Colour your politics

The spring carnival that we Indians call Holi is an interesting study in how communities and peoples connect with each other, oftentimes bypassing and overlooking overgrids and undergrids that tend to put us in classificatory boxes. The idea of Holi lies as much in an outpouring of communal love as it does in the expression of repressed sentiments, with colours becoming the refuge we could hide behind. An indulgence in subversion of order, Holi springs from an egalitarian spirit of equality, at least in principle, of all. The festival is really a coming together and springboarding of a more inclusive cultural politics, and despite its religious contours, in practice Holi has always overshot the prescribed boundaries and spilled over into lives and festivities of others. This being an election year, with the national polls less than three weeks away, Holi assumes a political significance that could be both infectious and vicious. The festival of colours, with its inherently dissident trait, can become the platform to galvanise people to become informed citizens armed with waterguns of demands and rights. On the other hand, it can also fall prey to divisive strategies of malicious leaders who want to abuse its ideological accommodativeness to beat sectarian drums. It is, however, up to us how to want to celebrate Holi. Instead of forgiving the politicians and forgetting their promises, we can paint our politics with colours of rights, justice and non-violence.