India, a country so very multifarious, has a vast number of traditions and festivals at the nook and creek of every month but none have the people of India showing more gusto than the festival of Holi. The festival of colors usually falls in the month of March and if we’re lucky, not during our exams.
Holi, traditionally, is the day where we let go of social rigidities as children and as adults and let ourselves loose of the social rules imposed on us. Vrindavan’s Lath Maar Holi, an event where people from around the world may visit to experience, would have truly been a sight to behold and an encounter to cherish if it offered us the safety of personal bodily autonomy that we all deserve.
Lath Maar Holi of Vrindavan is celebrated - as its name implies - by women taking up sticks and beating men up. It is obviously done in a playful manner but that does not reduce the absurdity of the entire tradition. Why? Because now the sticks to beat men up may not just be a part of festivities but also a means of protecting oneself on this day which was meant to be joyous and played without a care.
Even after several years of reporting, the events of Vrindavan’s Holi took the internet by storm only last year when several female journalists published their articles on their visit to this awaited festival. And none of them were positive.
‘It was a nightmare,’ they all said because it were as if the rules ceased to exist for a day. As if groping women and yelling lewd comments at them was somehow justified on this auspicious day. Even sadhus, men who are supposed to be devotees of God, behaved in licentious ways. Furthermore, it was not only the women who were subjected to such indecency and were robbed of their modesty, one journalist reported the encounter of a girl who was just eight-years-old.
If the harassment and entitlement that the men showcase on this day wasn’t already enough, a classic move of the young harassers there is to mix shira - small shards of glass - in colored water which they then aim at women’s intimate parts through their pichkaris. This results in not only cuts that last for days but also immense pain. This practice is done, and I quote from a few of the articles that I read, so that ‘women remember who they played Holi with’.
This event of Lath Maar is not the only place where women are rendered unsafe but each year on Holi, in every part of the country, women mentally revise a safety manual so as to not get harassed or molested. In the capital region, one cannot cross the road even in broad daylight without being put through some scathing encounters. And if you made the bold move to confront these sleazy people, you would be rewarded with the infamous ‘Bura na mano, Holi hai!’ remark, imposing the idea that calling people out on their indecent behavior is an overreaction.
So my question to you is this: since when did untethering ourselves from social rigidities to enjoy ourselves on Holi start meaning sexually harassing others? What is worse is that if this practice went on without an interception on the pretext of ‘boys being boys’ or ‘women being too emotional’, Holi will lose its meaning and instead this harassing tradition will become the norm, furthering the fact that India is a dangerous country for women.
Beneath all the colours and gleaming happiness of some, lies the darker truth of many.
