suicide bombs with the help of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.
Of course all of this and much more ‘advantageously’ impacts the country that gets irked by colours.
Pakistan’s image isn’t ruined when students are lynched by classmates on campus over false accusations, rumours and even dreams of blasphemy. It isn’t affected when students kill teachers on the grounds of blasphemy. Their ‘crime’ can range from organising a mixed male-female college party to confronting students who attend TLP dharnas about low attendance.
Even if you scour the depths of the internet, you won’t find a long emotional letter from an HEC bureaucrat condemning any of these events. No one has written letters for Junaid Hafeez, a Fulbright scholar and professor, who is on death row for blasphemy.
This year, 15 Hindu students were attacked by members of the student organisation Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba at a Holi event at Punjab University. The IJT also heckled and beat up Hindu students in Karachi University for the same. Rashid Soomro, the leader of the political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam was shocked, not by the assaults but by the celebration of Holi itself. He said it was as if Sindh, the gateway of Islam, had become New Delhi.
The same constituency gets immense pleasure from the photograph of Pakistani cricketer Mohammed Rizwan offering namaz on a walkway in the secular United States. Or when watching the recitation of the Quran in India’s new parliament building. But any acknowledgement of other religions at home triggers an existential crisis.
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A weak foundation
This is not a new problem. Even the Prime Minister isn’t spared from these attacks.
PM Nawaz Sharif’s presence at Holi and Diwali functions in 2017 shook the “ideological foundation of Pakistan” according to clerics. They claimed he had violated his oath of office.
When Sharif condemned the 2010 terror attack on Ahmadi places of worship and called the community brothers of Muslims and an asset for Pakistan, political and religious groups considered it a sin. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam said “he should seek forgiveness from the Muslims all over the world” for his statement.
This time around, one social media post on Holi was enough to weaken the foundations of the country, put Islam in danger and bring to the fore the age-old question — Kya Pakistan iss liyay bana tha? (Was Pakistan made for this?).
Anything that falls outside the set religious construct can take the place of ‘iss’ in this question. From wishing Christmas, Diwali, or Holi to those who celebrate to showing solidarity with those under attack.
This is what happens when Pakistan refuses to look beyond its 76-year history. Maybe it’s time to take a different lesson from the Taliban who are now promoting the ruins of Bamiyan Buddhas that they bombed in 2001 to tourists.
The author is a journalist from Pakistan. Her Twitter handle is @nailainayat. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)