MITHI: In the desert town of Mithi, Hindus prepare meals for fasting Muslims, who in turn gather to welcome a Holi procession, a rare moment of religious solidarity in the Islamic nation.

Discrimination against minorities is not to be found in this affluent city of rolling sand dunes and mud-brick homes in Sindh.

“All the traditions and rituals here are celebrated together,” Raj Kumar, a 30-year-old Hindu businessman told AFP.

“You will see that on Holi, Hindu youth are joined by Muslim youth, celebrating together and applying colours on each other,” he said. “Even at the end of the Muslim call for prayer, the imam says ‘peace to Hindus and Muslims’.”

This year, the Hindu festival of Holi and the Islamic month of Ramazan fell together. Both events move each year according to the lunar calendar.

Hindus and Muslims celebrate Holi and Ramazan together in the desert town bordering India

On Thursday, hundreds of Hindus held a procession through the streets of Mithi to be warmly welcomed at the city square by their Muslim neighbours.

“We have learnt to live together since childhood. This has come to us through generations, and we are following it too,” said local Mohan Lal Mali, 53, after arranging a meal for Muslims to break their fast.

Cows, considered sacred in Hinduism, roam freely through the streets of Mithi, while women wear traditional embroidered sarees embellished with mirror work.

There is no beef shop in town, as its meat is prohibited in Hinduism, and Muslims only sacrifice goats during festivals.

Mithi, a city of around 60,000 people, is predominantly Hindu — in a country where 96 per cent of its 240 million people are Muslim and two per cent are Hindu.

Fozia Haseeb, a Christian woman, travelled from Karachi to witness the blended occasions.

“People following three religions are here: Christians, Hindus and Muslims,” she said. “We wanted to see for ourselves whether this was correct, and there is no doubt it is.”

‘No divisions among us’

Ramazan is a month of peaceful prayer and reflection in Islam, and Hindus respected their Muslim neighbours would not join Holi celebrations with the usual fervour due to religious observance.

“Today, you might not see colours on me, but in the past, they would drench me in colours,” said Muslim cleric Babu Aslam Qaimkhani while applying powder to the face of local Hindu MP Mahesh Kumar Malani.

“If a Hindu runs for office, Muslims also vote for them, and vice versa,” said Malani, the only elected minority MP in the national assembly. Nineteen-year-old Muslim labourer Amaan Ullah told AFP: “There are no divisions among us. We all are humans, and we all are equal.”

As Hindus celebrated with processions and visits to temples, there was no armed security.

Local police and administration officials said the city has a low crime rate, with “no major security challenges”, allowing them to easily make arrangements for the major religious festivals.

“Their businesses, their daily lives, and their interactions have been together for centuries and they are still standing strong,” said local official Abdul Haleem Jagirani.

‘A slight sense of fear’

Locals say Mithi’s peaceful existence can be traced back to its remote location, emerging from the sand dunes of the Tharparkar desert, which borders the Indian state of Rajasthan.

With infertile soil and limited water access, it was spared from centuries of looting and wars, and the Partition violence of 1947 when India and Pakistan were created.

But several residents told AFP that in recent years the prosperous city has seen a rise in newcomers as a result of its growing infrastructure.

A major coal project nearby has brought labourers from other provinces to the city, and with it, supporters of a religious party.

On the city’s central square, a large banner hangs for the Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), which put the explosive issue of blasphemy as its central concern.

“People coming from outside the city are causing some doubt and a slight sense of fear,” Padma Lodha, a 52-year-old Hindu headmistress at a local girls school, told AFP. “But overall, things are still well-controlled and peaceful.”

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2025