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Hindus are upset at the offensive posters which appeared on the campus of WesleyanUniversity (Middletown, Connecticut, USA) suggesting that students who havebeen celebrating Hindu festival of Holi were not allowed in Usdan, “a focalpoint of activity” on the campus.

Hindustatesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that WesleyanPresident Dr. Michael S. Roth and its Board of Trustees Chair Joshua S. Bogershould immediately apologize for these posters which were very insensitive tothe students and others who celebrated the popular Hindu “festival of color”and it was belittling of the entire community.

Moreover,these posters saying “NO COLORED PEOPLE ALLOWED IN USDAN” were highly offensiveto all people of color and were thus clearly unacceptable in a civilizedsociety, Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, argued.

University’sfirst official celebration of Holi reportedly took place on Foss Hill onFriday, April 27, when these flyers appeared.

Joiede vivre festival of Holi welcomes the beginning of spring and starts about tendays before the full moon of Phalguna. The ceremonies include the lighting ofthe bonfires, during which all evils are symbolically burnt. Holi alsocommemorates the frolics of youthful Lord Krishna; celebrates the death ofdemoness Putana, burning of demoness Holika, and destruction of Kama by LordShiva. Actual Holi fell on March eight this year, Zed added.

Highlyselective Wesleyan University, on a 316-acre campus overlooking the ConnecticutRiver and with students from around the world, offers 47 major fields of study,including various doctoral programs. Annual expenses for a student now add to$58,371, while tuition was only $36 when it was founded in 1831 by Methodistleaders. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. reportedly visited this campus severaltimes. Its Usdan University Center is a “central programming space for thecampus community” and provides a “comfortable gathering place for students,staff, faculty, alumni and visitors”.