When I use the theme Theme.Holo.Light, my window background appears white on the emulator (same as using Theme.Light from earlier Android versions). However on the Galaxy Nexus it appears as a light grey. I've taken a screenshot and found it is actually a very slight gradient.
Here is a brand new project created with ADT16. All I have done is set the theme in the manifest:
android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light"
and for contrast put this in the activity:
<TextView
android:id="@+id/textView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="This text background is white"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
android:background="#fff" />
Here's the screenshot from the emulator running API 15 (and is identical on API 14).
Here it is on a real Galaxy Nexus.
Why the difference? I know not to trust manufacturers not to mess with the AOSP themes on older Android versions, but (i) this is a Nexus device and (ii) Holo is supposed to be mandatory and unmodified on all devices with Market (http://android-developers.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/holo-everywhere.html).
(Perhaps someone with an ICS device other than Galaxy Nexus can tell me what they get for Holo.Light - maybe it is an emulator bug.)
Theme.Holo.Light does have a grey background.
The screenshot from your Nexus shows the right behaviour.
Best wishes, Tim