This letter is in response to the March 23 op-ed “Holi isn't for your Instagram" by Rachel Lau.
It's been a month since UBC Holi 2016. It was a festival many of us within the Desi Community were more than thrilled to be a part of. For many Indians living abroad, this is one of the only opportunities for students to feel at home in a new country on a such a vast campus.
Growing up for both of us, and for most Desis, Holi is a time of excitement and thrill where anything can really happen. Colour decorates the sky, family and friends celebrate. It's a time to let loose, have fun and really enjoy the community and celebrate our beautiful culture. However, we were frankly appalled by the recent unsolicited Ubyssey opinion piece written by a self-proclaimed “non-Nepalese/non-Indian/non-Hindu” individual with zero Desi presence within the piece. We are aware of the deep religious significance of the holiday and do not need to be reminded by someone's cursory Google search of what this holiday means to us.
The tone of the article is patronizing, condescending and incredibly presumptuous. Our culture is not to be dictated to its own people by others. UTSAV (the UBC Indian Students Association) was the main organizer for this festival, which literally translates from Hindi to the word “festival.” One of us is an executive of this organization, and let me tell you that one of our aims as an organization is to create a home for all Desi students. As first-years, we were so excited for our first year of Holi. It is a celebration of being Indian and we are proud to share that with our community and to celebrate it on such a large scale. Holi at UBC is specifically an example of cultural exchange. I am not sure if the author of this article got a chance to attend this event or witness every effort that was made to make this as authentic as possible. All the Indian food was catered by Indian vendors, the colour was bought from Indian businesses and UTSAV hired a local Bollywood DJ.
Cultural appropriation is when one culture picks and chooses elements of another culture to adopt. Is it cultural appropriation for the Jewish Student Association to host a Shabbat dinner open to the UBC community? The entire premise that a cultural group can misappropriate their own culture is logically fallacious. In no way was this event diluted for a Western audience. It was an invitation to the greater UBC community to experience an aspect of Indian culture with us. This article assumes any non-Desi participants are “inconsiderate bigots” attempting to get Instagram likes, which more than anything belittles any genuine interest people may have in trying to respectfully experience Indian culture.
As a staff writer of The Ubyssey, you have a unique platform to address and discuss genuinely harmful examples of cultural appropriation and racism. You could have discussed the lack of visibility and discrimination Sikh students and other religious minorities face on campus. You could have discussed the cultural appropriation of many religious icons such as Ganesha, that most definitely occurs in dorm rooms across our campus. You could've used your article to actually take a moment and open a discussion involving Desi students instead of trivializing cultural appropriation and berating people for attending an event that we are happy to share with you.
Geetika Bhasin and Gauri Sharma are both second-year arts students and have been involved with UTSAV.
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