India or China - Who Invented Gunpowder? Diwali's Hindu Haze and a Weird Debate

15 October, 2017

Indians cover their faces amid thick fog in the capital New Delhi. The Supreme Court has banned the use of firecrackers during the Hindu festival of Diwali because of pollution concerns. Photo: EPA

“What’s Diwali for children without crackers?… A Diwali when they can breathe”

by Dr. Shashi Tharoor, South China Morning Post, 15 October 2017

In an India increasingly polarised along religious lines, with a triumphalist Hindu majoritarianism unleashed by the powers that be, everything seems to take on a communal colour these days. But even those reconciled to this sad reality were a bit taken aback when a Supreme Court ruling banning the sale of firecrackers during next week’s Diwali festival caused a firestorm of protest to erupt on communal lines.

New Delhi has one of the world’s worst air quality records, with the winter months becoming particularly unbreathable. Fog descends as temperatures drop, trapping the smoke rising from cars, buses, trucks, factories and charcoal braziers on the pavement. The result is a thick impenetrable smog that chokes lungs, corrodes throats and impairs visibility. Read more...