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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Hindu community celebrates colourful festival of Holi

By Our Correspondent
March 21, 2019

As the Hindu community observed their festival of colours, Holi, on Wednesday, a major event was held at the Shri Panchmukhi Hanuman Temple in the Soldier Bazaar area of Karachi where the festival was celebrated by the Hindu community amidst enthusiasm, cheers and throwing colours on one another.

The Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC), a Hindu rights body, organised the mega event at the temple not only to celebrate Holi but also to acknowledge the noble achievements of Quaid-e-Azam and other founders of the nation before the upcoming Pakistan Day on March 23.

Like elsewhere in the world, the Hindu community in Karachi celebrated Holi by throwing colours on each other, performing prayers, singing bhajans, and dancing with joy. The festival, which is considered one of the most revered and celebrated festivals in Hinduism, signifies the triumph of good over evil.

Karachi’s temples were full of colours, music, gaiety and foods. Special prayers were offered at the temples while clerics highlighted in their sermons the importance of Holi, urging people to adopt the path of goodness and tolerance.

The Holi event at the Shri Panchmukhi Hanuman Temple was attended by the PHC head and MNA Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, SSP East Azfar Mahesar, Faisal Edhi of the Edhi Foundation, noted civil society activists Karamat Ali, Usman Baloch, Nasir Mansoor and Zehra Khan, among others.

As colours are a significant theme of Holi, everyone who entered the ground had some type of colour or an item to throw colours, be it little packets of powdered colour or water guns to throw those powdered colours after having them mixed with water.

To refill their guns, the participants carried more concoctions in little tanks tied to their backs with a hose attached or in cold drink bottles, which they would shake to mix colours from time to time.

This year, leaders of the Hindu community announced to celebrate Holi with simplicity in view of the terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand. Police personnel were deputed outside the temples for security. A large number of people from other faiths, especially Muslims, also visited temples to promote inter-faith harmony in the province.

Every year the Holi festival reminds us of the victory of good over evil, Vankwani said. “This year’s Holi festival will acknowledge the noble achievements of Quaid-e-Azam and his peers who organised the historic public meeting in Lahore on March 23, 1940 to pass the Pakistan Resolution,” he remarked.

“I appeal to everyone to actively participate in Holi celebrations as their presence would deliver a positive message of solidarity with the non-Muslim minorities, promote interfaith harmony and religious tolerance, strengthen patriotic zeal and represent a diverse Pakistani society, according to the country’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s vision,” Vankwani told The News.

To facilitate the members of the Hindu community on the occasion of Holi, the Sindh government had on March 16 announced that it would release the salaries of the government’s Hindu employees before March 20. It is pertinent to mention here that an overwhelming majority of Hindus in Pakistan live in Sindh. As Holi was approaching, the Sindh Rangers also carried out renovation at Kali Mata Mandir, a Hindu temple in New Karachi, on March 11.