Pakistanis of all religions gather at Karachi Hindu temple for Holi celebration

KARACHI: Around 8,000 people from multiple religions gathered at the Shri Panchmukhi Hanuman Mandir in Karachi this week, smearing each other with paint and dancing to celebrate Holi, the Hindu festival of colors which heralds the beginning of spring and commemorates the triumph of good over evil.

Holi, which is celebrated on a full-moon day of spring in the Phalguna month of the Hindu calendar (February-March), is being marked this year today, Wednesday (March 8).

Pakistan’s Hindus, which number around four million in a country of over 220 million people, are primarily concentrated in Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital. Hindu festivals like Diwali and Holi are commemorated by Muslims and people of other faiths also, who partake in the festivities and rituals.

“People of all faiths and religions are celebrating Holi here with us,” the caretaker of the Mandir, Shri Ram Nath Maharaj, told Arab News on Tuesday evening as the celebrations at the temple unfolded all around him.

“We, under the flag of Pakistan, celebrate Holi, Diwali, Eid, Easter, and Christmas with the same zeal. We are all one.”

Maharaj, who is also the president of the World Hindu Federation’s (WHF) Pakistan chapter, said the provincial and city police as well as the paramilitary Rangers and Pakistan Army, had provided “great security” to the community to ensure Holi was celebrated in “the best of spirits.”

“Every year, Holi is celebrated with the same passion here at Hanuman Mandir and today, the crowd is huge, so much so that Holi is also being celebrated outside the Mandir as well,” Maharaj added.

Around the temple’s caretaker, people of all ages and creeds danced and enjoyed the celebrations which were preceded by the ‘Holika Dahan’ ritual in which an effigy of Holika, an Asuri demigoddess, was burned to signify the triumph of good over evil.

Explaining the myth behind the ritual, Harsha Rajesh, a ninth-grade student, said that a man called Hiranyakashipu had likened himself to a god and claimed dominion over all of earth, but his own son, Prahlada, plotted against him, which angered the father.

“The father asked his sister, Holika, who had a shawl that was said to protect against fire, to sit with his child around a bonfire, draped in that shawl, so that she doesn’t burn but his child [does],” Rajesh explained.

“With the help of the creator [god], with his magic, the shawl Holika was wrapped in flies and covered the child instead. The [ensuing] flame burned black but then took on colors such as pink, green and all [the other] colors, which is why we celebrate this festival of Holi. It’s the colors of happiness basically.”

Thus, Rajesh said, for Holi, believers first burnt the effigy of Holika and then smeared color on each other, distributed sweets and danced well into the night.  

“The place where I work has many Hindu students, teachers and general staff so I was very happy to receive their invitation,” Kiran Alexander, a Christian teacher attending the celebration told Arab News. “As a representative of the Christian community, as a Pakistani, I’m here to support them.”

“Supporting each other is very, very important. It is a very good step for religious harmony and my message to the Hindu community is that we always celebrate with them so that they feel we are all united in Pakistan.”