REVOLTING SCENES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 67, 21 March 1933, Page 7

REVOLTING SCENES

FESTIVAL IN INDIA

MANY PEOPLE INJURED

CALCUTTA, March 14.

Hindu India has just concluded the wild celebrations of "Holi," the festival which is supposed to depict incidents in the life of Sri Krishna, who is sometimes regarded as the reincarnation of Vishnu, one of the. three Hindu gods, and sometimes as Vishnu himself.

As the result of the celebrations the Police Courts are crowded. Fifty persons were injured in 'Ahmedabad, two dying in hospital, while in Bombay a man was beaten to' death for trying to pass the procession, and six others were injured and taken to hospital. The festival is one of the lewdest m the world, particularly among the lower classes, who consider Krishna more especially. a God of the downtrodden. .

Krishna himself is supposed, in the long ago, even of ancient India, to hay© been a -very mischievous cowherd, who frequently stole butter from his colleagues. They accused him ons day, and when he opened his mouth his mother saw inside "the whole universe and the Three ■ Worlds." Krishna showed his versatility by pulling up two trees, which instantly turned into men, and going for a ride in the jaws of a crane.

Then he came across a dragon, which, in taking its breath, swallowed the other herdboys and the calves. So Krishna jumped into the dragon's mouth, and ""made himself bigger until the dragon's stomach burst," all of which deeds have commended him specially to the lowly. Time, instead of mellowing the Tites of his workship, has, as shown- by the procession and celebrations just concluded, made of them a spectacle mostly indescribable in print. In the procession there is a bridegroom, with companions. The bride follows in another car, and crimson-dyed water is sprinkled over the fanatical crowd. Krishna himself is represented by a youth, accompanied by a milkmaid.

As the procession passes through the streets, its members, mostly nude, work themselves into hysteria, and indulge in grotesque and revolting movement. To the Western mind, at least, the scenes among the lower class celebrations are bestial beyond words.

And so little of the Western outlook, moderated by an understanding of the East, was imparted to thousands of the eelebrators in Courts throughout India today.