Hola Mohalla Raghu Rai
For anyone witnessing Holla Mohalla in Punjab, it’s crucial to stand at an eye-level with the participants in order to feel the power and the energy of the festival. Hola Mohalla is a celebration that takes place around the time when a large part of India celebrates Holi. Hola Mohalla primarily concerns the army of the 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh. His troupe was the defender of our country. In their bid to avoid any wastage of time while fighting the enemies, they made it a part of their rituals to not shave or cut their hair.
What struck magnum photographer Raghu Rai to get involved with the project was the history of the festival. “A lot of the stories here in Anandpur Sahib with the wars, with the hill rajas and the Mughals…A lot of that really got me very passionate about it. But also, the equality that it promotes for humans, and the sovereignty, is something that I really, really connected with,” he says.
Hola Mohalla, as a festival and celebration, does not acknowledge gender differences. Sikhism has had its fair share of women leaders like Mata Sahib Kaur, who fought bravely in the war with Guru Gobind Singhji. The women in the sect today, who also mark their presence at the festival every year, believe that they’re Mata Sahib Kaur’s sisters and the daughters of Guru Gobind Singhji, ready for any war that comes their way.
The women embody the spirit of the festival just as valiantly as their male counterparts. Raghu Rai navigates this festival through the viewfinder of his camera and intimate interactions with the participants and the attendees. Through these tools, the film delves deeply into the belief that Sikhism propagates; that “There exists only one God, whose name is true, who is the creator, who has no fear, no hate, who is omnipresent, who is unborn and self-illuminating. By the Guru’s grace, this God is realised.”