This is Holi time, and like clockwork, the usual and expected anti-Hindu hate rhetoric around major Hindu festivals is back, like the flu, again.
Though the casual hate against Hindu festivals is something that we have gotten used to now, there are some takes so stupid that one cannot help but laugh.
The claim that the ritual of Holika Dahan is a symbol of hatred against a woman is an example.
Nobody “burned” Holika, she prepared the pyre herself and sat on it to murder her nephew
Recently, a video had gone viral where Nirdesh Singh, a female YouTuber, uploaded a video discussing the festival of Holi. She can be heard saying in the video that we consider ourselves to be citizens who live in a civilized society, but ask ourselves whether it is appropriate to celebrate by burning a woman alive in a civilized society. She claimed that the ritual of Holika Dahan is wrong because it teaches children that the idea of burning a woman is ok.
होली को जलाना स्त्री विरोधी त्यौहार है।
— Nirdesh Singh (@didinirdeshsing) March 4, 2023
हम यदि प्रगतिशील समाज का अंग हैं। तो इसका विरोध करना चाहिए
जब सती प्रथा बंद हो सकती है तो होलिका दहन भी बंद होना चाहिए।यह समस्त स्त्री जाति का अपमान है।जो किसी भी समाज के लिये घातक है। pic.twitter.com/m2jckBiTUc
Singh’s interpretation of the ritual is that it is about ‘burning a woman’ and that should not be celebrated. What she totally misses is that the ritual is about burning the evil forces and praising the good. The woman in question, Holika was never ‘burned’ by anyone. She made a pyre herself and sat on it because she wanted to burn her little nephew to death.
Because the little Bhakt Prahlad was a devotee of Lord Vishnu, he was protected from the flames. Holika, though blessed with the power to survive fire, invited her own death by plotting to murder an innocent child, her own nephew. The evil act rendered her powers ineffective and she was charred to death by the fire she had herself lit to kill Prahlad. This is the story of Bhakt Prahlad that every Hindu is aware of. So Holika Dahan is not about a “cruel society” burning a woman, like the false equivalence of Sati cited by Nirdesh Singh. The ritual is a reminder of how the most powerful persons cause their own downfall when they decide to use their powers for evil acts against innocents.
Holika’s gender has nothing to do with it either. Not just Holika, but her brothers Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu were both killed at the hands of Lord Vishnu for their acts of evil.
‘Holika was a Dalit/Bahujan woman’ : another falsehood
Another favourite rant against the Hindu festival of Holi is that Holika was a Bahujan woman and the ‘celebration’ of the Holika Dahan ritual is the symbolic hatred against Bahujan women perpetuated by Brahminical patriarchy.
Only the most idiotic minds can invent such a rant that is completely devoid of substance.
Holika was a Brahmin woman, the daughter of a great Brahmin sage
Contrary to what the caste politicians try to peddle about Holika, she was not a Dalit or Bahujan woman. Hindu scriptures clearly describe her ancestry. Holika was the daughter of the great Brahmin rishi Kashyapa and his wife Diti. The claims of Holika being a Bahujan woman is pure falsehood.
Rishi Kashyapa and his wife Diti had three children. Holika, Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha. All three of them had demonic characters and inflicted atrocities on innocents. Hiranyakshya and Hiranyakashipu were killed by Lord Vishnu in his Varaha Avatar and Narasimha Avatar respectively. Holika got charred to death while trying to kill the child Bhakta Prahlad.
Prahlad, a dharmic and just boy, was anointed as the king after his father’s death. Prahlad’s son was Virochana, who later became the father of King Mahabali.
The celebration of the Onam festival to honour King Mahabali is also criticised by some usual elements, claiming that King Mahabali was a Dalit. This is false too. King Mahabali, though described as an Asura king, as the descendant of Rishi Kashyapa, was a brahmin, just like Ravana who was the son of Brahmin Rishi Vishrava.
