Holi and Ramazan come together in desert city of Mithi – Pakistan

In the desert city of Mithi, Hindus prepare meals for fasting Muslims, who in turn gather to welcome a Holi procession, a rare moment of religious solidarity.

Discrimination against minorities runs deep, but those tensions are not to be found in Sindh’s Mithi, an affluent city of rolling sand dunes and mud-brick homes.

“All the traditions and rituals here are celebrated together,” Raj Kumar, a 30-year-old Hindu businessman told AFP.

“You will see that on Holi, Hindu youth are joined by Muslim youth, celebrating together and applying colours on each other,” he added.

“Even at the end of the Muslim call for prayer, the imam says ‘peace to Hindus and Muslims’.”

This year, the Hindu festival of Holi and the holy month of Ramazan fell together. Both events move each year according to the lunar calendar.

Holi, the festival of colour, has for centuries marked the arrival of spring and raucous crowds playfully throw coloured powder and water over each other.

On Thursday, hundreds of Hindus held a procession through the streets of Mithi, one of the few cities where they form the majority, to be warmly welcomed at the city square by their Muslim neighbours.

“We have learnt to live together since childhood. This has come to us through generations, and we are following it too,” said local Mohan Lal Mali, 53, after arranging a meal for Muslims to break their fast.

Cows, considered sacred in Hinduism, roam freely through the streets of Mithi, while women wear traditional embroidered sarees embellished with mirror work.

There is no beef shop in town, as the meat is prohibited in Hinduism, and Muslims only sacrifice goats during festivals.

Mithi, a city of around 60,000 people, is predominantly Hindu — in a country where 96 per cent of the 240 million people are Muslim and 2pc are Hindu.

Fozia Haseeb, a Christian woman, travelled from Karachi, around 320 kilometres away, to witness the blended occasions.

“People following three religions are here: Christians, Hindus and Muslims,” she said.
“We wanted to see for ourselves whether this was correct, and there is no doubt it is.”

‘No divisions among us’

Ramazan is a month of peaceful prayer and reflection in Islam, and Hindus respected their Muslim neighbours would not join Holi celebrations with the usual fervour due to religious observance.

“Today, you might not see colours on me, but in the past, they would drench me in colours,” said Muslim cleric Babu Aslam Qaimkhani while applying powder to the face of local Hindu PPP MNA Mahesh Kumar Malani.

“If a Hindu runs for office, Muslims also vote for them, and vice versa,” said Malani, the only elected minority MNA in the National Assembly.

As Hindus celebrated with processions and visits to temples, there was no armed security — a stark contrast to other parts of the country.

Freedom of religion or belief remains under constant threat in the country, with religiously motivated violence and discrimination increasing yearly, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

‘A slight sense of fear’