By Ishan Chauhan
Every year with the ‘festive season’ comes the debate about the use of fireworks and as the season ends so does the discussion. Firecrackers, now available even in electronic varieties, are used as a mark of celebration especially, for Dussehra, the victory of good over evil, for Diwali, the return of prince Rama to his homeland. The argument in support of loud bursts of firecrackers over days is that they are a part of the celebration of the festivals which have both religious and traditional significance. No argument against these two points where Dussehra and Diwali are concerned, the question is does the firecracker have religious or traditional importance? And do we really need them?
Do fireworks form a part of Dussehra and Diwali celebrations? History has shown that fireworks coming to India must have been somewhere around 1400 CE. Fireworks and pyrotechnic shows existed as forms of royal entertainment in many Indian kingdoms in the Middle Ages mostly during special occasions like weddings. The late historian P K Gode in his “History of Fireworks in India between 1400 and 1900,” suggests that the use of fireworks must have started after about 1400 AD, coinciding with the use of gunpowder in warfare.
Gunpowder, a primary ingredient in fireworks, was actually an accidental invention by medieval Chinese alchemists in the tenth or eleventh century. The terrifying flash and blast of gunpowder gave it the name “devil’s distillate.” Gajapati Prataparudradeva, a royal author of the sixteenth century from Orissa, included manufacturing formulas for fireworks and described pyrotechnic mixtures in his Sanskrit book Kautukachintamani. Historians have considered the possibility that Chinese pyrotechnic formulas were brought to India around 1400 AD and then substituted with local products when the need arose.
Historically, though fireworks may have been around since the fifteenth century they were not assimilated into Diwali celebrations till much later, being generally reserved for events hosted by the gentry or the aristocracy. Paintings, as late as 1700 CE do not depict the use of fireworks indicating their absence. Vasudha Narayanan, a professor of religion, from the University of Florida says that it was only in the last century or so that fireworks became a part of this festival. The story of the festival of Diwali arises out of the Ramayana, written approximately around the 5th Century BCE, so a hundred years is a miniscule time frame to make a case for fireworks. While Narayanan understands the need to celebrate festivals, she also raises concerns about the already polluted air getting worse with the amount of fireworks released during Diwali. Celebration and traditions should be revisited if they “cause violence to someone else’s health” says Narayanan.
In any case, after the pandemic arguments about history, tradition and religion haven’t held. Last year, a number of States imposed a ban on the sale of firecrackers ahead of the festivities due to the rising Covid cases and the irritant of growing air pollution. New Delhi which has a high level of air pollution, has banned the sale, use and storage of firecrackers for the third year now in a bid to control air contaminants. The bans by States have led to many complaints that Diwali without fireworks is not Diwali anymore and amounted to celebrating Christmas without a Christmas tree.
Diwali should be celebrated without noisy, air polluting crackers is also the position held by the Calcutta High Court. Last Friday (Oct 29) the High Court ordered a blanket ban on firecrackers, including green crackers that the West Bengal government had allowed for Kali puja, Diwali and Chhath puja celebrations. The High Court banned the sale, purchase and use of all firecrackers till December 31 this year to curb air pollution during the pandemic which is still infecting people and taking lives. The court order noted that it would be difficult to distinguish between normal polluting crackers and green crackers that the State government had allowed just a few days earlier. However, the fireworks are back after the Supreme Court on Monday (November 01) set aside the High Court ban.
The decision to set aside the ban on firecrackers comes not so long after the apex court had ruled against the use of fireworks. In September, hearing a plea by the manufacturers’ association of firecrackers, the Supreme Court had said that it cannot infringe the right to life of citizens “under the guise of employment of few”. The judges had ruled that suitable orders would be passed if green crackers were found acceptable by experts. The court had said that there had to be a balance between employment, unemployment and health and lives of people. “We have to strike the balance between employment, unemployment and the right to life of the citizen. Under the guise of employment of few we cannot permit others to infringe the right to life of other citizens.” A bench of Justices M R Shah and A S Bopanna had said, emphasising that the court’s prime focus is the “right to life of innocent citizens”.
However, there has always been the supportive argument that firecrackers provide a livelihood to over a million workers in India engaged directly in the manufacture of the incendiary products, or in allied sectors. Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu, has more than 1000 units employing over 800,000 workers directly and indirectly. Sivakasi which is about 500 km south of Chennai is the centre of the trade, accounting for 80% of the Indian fireworks business which is estimated upward of Rs.10000 crore. Firecrackers are a significant part of Diwali sales so should the business fold, especially in India’s highest tax paying small town? This question has been pushing the case for firecrackers, while health and safety considerations push them out.
The advent of the “green” cracker may not assuage safety concerns as COVID is primarily a respiratory disease, and the fact is that people have suffered lung related problems even months after their tryst with the virus. Besides, the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) talks about the concentration of air pollutants increasing significantly over India, and the situation is so, that even if effective decarbonisation techniques are implemented, the levels cannot be brought down to those advocated by the World Health Organisation. In other words, it is absolutely essential to drastically cut down short term climate pollutants. Black carbon, which is one of the components in fireworks, is one such pollutant.
Medieval Chinese alchemists were looking out for life-lengthening elixirs when they invented gunpowder. It certainly hasn’t lengthened lives, and their creation makes a strong case for keeping out the firecracker.
(The writer is an independent researcher and author (Syndicate: The Billion Press) (email: [email protected])