Since time immemorial people, no matter where they live or have lived, celebrate events to remind themselves that besides the sorrow, there are turns in life that demand happiness.

Most celebrations relate to an expected economic upturn, some turn to beliefs to rationalise such an expectation. While most become cultural events with widespread appeal, others can be personal. The living and the dead, the blossoming and the decaying, the old and the young, every aspect has a celebration.

Take South America which celebrates at every turn. Of the 15 or so festivals, there is the ‘Day of the Dead’ (Dia de Muertos) in November, a celebration of those who have been lucky enough to escape the hardships of life. Then there is the Mistura Festival of food, so it goes on.

The Chinese have probably the most, for there is the Lantern Festival, then there is the Spring Festival and there is the Dragon Boat Festival. In all these and another 12 such festivals in China, they fly kites that are most colourful and enjoy the best food.

In Africa, there are scores of festivals, the most famous being the Reed Dance Festival. Then there is the Oro Festival for males and the Umermolo Festival for females. In both dancing and games, and naturally the best food is there. In the sub-continent, there is the well-known Diwali and scores of such occasions for every deity. But, without doubt, the most popular is Basant Panchami, with ‘panchami’ meaning the fifth day of the lunar calendar ‘magh’ a celebration of future crop prosperity, of spring, and of good luck.

But as this an especially colourful celebration, for it focusses on the harvest, on spring, and the introduction of the good that education does to the young. On this day women wear yellow clothes to reflect the yellow mustard flowers, and everyone consumes sweet dishes of every variety, especially ‘keesri kheer’ and yellow sweet ‘zarda’ laced with pistachios. On this day kites of every variety are flown.

So far we have described the reasons we have festivals, and the focus is on Basant as we know it in Lahore. All over the world the very word Basant is attached to our city. Sadly, because of bureaucratic incompetency laced with communal and administrative logic, this amazing festival stands banned.

If anything insults the people of Lahore it is this ban.

Just when is Basant? It is celebrated on the 5th day of the lunar calendar of Magha, which is approximately on the 26th of January, 2023. For practical reasons in Lahore it is celebrated on the first Sunday of February. But then while the walled city of Lahore was known all over the world for its Basant Festival, it seems the pious among the clergy, who impose unhappiness instead of scholarship, tried to call it ‘unIslamic’.

But then scholars of the Holy Quran and learned persons the world over convinced the priests that a spring festival had absolutely nothing to do with religion. Yes, various religions have rationalised it to fit into their beliefs that came much after these beliefs were invented. Most columnists rationalised that as spring and harvests are universal, people no matter where they live tend to celebrate the possibility of a better future. In happiness there is colour and sports and the best foods, especially sweets.

With time the priestly protests faded away. But then a more lethal force than beliefs and priests rose, and that was the police that have been trained to suppress the population, but certainly not to ‘police’ them politely. The Punjab Police was raised in 1861 in Lahore by the colonial Britishers to suppress the local population after the events of 1857. Their mental mode remains the same today. Instead of assisting the people they know only on how to suppress them and instil fear in their hearts. Our police thrive on ‘fear’. You talk to any policeman from top to bottom, they amazingly are proud of this lopsided objective.

Here three events arose that have affected Basant. Firstly, is the failure of the government to provide public transport to the people, this led people to find a solution and that came in the shape of an explosion in the number of motorcycles. The people had to find a solution, and no one can blame them for that. Today Lahore has the world’s largest motorcycle population. One police research – just look up the internet - tells us that there are two motorcycles for every household of seven persons. Such are the numbers that a few years ago a Brazil official came to study this fact.

From this motorcycle ‘explosion’ came a new problem. Youngsters – the under-18s – who are often asked to rush to make domestic purchases, took to helmetless motorcycles. So, we have hot-blooded youngsters without helmets rushing at high speeds around the city roads. If a kite string crosses their path it can prove fatal. The Punjab Police research tells us that 96 per cent of kite-string victims are under-18 helmetless youngsters.

Added to this menace is the undeniable fact that a few ‘kite-string’ (manjaa) makers started using wires and nylon strings. That was an excellent excuse for the police to crackdown on the spring festival and kite manufacturers instead to curbing helmetless youngsters for whom the concept of speed limit is foreign.

But no matter who bans Basant in Lahore, it is impossible to eliminate from the minds of the people. We see that Basant from Lahore has migrated to other cities, including Kabul and Kandahar. Now it is growing in popularity in Karachi and even Quetta, what to speak of Amritsar and other Punjab cities.

But the best one is that a few Lahore-origin people have purchased a large tract of rural California in USA for a massive Basant Festival. In England the famous Meadows of Cambridge along the River Cam holds a Basant Festival thanks to Lahori students and scholars. Though not a kite-flier, yours truly enjoyed the sweet scones with cream and strawberry jam.

So, what is the solution for getting back our Basant? In this column let me suggest four parallel steps. Firstly, five kite-flying places needed to be identified, they are the walled city and four large grounds around the city with roads running around them. All kite-flying should be restricted to these five places.

Secondly, police must educate youngsters on the merits of wearing motorcycle helmets and of staying within speed limits. They must also enforce strict speed limits of every road. Thirdly, if any person manufactures non-cotton strings with ‘manjaa’ he should be booked and immediately punished.

Lastly, the legal system must do away with criminalising kite flying. This is a gross violation of human rights and deprives the people of happiness and following a tradition that is thousands of years old. It is even mentioned in ‘Mahabharata’ which is almost 3,000 years old. When the Muslims came to the sub-continent, we see the Chishti order celebrate it as a tribute to Nizamuddin Aulia. Two Sufi saints and poets, Amir Khusru, and Bulleh Shah, celebrated Basant with great vigour. We know that even Ranjit Singh, not to forget all our Lahore-origin political leaders have had a go at it. It is great fun and adds colour to our increasingly mundane life.

Lastly, if Basant is unleashed as a great tourist event, let alone a local festival, it will bring in tourists, and money, in very large numbers. Such events play a major role in beating the bad economic times we face today. It is about time to stop finding excuses and get down to normal living.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2023