Himanshu Mishra
I REMEMBER when I was a child, Holi was a festival of joy and togetherness. My father would buy all sorts of things — balloons, colours, even pichkaris — from a Muslim shopkeeper. Sometimes, he would even give me free balloons. Every Holi, we preferred going to his shop, not because of the discounts, but because of his kind nature and the way he would describe which items were best for us.
Those were the days when both Hindus and Muslims celebrated Holi together, without any problems. But today, despite claiming we are evolving, it feels like we are moving backward.
As we all know, Friday is a prayer day for Muslims, and this year, Holi coincided with that day. Instead of finding solutions, some officers and ministers openly stated that Holi comes only once a year, and that Muslims should stay home if they have issues with it.
Police were deployed near the Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh city of Sambhal and even the administration covered the whole mosque with tarpaulin; the visuals made it look like the city was on the brink of a riot.
In several Indian states — Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Telangana — numerous cases of molestation and harassment targeting Muslims have been reported.
Is this still the land of Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, APJ Abdul Kalam, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Jawaharlal Nehru, who all worked tirelessly to make our country an example of secularism? This is the land where Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad would celebrate Holi, but today, if he were alive, do you think he would be willing to join in?
On social media, some so-called Gen Z intellectuals make memes about these issues, and people respond with comments that trivialise the problem. In fact, many Hindu festivals, especially the majority of them, have become a source of fear for minorities and women.
Farah Khan, a well-known personality, once remarked, “Holi is the festival of Chapri,” and while people trolled her for this comment, she wasn’t entirely wrong. During Holi, people often enter others’ homes without permission, and, more often than not, their goal is to apply colour to female members of the family. In case of any objection, the revellers simply say “Bura na mano, Holi hai.”
Our country, which is known for promoting peace and unity, is slowly becoming a place where communal violence thrives, overshadowing the example of secularism it once stood for.
Are we really progressing as a society?
We have a responsibility to raise these issues. Instead of fighting over them, we should focus on finding solutions. We need to tackle unemployment, crime, poverty, and improve our civic sense. These are the issues we need to work on, not the trivialisation of our festivals.
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Himanshu Mishra is a PG diploma holder in journalism (Hindi Medium) from Jamia Millia Islamia. Views expressed here are his own and Clarion India does not necessarily agree with them.
