Post date: Mar 27, 2013 3:53:0 PM
Students at Delhi's prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) knock back cups of 'Bhang Lassi', a cannabis-laden milkshake served at the college canteen for breakfast during the Holi festival. With the intoxicating drink taking hold, the students immerse themselves in the Hindu festival of colour.
NEW DELHI, INDIA (MARCH 27, 2013) - Students at Delhi's prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) knocked back cups of 'Bhang Lassi', a cannabis-laden milkshake served at the college canteen for breakfast during the Holi festival on Wednesday (March 27).
With the intoxicating drink taking hold, the students immerse themselves in the Hindu festival of colour by pounding handfuls bright coloured powder at each other. Dev, a Phd student at JNU explained how the potent cannabis drink is made."It is some form of marijuana leafs that is grinded in the mess. The mess worker behind the mess, they grind it themselves and they make it in a pure form and they mix it with the milk and they keep it here. So it is more like an intoxicated drink. More often with marijuana you smoke it up but here you drink it down. And it is much stronger believe me, it is very strong."
Though technically illegal, drinking bhang is common across much of Northern India during the Holi festival when it is widely accepted for youths and adults to consume it. For the most part, the authorities turn a blind eye.
Holi is celebrated to mark the end of winter and a welcome of spring and harvest. It is traditionally a Hindu festival but these days it is celebrated by people outside the Hindu faith as well.
In recent years the rowdiness of some Holi revellers has led to anger from people in the street unwillingly targeted with water balloons and dyes. Manmeet Kaur, a Delhi resident partying with friends at JNU added that it is common for people to aim water ballons and colours at the breasts and bums of unsuspecting women in the week of Holi to humiliate them.
"Today everybody's who's out, is out to play so everybody plays together, but this starts off a week before and carries on for a week after Holi where people get water-bombed, rotten eggs are thrown at people, especially at women and especially aimed at their breasts or their arses to humiliate them so it has a, well there's that to it as well." Kaur said.
Another concern in recent years the amount of chemicals used to create richer and longer lasting 'Holi colours'. Historically Holi colours were made from natural pigments such as spinach leaves and flower petals. Nowadays most of the colours are made using oxidized metals or industrial dyes that can irritate the eyes and skin leading to infections.