[Reader-list] Hindus, Muslims celebrate Lucknow's 'Holi Baraat'

Wed Mar 11 21:49:33 IST 2009

Perhaps, it is our universal sense of Aesthetics that transforms the
simple ash of the dead into colour. The fact that she, the princess,
died screaming but no one heard has no meaning here. Her brother, King
Hirnaya Kashyp, must have mourned the death of his volunteer sister
Holika, but the people, the lovers of Prahlad celebrate.

Here, I am interested in key word: celebration. It has perhaps nothing
to do with Prahlad even. To begin with it may sound absurd…

I just saw Lord Krishan playing Holi on TV. The character Krishna was
holding a ‘thali’ ( big plate for eating food ) spinning on his finger
symbolizing his famous weapon which beheads the rival at a glance. And
when his dearest beloved Radha  touches him from behind, the Thali
simply falls down with some petals already placed in it. At that
moment some other characters  come from above ( heaven ) and sprinkle
more petals from such Thalis.  It is again our sense of aesthetics
that transforms a weapon into some celebratory sign, which often comes
to us in ‘ready-mades’, particularly in our folk culture. The fact
that everything happens here on earth, and yet we say it was Heaven
where we performed Krishana and Radha with these ‘thalis’,  and petals
grown from outskirts of Delhi.

I believe, the moment, the characters enter into the dance of it, the
difference which we notice from outside - collapses. In the end the
‘thali’ performs neither a weapon nor a thali as thali. It is perhaps
the flux of it, the dance of it which attracts the human mind. The
actual identity of the characters too becomes meaningless. They could
have been from any religion, or gender.

Thinking loudly, it has perhaps, nothing to do with Hindusim even.
With due regards to all the beliers, Hinduism is a dead sound as dead
a Muslim or a Christian or a Sikh sound is. I am interested in the
primordial, the shamanistic, the tribal, the simple, which we happen
to call Art, but it must be without a representative word.  We don’t
havc a word to explain why a child dances on listening some beat, or
when he or she becomes happy on wearing some festive colours.

I believe, we have some ancient echoes hidden inside which enables us
to transform into something else. We become a Hindu a Muslim or a Sikh
, not only because we are born in particular families, but we
sometimes have choice even. This again falls in the category of Art,
although at a lower level. If a thali can become/represent a killing
disc , why cant a Hindu  become a Muslim or vice versa. The reason why
we find festival ‘celebratory’ is because we all discover that
universal echo in the happening of it.

This has happened 35000 years ago in caves in Lukas in France and
elsewhere. People must have danced, painted animals with passion on
the walls. They had no security of food or shelter etc, but they had
all the time to celebrate the life.  Now, all we have is work, and
work and work, to produce and produce and produce. And to top it we
have sets of identities which we crushes our core purpose of being.

Do we have a word to explain what that celebration meant to all our
billions of predecessors.

To cut it short, and come to my previous post: essay by Katherine
Wolfe ‘ Aesthetics to Politics’ which is all philosophy, but it begins
with “the distribution of the sensible “. The line is quite loaded ,
but here, I think if we can think more about what is sensible in the
first place.

It is indeed about the tolerance of the other, because the sensible
cant be without aesthetic, so celebratory.

It is indeed about the return to celebration, to arts, to music and
dances, and even it is about simple prose, it has to be humble, with a
readymade acceptance that in ‘celebration’ there is no place for egos.

 Any indifference to such a thought will compartmentalize the
aesthetic and the political, rendering the former too vulnerable to
endure the onslaught. The loss is ours, because the less we celebrate,
the less we can carry forward our nobler political thoughts in the
future.

Unfortunately, that is happening all the times.

I think of Ghalib,
Jis ko ho deen-o-dil aziz, us ki gali mein jaian kioun.

With love
Inder salim

On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 7:16 PM, taraprakash <taraprakash at gmail.com> wrote:
> I wonder how you define hedonism. In not that negative sense of the word,
> hedonism is simple enjoyment: eat, drink and be merry. Hindus should visit
> Muslim houses during Eid celebrations. You get all of it, except the drinks
> served that day will not give you a hangover.
> To have the best experience, don't go to return the favor of Holi but to be
> with those who have reason to celebrate that particular day. Like people
> visit other people to attend their birth day celebrations.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kshmendra Kaul" <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
> To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>; <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 5:48 AM
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Hindus, Muslims celebrate Lucknow's 'Holi Baraat'
>
>
>> Just thinking aloud.
>>
>> Holi is a festivity that finds it's roots in Hindu heritage. Yet,
>> overwhelmingly at most places, in the Holi celebration there is no brazen
>> religiosity involved. Holi presents itself as charmingly secular in
>> inviting participation.
>>
>> Perhaps that is why Muslims find it easiest to join Hindus in Holi
>> celebrations as compared to any other Hindu festivity.
>>
>> Holi also lends itself very conveniently for Muslims to make a
>> socio-political gesture of sharing the festival celebratory joys of the
>> Hindus.
>>
>> Such symbolism is not very meaningful if it is directed only by the
>> Muslims towards the Hindus.
>>
>> The question in my mind is how should Hindus be reciprocating for similar
>> heartfelt gestures and also in making socio-political statements. The have
>> to. They must.
>>
>> Unfortunately the Muslims do not have any similar public festivities, at
>> least none anywhere close to the rather hedonistic celebration of Holi.
>>
>> Perhaps:
>>
>> - More widespread participation of Hindus in presenting 'chaadar' at the
>> shrines of Muslim saints all over India and not confined to just a few
>> like Ajmer Sharif
>>
>> - Hosting by Hindus, at the local community level, of the 'iftihar'
>> (breaking fast during Ramadhan) and not just attending 'iftihar dinners'
>> hosted by fasting Muslims.
>>
>> - Appropriately turned out Hindu contingent participating in the
>> 'Zuljinah' procession (Shias)
>>
>> - At the local community level presenting "Eid" gifts to the Muslim
>> children
>>
>> Just thinking aloud.
>>
>> Kshmendra
>>
>>
>> --- On Wed, 3/11/09, Yousuf <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> From: Yousuf <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com>
>> Subject: [Reader-list] Hindus, Muslims celebrate Lucknow's 'Holi Baraat'
>> To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
>> Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 2:09 PM
>>
>> Hindus, Muslims celebrate Lucknow's 'Holi Baraat'
>> 11 Mar 2009, 1310 hrs IST, IANS
>>
>> LUCKNOW: Amid shouts of "Holi hai", a large number of Hindus and
>> Muslims came together here on Wednesday for a 40-year-old practise of
>> jointly
>> celebrating the festival of colours in the old quarter.
>>
>> Dancing to the beat of drums, the revellers assembled around 10 a.m. for
>> the
>> procession that began from the Koneshwar temple, Bharatiya Janata Party
>> (BJP)
>> Lalji Tandon said.
>>
>> People walked for about four kilometres. "Holi baraat sets an example of
>> communal harmony," Tandon said.
>>
>> A resident of Chowk locality, Tandon has been taking part in the function
>> for
>> the last 40 years.
>>
>> The night before, Muslims in the area collected heaps of rose petals and
>> garlands that were showered on Hindus as they arrived for the celebrations
>> Wednesday, residents said.
>>
>> "In response we (Hindus) garlanded them and exchanged pleasantries. This
>> is how we have been celebrating Holi for years," said Anurag Mishra, one
>> of
>> the organisers.
>>
>> The procession passed through various localities of Old Lucknow as more
>> and
>> more people joined it.
>>
>> "Throughout the route, Holi Milans were organised where sweets and special
>> paan were offered to the revellers," said one resident, Shabi Haider.
>>
>> The multi-community procession has not been discontinued even once during
>> the
>> past 40 years.
>>
>> "Even when there was communal tension following the demolition of the
>> Babri Masjid (in 1992), Holi in the Chowk area was celebrated with usual
>> gaiety
>> and gusto," said Ritesh Dwivedi, another resident.
>>
>>
>>
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