Holi 2025: Consent goes for a toss again, violence against women, religious minorities takes front seat
On Holi this year, Congress-ruled Telangana became an easy target for the Opposition. Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party went all guns blazing after the Hyderabad and Cyberabad police issued directives on March 13 prohibiting “throwing colours or coloured water on unwilling persons, places and vehicles or smearing unwilling people with colour, on public roads and public places”. They also imposed restrictions on the movement of vehicles in groups.
The prohibitory order was in effect from 6 pm, March 13 to 6 am, March 15 in Hyderabad and from 6 am, March 14 to 6 am, March 15 in Cyberabad.
A video statement of BJP MLA T Raja Singh was aired by several news channels where he called the notification a “Tughlaq-like decree”. “…Ramzan lasts for 30 days, and during the night, large groups of people ride bikes and move around in crowds. Does the ninth Nizam of Telangana, Revanth Reddy, not see this? Do the police officers not notice the nuisance that takes place in Hyderabad during Ramzan?” he said.
Republic TV called it a ‘ban on Holi celebrations’ with BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla telling the channel that the orders by the Congress, which he called a party with a ‘Talibani’ mindset, were ‘absurd’ and ‘unheard of’.
“Where should a Hindu celebrate? Should he celebrate Hindus’ festival Holi etc in Afghanistan? Should he celebrate in Pakistan? Or should we celebrate in India?” Poonawalla was heard saying in a clip aired on News18.
Social media users who, in their bios, align with the Right also made a big deal about these notices. X user @MrSinha_, whose posts have shown explicit support for the BJP, expressed displeasure that throwing water or colour on a stranger would land one in jail. This person equated the Congress’ orders to Sharia. Sharia is a set of religious regulations under Islam that governs the lives of Muslims. It is equivalent to Islamic law.
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Another prominent X account frequently promoting Right-wing ideology, @MeghUpdates, also shared the notice with a veiled jibe against the Congress.
It’s not uncommon for parties to attack each other over ideologies. Often, festivals and important socio-cultural events are a good opportunity to do so.
Also Read: ‘Body in fridge’ tableau in Munger Shivratri rally: Islamophobia & hate trounced devotion & piety?
It’s a separate matter that those mentioned above took little notice of similar directives issued in districts of other states, such as Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha—four of which are BJP-ruled states.
In Telangana’s case, it’s clear that the police barred those celebrating Holi from enforcing it on those who did not want to indulge in it. ‘Unwilling’ is a key word here.
However, going by the reactions of social media users, there seems to be some struggle in understanding the concept of consent. They also remained inconsistent about whether or not they want non-Hindus to participate in Hindu festivals because, based on their reactions, there is a lot of disbelief over the prohibition on applying colours to unknown and unwilling individuals. After all, the festival comes with the catchphrase, “Bura na maano, Holi hai!” (Don’t take offence, it’s Holi!)
It’s surprising how much the directive seems to have irked and offended the above-mentioned BJP leaders and pro-Right users. These reactions, coupled with instances of violence, gender-based harassment and minorities being targeted, beg the question: Is the idea of consent so extraneous to Holi?
On one hand, the Right wing felt these notifications stifled their Holi celebrations, and on the other hand, reports of violence surfaced across the country against individuals who refused to play Holi.
Marred by Violence: A Bloody Holi
In Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad, one person was accidentally shot when a man tried to shoot his friend for not hugging him over fear of being sullied by Holi colours.
According to a news report by UP Tak, this incident took place when an intoxicated Abhishek Thakur took aim at his friend Sanjay Kumar Arya with a pistol while another man, Akshay, was present there. Thakur, who was smeared with Holi colours, wanted to hug his friend Arya. The latter reportedly refused because he had just cleaned himself up after playing Holi and didn’t want colours on himself again. This enraged Thakur, who rushed home to get his pistol and came back to shoot Arya. However, he mistakenly shot Akshay. A video of the incident viral on social media shows the injured Akshay crying in pain while Thakur is seen reloading his pistol to take another shot before being tackled by two others present at the scene.
In Rajasthan’s Dausa district, a 25-year-old man was allegedly strangled to death for refusing to play Holi. According to a report from The Times of India, this man, Hansraj, was studying for competitive exams at the local library when three men—Ashok, Bablu and Kaluram—came there to apply colours on him. When Hansraj refused, the trio thrashed him with belts. One of them strangled him to death.
In Guwahati, Assam, a 40-year-old man was allegedly stabbed to death for resisting colours on Holi. According to police, four men—Tabu Das, Bekra, Nripendra Chandra Biswas, and Subhash Roy—were drinking together on Holi before a heated argument broke out. Tabu Das was attacked by Bekra. He was later apprehended by the Guwahati police and identified as Pintu Roy.
Holi Festivities Turn Bloody in Guwahati: Man Stabbed to Death for Resisting Colours in Garchuk
Holi festivities turned bloody at Garchuk in Guwahati after a person was stabbed to death for resisting applying Holi. As per information, the victim identified as 35-year-old Tabu Das was attacked with a sharp weapon by accused Nripen Chandra Das. Tabu succumbed to multiple stab injuries. In a feat of rage, the accused also attacked another person.
#holi2025 #holi #garchuk #murder #assam #guwahati #assampolice #northeastlive
Assam Police DGPAssamPolice
Posted by Northeast Live on Saturday 15 March 2025
On March 21, three persons were arrested in Maharashtra’s Thane in connection with an alleged murder that took place on Holi. The slain man, Satyaprakash Upadhyaya, was celebrating Holi when a scuffle broke out between him and three other men. These men then allegedly shoved a water hose into his pants, causing severe internal injuries. Upadhyaya was rushed to a hospital but succumbed to injuries on March 17.
In Madhya Pradesh’s Maihar district, a 64-year-old man, Munna Kewat, died after being attacked by neighbours on Holi over the volume of music. According to an NDTV report, loud music was being played during Holi celebrations; Munna Kewat’s son, Shankar, asked the neighbours to lower the volume as his children had exams. Instead, the neighbour and five of his relatives allegedly attacked Shankar and his family, including Munna Kewat, who collapsed to the ground and was declared dead when brought to the hospital.
And these are only some of the many instances this year where people went too far in the guise of Holi celebrations, showing complete disregard for non-consenting or unwilling individuals.
Note that most of the victims in the above cases are Hindu and male. So, we are just looking at the tip of the iceberg. Those on the margins, such as women and non-Hindus, are far worse off, rendered virtually helpless during the festival.
‘Bura Na Mano, Holi Hai’: Women Harrassed, Yet Again
Holi, for many women across the country, is accompanied by targeted harassment, often sexual. In a brazen display of muscle-flexing, the festival becomes a free-for-all for men where consent and personal boundaries are violated, and etiquette takes a back seat.
A clear example of this is the ordeal a journalist from the media outlet Jist, Medha Yadav, went through this year while she was in Barsana, Uttar Pradesh, covering Holi celebrations. Here’s the video:
As you can see, unacquainted men come and apply colours on her while she stands with her mic to speak on camera. She asks the men if they considered asking women for consent before applying colours since there is a chance they might be uncomfortable. To this, one of the men says, “There is no need to ask… This is prem (love or affection) ki Holi… It is tradition and we can apply colours on everyone,” before smearing more colours on her.
Yadav was reporting on how some of the women who came to experience ‘Braj ki Holi,’ seemed visibly uncomfortable. She was appealing on camera that women who come to witness the festival’s grandeur shouldn’t have to feel uneasy on account of the freedom it gives to others to throw colours and celebrate.
Ironically, even as she was saying that, people went on throwing powdered colours at her, making it hard for her to continue talking.
Another video uploaded by the same media outlet, Jist, captured precisely how commonplace it is for women to face harassment on Holi. The video shows two women recording themselves walking on the streets on Holi. The two initially enjoy the festivities, but as the video progresses, several strangers approach them, touching their faces and bodies and putting colours on them without consent. The women also get groped.
Another video on Instagram by influencer Tushar Shukla, documents the brute instincts of men as they stood in a line by the side of the road during Holi celebrations in Barsana, Uttar Pradesh, and forcefully showered unwilling women passing by with colours and water. The women, uncomfortable, cowered and hid but the men, including a minor boy, did not give up.
Another vlog by a traveller showcases just how disparate this festival of colours can be for women and men.
“Braj ki Holi has two sides—one that exists for men, and the other than men create for women…” the vlogger captioned the video before advising women not to go witness ‘Braj Holi’ solo. She adds that men participating in Holi there have the mentality: “Krishna bhagwan bhi toh gopiyon ko chhedte the, toh hum kyun nahi?” (Hindu god Krishna used to “tease” his female devotees, known as gopis or cowherds, in Vrindavan, so why can’t men do the same to women?) In this video, too, the woman is approached and touched by male strangers who rub colours on her without asking for consent. She also says that as soon as she entered the area where Holi celebrations were taking place, she was drenched in colours within minutes while her male friend remained untouched for several hours.
Another Instagram video, uploaded by account @negative.travel, shows a man openly declaring that their target this Holi is “bhabhis.” The term “bhabhi,” meaning brother’s wife in Hindi, has been appropriated as a suggestive term for married women. The video shows men in Uttar Pradesh specifically targeting women with colours and water during festivities, even as they pass or cover themselves in a bid not to have colour thrown at them. The women are visibly uncomfortable, flinching and shielding themselves from the harassment.
Women getting harassed on Holi is so common that instances of these are almost inexhaustible. Over the years, Holi has systematically been turned into an opprtunity where men take advantage and make women feel uncomfortable in public. But let’s go one step further and look at another segment of people for whom Holi spells ordeal: Non-Hindu minorities.
Festival of Colours Leads to Communal Tensions
Holi is also an opportune time for Hindutva fringe elements to target minorities. On Holi, this is by blaring loud, vulgar Hindutva pop music in front of Muslim places of worship and colours forcibly applied on non-Hindus and their places of worship.
Here’s one peculiar case. Several pro-Right accounts on X (formerly Twitter) started a new trend this Holi by wishing their followers using photoshopped images of seemingly Hindu men applying colours on women in Hijabs. @SaffronSunanda and @JaipurDialogues, notorious for their streak of amplifying communal misinformation and narratives, shared these.
Click to view slideshow.
The original images, which these accounts altered digitally, did not show the women in Hijabs.
Click to view slideshow.
In Uttar Pradesh, under Yogi Adityanath’s regime, covering mosques with tarpaulin has become a common practice. This year, several mosques in Aligarh, Sambhal, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur among others, which were on the routes of Holi processions, were reportedly covered with these plastic sheets. Last year, too, the UP administration had preemptively asked mosques in Shahjahanpur and Bareilly to be covered in tarpaulin.
But BJP leader Raghuraj Singh went on to ‘suggest’ that Muslim men don ‘tarpaulin Hijabs’ to prevent having any colours thrown at them. He further stated that Holi was a significant festival for Sanatanis and that they could not be asked to throw colours within a ‘specific range’.
The following day, UP minister Sanjay Nishad, who is president of the Nishad Party, an ally of the BJP, said that those who ‘hated’ colours must remain indoors on Holi. “Those, who like swords and dislike culture, should leave the country and go elsewhere…..those who hate colours, should remain indoors,” he said.
In UP’s Sambhal, which has been the center of communal tensions and politics over mosques, circle officer Anuj Chaudhury said that “Holi is celebrated only once in a year while Juma comes every Friday….if the Muslims think that the Holi colours hurt their religious sentiments then they should remain indoors on that day”. And all of this is just the lead-up to the festival.
A man in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao lost his life on March 15. According to his family, the victim, 48-year-old Mohammed Sharif, collapsed and died after he was repeatedly slapped by some Holi revellers who allegedly tried to apply colours on him forcibly. The incident resulted in a rise in communal tensions several police personnel were deployed.
Police in Unnao, however, claimed that the post-mortem did not reveal any injuries on the body of the slain man. They also said that the cause of death was a cardiac arrest.
In Sambhal, on March 14, some people part of a Holi procession painted the words ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on the walls of a mosque, resulting in the situation getting tense in the area. There were allegations that colours were thrown inside the mosque as well. The mosque’s committee lodged a complaint.
यूपी के जिला संभल में होली जुलूस के दौरान कुछ लड़कों ने मस्जिद गेट पर कलर्स स्प्रे से “जय श्रीराम” लिख दिया। मस्जिद कमेटी ने वीरेश, ब्रजेश, सतीश, हरस्वरूप, शिवओम, विनोद के खिलाफ थाना हयातनगर में शिकायत की है। मस्जिद के अंदर भी रंग फेंकने का आरोप है। pic.twitter.com/MwZLrc2wd9
A Holi procession also passed in front of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal, which has been the point of contention for months over claims that the mosque was constructed after the demolition of a Hindu temple during the Mughal period. While there was no violence, revellers were seen dancing and singing in front of the tarpaulin-covered mosque.
Last year in November, four people lost their lives in violence that erupted after a court ordered the Shahi Jama Masjid be surveyed by the Archaeological Survey of India.
In Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri, while playing out an age-old custom of bringing a tree to touch the gates of the Jama Masjid in Rajapur city, viral videos surfaced that showed the tree being forcibly rammed into the gate by Hindus and several provocative slogans being raised. Local eyewitnesses told The Quint that many in the crowd cheered and raised slogans after the gate was damaged. An FIR was filed under Section 135 of the Maharashtra Police Act for unlawful assembly over alleged sloganeering.
In UP’s Aligarh, a large crowd gathered outside a tarpaulin-covered mosque at Abdul Karim Chowk and loudly played songs, such as “Bhagva Lehrayenge” promoting Hindutva, and chanted ‘Jai Sri Ram’. The lyrics refer to Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura and proclaim, “Hindu hai Hindu hum bas Ram ki baat karein, UP me fir se hum bhagva lehrayenge” (We are Hindus, we will talk about Ram and wave the saffron flag in UP again). They also chanted ‘Jai Sri Ram’. Some visuals from outside showed the procession throwing coloured water at the tarpaulin covering.
Similarly, in Ludhiana, Punjab, some men playing Holi were loudly playing music in front of a mosque. Visuals of the incident show that there was a clash, which led to stone-pelting between the two groups: Muslims who were offering prayers and those playing Holi. Eight people have been arrested in the case. The police, however, maintain that the clash was ‘not communal’.
On March 13, during Holika Dahan celebrations at the Salasar Balaji Temple in Shastri Nagar, Bhilwara, Rajasthan, a controversial tableau showcased the “love jihad” conspiracy theory. The display included a refrigerator and a mutilated mannequin, meant to represent the dismembered body parts of a woman. The reference was to the 2022 Shraddha Walkar murder case. Walkar was murdered by her partner Aftab Poonawalla, a Muslim. Her dismembered body was stuffed in a fridge. This display was similar to a tableau exhibited in Munger during a Shivratri procession.
The Birbhum district in West Bengal too witnessed an escalation in communal tensions on March 15. Violent clashes between two groups led to the suspension of the internet in parts of town. A huge contingent of security forces was deployed by the state government to maintain law and order. As per media reports, a verbal altercation allegedly occurred between a group and some intoxicated individuals broke out in West Bengal’s Sainthia town. BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya tweeted that Muslims targeted Hindus for chanting “Jai Srri Ram”.
As we said before, these are just few of the many instances wherein Holi has been used to target those in the margins. A festival of colours, otherwise a joyous occasion, often turns into drunken revelry or a show of strength that results in overall violence, harassment of women and targeted attacks towards minorities. And the way the far-Right groups are promoting the festival, the idea of consent, which is already inconsequential when it comes to Holi, is likely to be further watered down.
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