Behramji Malabari

“ Holi is not a holy institution wholly, but it is a jolly holiday nevertheless. It is the season of free love and free language, not only among the Vaishnavas, but the lower castes of Gujarát, the Saturnalia of indecent song, the high carnival of mad carousal. It is the season of rang and rág, which two innocent-looking monosyllables the High Court Translator may translate as "red paint and music," but which, in reality, mean the luxuries of love's embrace, the sporting of Káma [1] and Rati. [2] The origin of Holi has been a subject of ardent speculation by philosophers and theosophists. ”

“ The filthy epithets, the wanton glances, the obscene gestures, defy description;but these are rewarded, on the part of the dusky Márwáran, by equally shameless ogling and the squirting of red paint. This is the only holiday the stingy sojourner in Gujarát enjoys, according to his lights. Never is the morose Márwári more free, more frolicsome, more abandoned, than on this occasion. ”

“ Modest young women are submitted to showers of coloured water and clouds of red paint. They are handled to a degree of indecent familiarity incredible to the outside public. At one exhibition like this hundreds of young women are liable to go astray from the inborn modesty of their nature. ”