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Holi Re!!

Mar 20, 2011 Editorial

By the time you are reading this, Holi celebrations would have already been in full swing for some time. And it is quite a swing. Originating in India and brought here by the Indentured Indian labourers in the 19th century, the festival of joy and vivacity found a fertile soil in its transplanted land. And why not? Holi marks the end of frigid winter, in which all plants would have lost their leaves and stopped growing.
The people would have had to huddle indoors and watch their stocks of food steadily diminish. The animals, on whose labour their livelihood depended  would have become emaciated and some would have even perished.
But then would come the change: the weather would become warmer, the buds would begin to sprout and the birds would start chirping. It was the beginning of spring. And the people would leave their homes and celebrate in the most riotous fashion they could manage, within the bounds of propriety – and then some.
The life-giving water would be splashed on everyone in sight – with no one giving offence – only looking to respond in kind. Coloured powder and “abrack” would be daubed on the faces of friends and passers by even as they were sprayed by the crimson abeer.
Sweetmeats would be distributed as everyone wished for the other to have a better year.
For the immigrants on the plantations, Holi would have provided a great opportunity to let off steam after their interminable labour in the fields. And the festival not only survived but spread widely into the other communities.
Declared a public holiday more than four decades ago, Holi is now a truly national festival. If nothing else Guyanese certainly have the need to let off some steam. It is therefore quite apt that the deeper significance of Holi (and all Hindu festivals point to one or another eternal condition of mankind) offers a perspective on our Guyanese present.
Holi recollects the story of Prahalad, son of the Asura King Hiranyakapu. The King, after great austerities, had received the boon that he could be killed under conditions so specific that he thought he was beyond the reach of death. In the pride and arrogance generated by his newfound status, he soon decided that he was more powerful than God and demanded that he be worshipped by his subjects. Everyone fell into line but one individual: his own son Prahalad, a mere boy.
Prahalad had faith in the superiority and rightness of God and not only defied his father but began to vigorously oppose him by preaching to all he came in touch with (mostly his young friends) that his father was merely a pretender and a fraud. The father obviously did not take to this subversion too kindly especially after Prahalad began convincing some others of his point.
The king tried every which way to eliminate his upstart son, including trying to burn him in the lap of his eponymous aunt, Holi, who was immune to fire. Eventually, dared by his father, Prahalad invoked God who manifested himself and killed the tyrant by fulfilling all the conditions, hitherto thought inviolable.
In Guyana today, we have individuals that have been granted powers and immunities that make them believe that they are greater than the people who are actually the source of their powers and immunities. They believe that the laws they have crafted make them impregnable. But they are mistaken.
The story of Prahalad, should give strength to the people of Guyana that if they maintain and strengthen their faith in their rightness, eventually they will overcome. There is, after all, our very own folk wisdom: “time longer than twine”.
So today as we make merry about the arrival of life-giving spring after the travails and hardships of winter let us spare a thought about our own responsibilities for ensuring that our own, personal Guyanese winter of discontent is ended. The tools will be in our hands later this year.
Happy Holi, Guyana!

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