The colours belong to all
On every Holi, I remember my Arabic professor and mentor, Dr Zaifa Ashraf, who lived with me in Pune till she breathed her last. An atheist, she left Islam at the age of 17, and was non-religious. But she looked forward to celebrating Holi. She believed that all festivals were non-denominational and beyond the precincts of man-made faiths. She’d buy pichkaris and colours and visit a nearby orphanage where she’d play Holi with inmates and distribute sweets among them. I perpetuated the colourful tradition even after her demise. With age and advent of a little more maturity, I comprehended her words, ‘Jashn-e-cheest-farakh-dili’ (Festivity is magnanimity). So true!
In these intolerant times, the liberalism and magnanimity of all festivals must be acknowledged and lauded. I remember, playing Holi with my Muslim friends in countries like Sudan, Tunisia and Algeria. Those Arabic-speaking Muslims of North Africa never questioned the relevance of a ‘Hindu festival’! To them, it was a festival of colours that filled lives with myriad and varied colours. There was never a religious hue to it. All Sufis celebrated Holi and called it jashn-e-faam (faam is a Persian word for colour/s). They never associated it with the Hindus. Once Jalaluddin Rumi’s disciple Halim ul-A’afiz called Holi ‘ahnaaf-e-butparastaan’ (a festival of idol-worshippers). Rumi was disappointed in Halim that rued in Pahalavi, ‘Kee’n an jashn meez al-butaan/Na’zif inn un-shifaan’ (Oh, you unenlightened soul, how can you associate an innocuous festival with idolaters?). Rumi went on to say that the favourite festivals of angels were Shab-e-charaghaan (night of lamps) and Jashn-e-faam (festival of colours).
The great Urfi of Shiraz, who was a Persian poet in Akbar’s court, would go out with colours and play with all and sundry on the streets of Delhi. He successfully urged Akbar and his Muslim courtiers to participate in the festival of colours. Akbar loved to play Holi and he played it with commoners! Even a forever ashen-faced Aurangzeb didn’t stop the people of Delhi and Deccan from playing Holi as he considered the festival of colours to be emblematic of bonhomie!
Now when the people and their festivals are divided on the lines of creeds and screeds, the magnanimous spirit of not just Holi, but all festivals can serve as balm to the festering wounds of bigotry and rabid intolerance that have engulfed us. Remember the words of Urdu poet Qateel Shifai, ‘Mazhab nahin hota koi rang aur roshni ka/ Sarhadein rok nahin sakteen rangon ko bikharne se’ (There’s no religion of colours and light/ The boundaries cannot prevent colours from spreading and suffusing in all directions). If only we all understood this.
