Is our blind faith slowly choking us?

 

The glorification of hatred is predicated on the foundation of fear; the induced ignorance is venomous to haters and those who they believe they hate. Religious intolerance is when a group specifically refuses to tolerate practices, persons or beliefs on religious grounds. The mere statements contrary to one's beliefs do not constitute intolerance. Despite the secular and religiously tolerant constitution of India, broad religious representation in various aspects of society are seen to have been portrayed in recent times. As people took the ban on crackers as an undignified and inglorious accusation against the Hindu traditions, we have reached a state today where every person who breathes upon the air in Delhi, inhales menial air equivalent to smoking 33 cigarettes a day.

Over the past few days, when we couldn’t see a person standing at a distance of 50ft from us, we did see innumerable opinions, headlines and posts flooding the social media platforms discussing the AQI in Delhi and the hazardous living situations. Yet again, people chose to discuss the problems, post their arguments on how the government is a menacing failure and fight against opinions that they found contradictory; than to actually do something regarding the problem. As pollution continues to set the price of prosperity, people today are compelled to sit back in their homes to prevent themselves from breathing the perilous air.

We also came across arguments by people who believe that the Hindu festival was being jeopardized in the name of pollution while other religious festivities are never disturbed.  As every neutrally sane person is dilemmatic today and is trying to comprehend whether the bursting of crackers was a contribution to the precarious living conditions in Delhi or banning them was actually demeaning a religion’s traditions; it is high time that we set this perplexity to rest.

 It all started back in the ancient history when the rich class used firecrackers as a medium of celebration and entertainment for special occasions like weddings and festivals. The association of firecrackers and Deepavali was brought into existence by 2 pioneering business geniuses, Ayya Nadar and Shanmuga Nadar from Sivakasi, and their nationwide presence from the match industry gave them a platform to do so.

Even though the crop burning by the farmers in the state of Punjab, Haryana, and UP; large scale construction in Delhi, industrial pollution, and the onset of winters causing stagnant winds are the major reasons that cause air pollution, but the bursting of crackers also has significantly contributed to the smog that envelops the Delhi-NCR region with eerie punctuality. A rat never creates a rattrap, but by putting Delhi in the state of emergency, we truly have dug down our own graves in the name of blatant arrogance and pride.

Diwali marks the joyous occasion of the return of Lord Ram back to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile. Nowhere is it historically recorded that the people of Ayodhya were found to be bursting firecrackers and celebrating Diwali. Therefore, a ban on the bursting of crackers does not demean Hinduism or its culture. Rather we should understand the repercussions that follow our actions and act responsibly. All that is wrong does not make something right either, and we believe that we should not use religion as a harness to burst crackers.