Sambhal's Policing For a 'Peaceful' Holi Reflects a New Turn in Hindu Festivals

How to ensure ‘peaceful’ Holi celebrations in a Muslim-majority city? Sambhal Police has the answer.

(Photo: Vibhushita Singh/The Quint)

How to ensure “peaceful” Holi celebrations in a Muslim-majority city? Simple. Just round up about 1,000 or so working-class locals and residents of the city, put them in preventive detention, cover all the mosques with tarpaulin, hold massively armed marches across the city, deploy drone surveillance, and heavy police presence.

That’s what the police in Sambhal did in the lead up to Holi 2025, which incidentally has fallen on a Jumma (Friday). While reports coming out of the city in the past year have been troubling to say the least, what we are witnessing now is the metamorphosis of Sambhal into a robust police state in toto.

The Sambhal administration exercises extraordinary control over the city now. Approximately 10 mosques in Sambhal stand covered with tarpaulin for the passage of the Chaupai procession by Hindus on Holi. Similar measures have been implemented in other cities across Uttar Pradesh, including Kanpur, Aligarh, Jhansi, Saharanpur, and Shahjahanpur, where mosques have been covered with tarpaulin. 

'Chappey Chappey Pe Police Hai'

Clarifying the question of 'mass detention', Qamar Hussain, a lawyer based in Sambhal, tells The Quint that "no physical arrests have been made".

"At least 1,015 people, including those known to be notorious from Muslim and Hindu sides, have been made to sign bonds to ensure peace as part of preventive actions by the police via the Sub-Division Magistrate (SDM)."

The bond states that the signatory would support the police and the authorities' efforts for peace.

After the violence in November over a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Eidgah Mosque, Hussain was expecting tightened security measures in Sambhal for Holi. In fact, most of the residents had anticipated it. But they didn't gauge the scale of it — as 'be-intehaan' (countless) cops and security personnel in and around the small town have now been deployed.

"The army is here. The Rapid Reaction Force (RRF) teams are here. Everyone is heavily armed. There's so much equipment like sophisticated drones for surveillance and what not. Every nook, cranny, and gully is crawling with cops. Chappey chappey pe police tainath hai (There's police at every corner).”

Qamar Hussain, Advocate, Sambhal

Several families from both Hindu and Muslim communities in Sambhal remain anxious following the recent rise in communal narratives in the city, which had until last year been a rather nondescript topic in the vicinity. When the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) fact-finding team reached Sambhal in January to investigate the November violence, it met with a dreadful silence. Most of the residents were too stunned or shocked or emotionally afflicted to speak first.

PUCL used a trauma-informed approach of interviews and documentation to gain insights into the psyche of the residents. Most of the city-dwellers including victims of violence and their kin the team interviewed were still reeling from the pain they collectively felt and repeatedly lamented the loss of their city.

While the community has persevered there have been constant attempts to upend the city's peace in recent months. Anti-encroachment drives carried out by government authorities like the UP Power Corporation have focused primarily on Muslim-dominated areas across Sambhal district. Many families have been evicted, several buildings have been demolished and shopkeepers have been asked to move. A number of 'old' temples and religious structures like an 'ancient' stepwell are being 'discovered' across the Sambhal.

The sheer and deliberate delineation and deprecation of Muslims in the region both by state authorities and mainstream news media has become an overarching concern for the community, and has come to fore once again on Holi.

"Some news channels are telling tales that Holi has not been celebrated in Sambhal in 46 years," Hussain tells The Quint. Such "nonsensical lies", according to the advocate, are often used as an excuse to justify increased policing.

"I've lived here all my life — and Holi has always been celebrated here just fine. No one ever had any complaints before or ever got hurt on Holi," Hussain adds.

Sambhal's Hindus, constituting about 22 percent of the city's Muslim-majority population, also remain on edge. Speaking to The Quint ahead of Holi celebrations, a Hindu resident of Sambhal said, "There is a looming fear amongst common people like workers and shopkeepers about how things will unfold on Holi. What if the Chaupai processions and namaz timings overlap?"

"Our city has already seen one incident of violence in November. There is a tense 'mahaul' (atmosphere) ever since then. Now, there is the added anxiety regarding this year’s Holi celebrations. We hope everything stays calm".

Hindu resident who did not wish to be named

Militant Makover of Hindu Festivals

Most Hindus, including myself, had hardly heard of Rang Bhari Ekadashi in their homes when growing up.

Much like the violent, sword-wielding shobha yatras – led by some ardent 'bhakts' on Ram Navami – that have become the norm in recent years, aggressive celebrations of obscure religious occasions have been gaining traction. The pre-Holi Rang Bhari Ekadashi is among them — it apparently signifies the 'gauna' (consummation of marriage) ceremony of Lord Shiva and goddess Parvati and is now observed in many parts of UP with gusto.

While one may try and understand the proliferation of these rituals in Hindu-majority cities like Kashi (Varanasi), Mathura, and Ayodhya, extending Rang Bhari Ekadashi celebrations to Muslim-dominated areas like Sambhal cannot be an innocent coincidence.

Similarly, the arcane Chaupai procession, a bygone and redundant customary practice since the advent of nuclear families and structured cities, has also been projected as a significant Hindu custom this time.

Sambhal's Shahi Jama Masjid Mosque Committee, at the centre of communal contention since last year, was reportedly asked to change the timing of the Friday prayers to accommodate the Holi celebrations. Similarly, the Holi celebrations – which typically end by 12 pm every year – are said to have been extended to 2 pm in Sambhal this year. This, even after the Friday namaz was already rescheduled to 2:30 pm by the Masjid Committee, keeping in mind the Holi celebrations.

Intersections of Faith and Force

There is something visibly alarming about these developments. The lines of intersections of religion and state control are becoming increasingly blurred. The state is now dictating the terms of religious expression, and even modifying religious practices, in a more pronounced way than ever, to suit its agenda. Celebrations like Holi – once seen as expressions of joy and a spirit of unity in diversity – have slowly been poisoned and turned into sure-shot flashpoints for conflict and division.

In the garb of promoting a religion, the state vilifies and otherises minorities. To that effect, Hindu religion and its festivals are being increasingly weaponised by majoritarian forces

Uttar Pradesh has been witnessing a growing influence of state-controlled security measures and the increasing suppression of individual freedoms of faith and religion. In such a system, there is looming fear of civil liberties of all its citizens taking a backseat to state-enforced order.

"The arrests and targeting of Muslims for the November violence have continued," a Muslim resident alleges to The Quint.

Advocate Hussain, who has been helping some of the locals with the legal cases, states that "some 81 people are in jail for the clashes, all Muslim". The violence for which they are being investigated and persecuted led to the death of at least five working-class men, incidentally all Muslim. "The whole thing is a farce," Hussain laments.

Despite the obstacles, the community has nevertheless persevered. Despite the tense atmosphere and the pain of people, acts and people full of kindness abound. Like Haji Chacha, a grocery store owner who has been taking care of conflict-affected families with supplies of foodgrains. A low-income family that alleges their young son — the family's only breadwinner — was wrongfully incarcerated by the police recently, said that in his absence, it was Haji Chacha who took care of them by sending them kilos of rice and other grains.

Haji Chacha also helps journalists and researchers with details and atmospherics of the place, along with copious cups of sweet tea. He wasn't alone in his kindness. From autorickshaw workers to vendors, locals exuded an aura of hospitality, and kindness, which seem to be characteristic of the Sambhal's cultural ethos.

The administration in Sambhal has been exercising unchecked powers to selectively detain or harass whoever they please in what is increasingly becoming a bid to erase Muslims from Sambhal's long history. The nation's persistent failure to question or even acknowledge such rampant religious majoritarianism is likely to turn 'New India' into a state where control – not freedom – is the norm. Today it is Sambhal. Tomorrow it could be your home.

(With inputs from Rakhi Bose)

(Vertika Mani is a lawyer and human-rights activist based in New Delhi and the Organising Secretary of People's Union for Civil Liberties [PUCL]. This is an opinion piece. The views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)