Princes, People and Purifiers: The Holi Festival in the Punjab, c. 1800-1920

Speaker: Prof Anil Sethi, Dept. of History and Education, Azim Premji University

Chair: Dr Rita Brara Mukhopadhyay, Dept. of Sociology, University of Delhi

Holi took on many meanings in 19th-century Punjab. For ordinary people, social licence and frenzy were important elements, marking a symbolic reversal of familial, class and caste hierarchies. There were limits to this overturning of order, however, and all reversals served to affirm the control of dominant groups. Maharaja Ranjit Singh used Holi to display monarchical pomp and power. From the late 19th century, the "purifiers""”Sanatani, Arya and Sikh"”made concerted attempts to rid it of revelry and institute a pavitra celebration