It’s estimated that more than a billion Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists will celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, on October 31. The five-day festival is one of the largest religious celebrations in the world, marking the victory of good over evil.

To better understand the significance of Diwali and the role the caste system plays in the festival's observance, we asked SIS professor Malini Ranganathan a few questions.

What is the significance of Diwali?

Diwali, or “Deepawali” meaning “a row of lights,” transcends religious boundaries and is celebrated by a diverse range of religious groups in India. It is the most important festival in the region. For many groups, it broadly symbolizes the triumph of light over darkness, or good over evil.

For northern Indian Hindus, Diwali is associated with the mythology of the Ramayana, a 3,000-year-old epic from ancient India. Celebrated over five days, the actual day of Diwali represents the return of the god Ram, his brother Lakshman, and Ram’s escort Sita to the place of Ram’s birth, Ayodhya (what could either be a fictional or real place in northern India, depending on your interpretation), after Ram’s defeat of the so-called demon-king, Ravana, who lived in “Lanka” (Sri Lanka). For southern Indian Hindus, Diwali similarly symbolizes the defeat of the so-called demon Narakasura by the god Krishna.

Other non-Hindu religions such as Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Islam also commemorate Diwali in different ways. However, as I will discuss later, it is important to contextualize hegemonic narrations of Diwali in India’s caste system. 

How is Diwali celebrated? What are the key traditions?

The festival lasts five days. People make sweets (typically ladoos or lentils, nuts, sugar, and ghee-filled desserts), wear new clothes, exchange gifts, and light fireworks (sadly, these fireworks are often dangerous and unregulated and leave the air quality in a poor state). The most important tradition is to light small “diyas,” or oil lamps, in the evening.

 What is the history of Diwali and the caste system? What role does the caste system play in the observance of Diwali? 

The caste system is an ancient social hierarchy that ranks humans by the purity or pollution of their occupation, or “Jati.” Though the caste system predates British colonialism, the British exploited this preexisting hierarchy to fuel the resource extraction and labor exploitation necessary for imperial capitalism.  

The so-called “demons” in the Diwali mythology are actually lower-caste, Adivasi (Indigenous tribal) people (often depicted in art as darker-skinned and terrifying-looking), and as such, Diwali is a kind of caste-supremacist or “Brahminical” (upper caste-centric) story that should be probed deeper rather than taken at face value. Around 20 percent of India’s population is Adivasi and ex-untouchable or Dalit. Counter-hegemonic celebrations of Diwali actually do the reverse: they celebrate the resilience of the so-called demons (“asuras”) against the reign of the upper castes.

These days, as more and more people are beginning to question hegemonic myths, there is greater awareness of how the story of Diwali has historically erased the stories and cultures of marginalized castes and tribes. While Diwali still holds significance for over a billion people around the world, my hope is that people can both celebrate the tradition by being in community with each other and undo its more harmful effects.