Celebrate Diwali that is humane

Celebrate Diwali that is humane

FPJ BureauUpdated: Saturday, June 01, 2019, 06:16 PM IST
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Pfuff! You could actually hear it. Swooosh! Hisss! Over and over again. You could hear all those pious promises going up in smoke. We remain a glorious nation of empty vessels. So much for a ‘Green Diwali’

This Diwali the pollution levels were no better than other years. In general, across India, this Diwali was just as bad as any other. We filled the air with poisonous smoke, filled our ears with deafening noise, filled the ground with rubbish leftover by firecrackers, filled our bellies with unhealthy food and adulterated sweets, and filled our hearts with pride at being better than the neighbours in our spectacular display of vulgar revelry. Seriously, Diwali is not all that it is made out to be. Take a long, sober look and see for yourself.
Oh come on, you say, it’s Diwali, for heavens’ sake! Time for fireworks! Time for fun! Time to eat and drink and make merry! It’s our tradition, our custom, a cultural ritual! Diwali is not just a Hindu festival, it is so much more – how can you not celebrate it with fun, food and firecrackers?
We tend to forget that Diwali was not always associated with fireworks. Deepavali was the festival of lights, the time to celebrate homecoming with lights and flower decorations, with colourful “rangolis’’ and earthen lamps, homemade sweets and delicious food, love and affection. Like Kali “puja’’, its twin festival separated by a day and celebrated culturally in much the same way, Deepavali was, like most cultural festivals, a time to share and care. A time to welcome winter with the warmth of earthen lamps, to usher in the stark beauty of cold, clear, “hemant’’ nights before the fog swept in, to defy darkness by lighting the lamp of wisdom, to banish darkness by spreading the light.
So it is not inconceivable to focus on the lights, the colours of “rangoli’’ and on firecracker-free merriment on Diwali. Especially now, when we so love worrying about our health and obsessing on fitness. And we certainly talk a lot about saving the environment. We talk gravely about an environment-friendly, people-friendly Green Diwali. And when the day comes, we rush to fill the skies with toxic smoke and mark our presence upon the earth with ear-splitting blasts and bangs.
Firecrackers release bursts of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide among other poisonous gases and toxic particulate matter that harm our health, make breathing difficult for the elderly and those with weak lungs and breathing trouble. Firework-intensive Diwali festivities, including the deafening din, have always been a nightmare for asthmatics and heart patients. And every year noise pollution and air pollution levels shoot up at Diwali – usually by ten per cent or more.
And the accidents. Hospitals buzz with activity as the burns units work overtime tending to victims of such fiery revelry. And let us not even start on the trauma to animals.
But we did make a fine effort this year. Mumbai managed to keep its noise levels down, largely because the police took an active interest in it. On the other hand, this year Delhi’s Diwali was far noisier than before. But the bright side was that air pollution was significantly less, which you would not have guessed from the soupy smog hanging over the not-yet-wintry city that night.
And let me admit, “mea culpa’’. I contributed to that smoke soup as well. Apart from the niceties of sweets and earthen “diyas’’ and colourful candles and warm hugs, we did celebrate with some fireworks. (Sparklers and such mostly, milord, and some sparkling fountains of light. No noisy crackers. No dangerous pyrotechnics. Just safe, almost silent, relatively clean fireworks. You see, there is always the fear that your child, now a trusting pre-schooler, may perhaps 30 years later, bitterly complain of childhood deprivation and trauma arising out of not being allowed to do what other children did. Parents are neither as brave nor as free as they wish to be, milord.)
So we are all guilty, to some extent. We love fireworks. Pyrotechnics spread cheer across the globe. In all countries and cultures there are special days for fireworks. Usually around our Diwali, on the 5th of November, Britain lights up with magnificent fireworks. This is Guy Fawkes Day, which goes back several centuries, and in a confused kind of way celebrates both gunpowder as well as the survival of King James I from assassins who had planned to blow him up with it. America celebrates its independence day with the spectacular fireworks of the 4th of July. Then there is China – where it all started. Fireworks were invented in China way back in the 7th century, and has been used ever since to celebrate special occasions, especially the Chinese New Year. Japan celebrates summer with a month-long firework festival. The list goes on. We are not alone in polluting the environment and creating health hazards for ourselves.
No we are not alone. But we are among the least responsible. There are regulations that can make fireworks safer, promising less accidents and less pollution. There are regulations that make fireworks more humane, by improving the work conditions of those who make them. In our unfortunate country, fireworks factories run largely on child labour. Children who lose out on their childhood, are taken out of school, are paid a pittance and suffer all kinds of burns from accidents at work. Children who often die from such accidents. Sustained campaigning against it for over twenty years has not stopped child labour in the fireworks industry, it has merely driven it underground.
The point is, if we must celebrate with fireworks, let’s do it with pride. Let’s do it in a way that minimizes harm – to humanity, to health, to the environment. Let’s keep to the norms specified for workers, for air pollution levels and decibel levels. Let’s enjoy displays of fireworks as a community, like people in most countries do, and not just burst crackers as carefree individuals. People can enjoy magnificent pyrotechnics from far away. In India, one evening of the winter harvest festival in Rabindranath Tagore’s Santiniketan is marked for community fireworks at a specified field. It’s great fun. And sharing limits pollution.
There really is no fun in earsplitting explosions and noisy crackers. Nor is there any pride in extravagant personal displays of fireworks as status symbols.
We may not get a Green Diwali anytime soon, but we could certainly get a limited edition community Deepavali that is humane, cleaner and truly joyful. Happy Diwali!

(Antara Dev Sen is Editor, *The Little Magazine*. Email: sen@littlemag.com)

   Antara Dev Sen

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