India cancels historic interfaith festival amid shrinking spaces
For the first time in six decades, Delhi cancels a centuries-old celebration of Hindu-Muslim unity, raising concerns over rising polarization
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — For the first time in more than sixty years, authorities in India’s capital have canceled a centuries-old interfaith festival that once symbolized coexistence between Hindus and Muslims — a decision many see as emblematic of the country’s eroding secular traditions.
The Phool Walon Ki Sair, literally “Procession of the Flower Sellers,” has for two centuries been one of Delhi’s most vivid expressions of religious harmony. Each year, floral offerings are carried in a joint procession to two neighboring shrines — the Sufi dargah (shrine) of Khwaja Bakhtiar Kaki, a 13th-century Muslim saint, and the Yogmaya Temple, one of the city’s oldest Hindu places of worship. The parallel offerings have long embodied the idea that faiths can coexist under a shared civic culture.
Organizers said the Delhi Development Authority denied permission to use the traditional venue at Aam Bagh, citing a land dispute with the Forest Department. That impasse, they said, forced them to call off this year’s event — the first cancellation since the festival’s revival in 1961 by then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who viewed it as a living symbol of India’s plural identity after Partition.
“This festival is the soul of Delhi’s shared heritage,” said Vinod Vatsa, vice-president of the group that oversees the event. “Without clarity over the land, we simply couldn’t proceed.”
Historians trace the festival’s origins to 1812, when Mughal Emperor Akbar Shah II began the tradition to honor both Hindu and Muslim devotion. The practice continued under Delhi’s last Mughal ruler, Bahadur Shah Zafar, before falling dormant during British rule and later being revived in the decades after independence.
Opposition leaders condemned the cancellation as a “blow to communal harmony,” arguing that the decision reflects India’s changing political climate under Hindu nationalist governance. “This is not just an administrative lapse,” said a spokesperson for the Delhi Congress party. “It signals the neglect of traditions that once defined the capital’s diversity.”
Analysts say the move comes at a time when religious polarization has intensified nationwide, with many historic sites, textbooks, and cultural symbols recast through a Hindu-majoritarian lens. The absence of this year’s festival, they warn, marks not merely a logistical failure but a symbolic shrinking of the civic spaces that once allowed India’s faiths to celebrate together.
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