Vrindavan, the sacred town where Lord Krishna spent his early years, has long been a sanctuary for Hindu widows. Widowhood has historically been taboo in Hindu society, with widows being expected to live frugal lives and forego celebrations. Widows, who are viewed as an economic burden by their families, are sent to Vrindavan, depending on state and NGO charity, temples, and ashrams.
Previously, the lives of these women were characterized by a resignation. A widow, interviewed by The New York Times in 1998, explained, “It is our life, and we must live it, and hope for better in the next.” The majority of widows in Vrindavan are from Bengal, 74% of them according to the National Commission of Women (NCW) study of 2010. Historically, Vrindavan has served as a refuge for widows since the period of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a 16th-century Vaishnav saint. He brought widows to the town to save them from the ritual of sati, which compelled widows to self-immolate on the funeral pyre of their husbands.
Whereas some widows voluntarily arrive in order to flee abusive circumstances, others are abandoned in Vrindavan. Although they are spared daily abuse, the majority of these women are poor. The NCW 2010 report identifies that the opportunities presented in Vrindavan largely offer two square meals a day, enabling them to flee harassment but little else because of their illiteracy and age.
Ditching White for Vibrants
The widows of the town are distinguished by their white attire, marking their renunciation of worldly longings. At any ordinary time, the thin streets of Vrindavan are lined with women in white, begging and singing hymns. But during Holi, things are different. The initial organized Holi event for the widows was held in 2013, triggered by the Supreme Court’s focus on their situation in 2012. Sulabh International, an NGO assisting hundreds of widows, was instrumental in this shift.
Sulabh’s founder, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, described the importance of the event, adding, “The celebration was a way of saying to them they are one of us. They can wear colored clothes, eat what they please. The ones who wish to remarry, can.” While celebrating Holi, the widows sing classic songs, play with gulal (coloured powder), flowers, and colored water, giving their lives colour, which they usually lack the rest of the year.
For most, like 108-year-old Lalita Adhikari, who lived in Vrindavan for more than 70 years, Holi is an opportunity to regain happiness. She said, “Colour disappeared from my life after my husband passed away. I was only 20. I could not dress in colourful clothes, or put lali (colour) on my lips. I was chased away from events. Playing Holi was something I could not even dream of.”
2000 Widows Play Holi in Vrindavan in 2025
This year, the Uttar Pradesh government hosted a huge Holi festival for 2,000 widows in Vrindavan with the hope of setting a Guinness world record for the event. Yet, even with the fleeting happiness that the festival provided, the all-year-round poverty and stigmatization that these widows experience are a crushing weight. As Lalita Adhikari astutely observed, “The state of widows is not going to change by playing Holi once.”
