Monisha Garika and her friends stood in a circle, coated in rainbow-colored powder and soaking wet, yet smiling.
The white clothing they’d donned that morning made “a really good canvas,” Garika joked. “I guess it just, you know, happened,” she said slyly — still holding a red Solo cup filled with the vibrant material in question.
Garika, a third-year computer science major, was at Oakes Lower Lawn on April 4 for the UC Santa Cruz Indian Student Association’s (ISA) 10th annual Holi celebration.
Holi is a Hindu festival that symbolizes new beginnings, the arrival of spring and the triumph of good over evil. Traditions vary between regions, but the uniting factor is always gulal, a brightly-dyed cornstarch that participants throw at one another.
Various attendees run and throw gulal at each other around the Oakes Lower Lawn.
“It is a celebration of spring, but pair that with, yes, a bit of mischievousness,” Garika explained.
About 600 students attended ISA’s event, which was split between a morning and afternoon session. Each began with dances by the Bollywood fusion team Kahaani, a troupe of ISA members and Raas Rangeela, whose performers use sticks called dandiya to clap out rhythms.
As the final group of entertainers left the stage, Amani Khanna, a third-year neuroscience major and one of ISA’s Holi co-directors, shouted into the DJ’s microphone, “Let’s get started!”
Dancers from various student groups, including members from the ISA, commence the festival with several dance performances.
Attendees, already gripping fistfuls of gulal, turned to pelt each other or run around the field in unrelenting pursuit. Bags of the colors — 1,250 pounds in total — lay heaped underneath tables, becoming friendly ammunition as ISA members ripped them open to pour into boxes for participants to scoop up.
In several spots around Oakes Lower Lawn, organizers set up stations to hand out gulal in plastic cups.
“There’s a saying in Hindi, ‘bura na maano Holi hai,’ which basically means ‘Don’t mind, it’s Holi,’” said third-year literature major Madhav Sharma. “They’ll put buckets of water on you, they’ll throw color on you, they’ll throw water balloons on you, and today’s the one day you cannot mind because it’s Holi.”
For some students, celebrating Holi was not just about joy, but also about affirming their presence in a time when blatant anti-Indian racism is on the rise. In addition to fueling this hateful rhetoric, the Trump administration has revoked hundreds of international student visas across the country, including three at UCSC. It also imposed a $100,000 application fee for the H1-B visa, which allows highly skilled foreigners to work in the U.S. and is primarily awarded to Indian nationals.
Ali Haryanawalla, a third-year technology and information management major, grew up in India but was born in the U.S. He said that he felt the pain of those impacted by the Trump administration’s actions.
“I genuinely think that Holi is what brings light and keeps it shining,” he explained. “It’s needed, and nothing can die out because of regulations. It’s simple to keep your culture and representation alive. That’s the only thing that could possibly counteract and overcome this, right?”
Regardless of how politics impacted the celebration, Holi universally signified the start of better, and warmer, times for all attendees.
“I’m excited to go to the beach. I’m so excited that spring is here and it’s finally hot outside,” said Kahaani captain and second-year business management and economics major Susritha Yalamati. “I just love that everyone bonds with color and water and that they put all their differences apart,” she added.
Participants greeted everyone with a dash of powder even if they didn’t know each other. Friend groups mingled and expanded. As the sun climbed higher in the sky, ISA members carried buckets of water across the field to refill the water guns they had provided alongside the gulal, while students danced along to thumping Bollywood music. 
Holi attendees rest on the barrier dividing the dry and wet zones.
“It’s just like everybody is familiar with each other for a moment in time,” Haryanawalla said.
Once the festivities had wrapped up and shade started to creep over Oakes Lower Lawn, Amani Khanna and her fellow co-director Anjora Dubey, a third-year global economics major, reflected on the outcome of the event they had planned.
They achieved their goal of increasing ticket sales from 400 to 600 this year, and incorporated water guns, a common Holi element, for the first time. But their proudest achievement was building a sense of community.
“We were sitting right there,” Khanna said, pointing to the raised wooden stage, “watching people dance on the dance floor. We were like, ‘Oh my gosh, we did this.’ That was just beautiful. Everyone had a smile on their face, and was really enjoying the moment.”
