Holi under Attack in the Land of Sufis

Sindh – the land of Sufis – wit­nessed a series of inter-com­mu­nal riots and ten­sions on this eve of recent Holi fes­ti­val. Just one day before the Holi fes­ti­val of Hin­dus, an angry mob of Mus­lims in Larkana torched a dharamsha­la and van­dal­ized a near­by tem­ple. The mob was pro­voked over some alleged charges of blas­phe­my; they claimed that some Hin­du youth had des­e­crat­ed pages of the Holy Quran. The alle­ga­tion is yet to be ver­i­fied. This inci­dent caused pan­ic among the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty and led to can­cel­la­tion of all Holi fes­ti­vals and cel­e­bra­tions planned by the pan­chay­ats in Sindh. The Dis­trict Hin­du Pan­chay­at (DHP) Hyder­abad Chair­man M. Parkash Advo­cate said that the pan­chay­at had planned a mega Holi fes­ti­val in New City Park, Hyder­abad on 16th March 2014, which has been can­celled in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the sad inci­dent in Larkana. He fur­ther said that the DHP has appealed to the gov­ern­ment to pro­tect the life and prop­er­ty of the Hin­du Com­mu­ni­ty. Like­wise, Holi cel­e­bra­tions in oth­er dis­tricts, too, were can­celled.

The com­mu­nal ten­sion expand­ed to anoth­er city, Badin, on 18th march 2014, where emo­tion­al­ly charged pro­tes­tors took to the streets to express anger over writ­ing of the names of cer­tain revered Islam­ic fig­ures on a road in a vil­lage named Sakhi Usman Shah. The pro­tes­tors claimed that the col­ors with which the names were writ­ten on road were the same with which the Hin­dus cel­e­brat­ed the Holi. This led to call for a com­plete shut­down in New Dum­b­a­lo town by pro­tes­tors. How­ev­er, no unto­ward inci­dent was report­ed dur­ing the protest day.

The pos­si­bil­i­ty of an orches­trat­ed plan by the extrem­ist ele­ments behind such ugly episodes can­not be ruled out espe­cial­ly because of the tim­ing of the inci­dent. It appears that these inci­dents were planned in order to stop the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty from cel­e­brat­ing Holi fes­ti­val. Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty is demand­ing thor­ough probe into the inci­dents to bring the cul­prits to jus­tice. Var­i­ous sec­tions of the civ­il soci­ety in Sindh has wide­ly con­demned the sad inci­dent of Larkana and reg­is­tered their protest.
How­ev­er, despite the ten­sions and fears, Saif Same­jo – the front man of the rock band The Sketch­es – who along with his team brought togeth­er youth from diverse back­grounds togeth­er at Lahooti Music Aashram to cel­e­brate Holi in Hyder­abad. Through their per­for­mance and jubi­lant cel­e­bra­tion of col­ors, they have con­veyed a mes­sage of courage and sol­i­dar­i­ty in such times. It also shows how youth can play a pos­i­tive role in pro­mot­ing inter­faith har­mo­ny.

For cen­turies, Holi – a fes­ti­val of spring, col­ors and hap­pi­ness – has been cel­e­brat­ed peace­ful­ly in Sindh. It is sad­den­ing the way the cen­turies old tra­di­tion of inter­faith har­mo­ny is being grad­u­al­ly under­mined. The efforts by civ­il soci­ety to show sol­i­dar­i­ty and spread aware­ness regard­ing such inci­dents is encour­ag­ing but these efforts will go a long way in bring­ing back the true spir­it of Sufi cul­ture of Sindh.