David M Thangliana | My earliest memories of Christmas and New Year festivities consist of presents and fireworks. My presents on Christmas morning would invariably include sparklers which were gradually upgraded to firecrackers and bombs as I grew older. I believe burning sparklers and firecrackers were one of the most enjoyable activities during these year-end and year-beginning festivities and, in fact, the smell of sulphur still brings out nostalgic childhood memories. My one regret is that with celebration of Christmas and New Year (and not forgetting Diwali as Mizoram has a sizeable Hindu community) with fireworks are things of the past now, my grandchildren would be deprived of the fun that goes with burning sparklers and firecrackers.
Let me elaborate on how fireworks have become a thing of the past in Mizoram. When the Congress party came to power in Mizoram in November 2008, the government decided that Mizoram could do without fireworks during festivals as these are not only avoidable expenditure for the public, but were also health hazards and pollutants. The first Christmas and New Year after Congress rule did have its share of fireworks as pleas by the government to the public to refrain from burning fireworks practically fell on deaf ears as nobody could imagine a Christmas and New Year without fireworks, nearly a century-old practice even in remote Mizoram. The next Christmas and New Year, however, saw a marked decline in noise and air pollution as the public realised, from repeated reminders by the government, that fireworks was not only a waste of money, but dangerous and unhealthy. Though the public, in general, felt cheated, it was more than compensated by the satisfaction and happiness expressed by senior citizens and heart patients who dread festivals because of the loud noises that customarily are part of them.
It would be bias on my part if I do not mention the Hindu community which obediently followed the majority Mizo community from doing without fireworks during their festivals, especially during Diwali. Last year, there was silence during Durga Puja and Diwali except for a few sporadic explosions and other crackers fired from security cantonments within Aizawl. It would be safe to say fireworks during Hindu festivals fell by 90% last year compared to the past few years.
Home minister R Lalzirliana was certain, as soon as he took office, that the public could enjoy festivals without the noise and air pollutions that went with them even though he knew he would be taking on an uphill task. Much to the surprise of his critics and the disbelievers, the public, including the merchants whose profits would have skyrocketed in illicit fireworks sales, became an obedient lot and within three short years, fireworks have virtually become a thing of the past.
However, the credit cannot go to the government alone in abolishing fireworks in Mizoram because it could not have done so without a little help from the powerful social organisation, Young Mizo Association (YMA). Even before the home minister decided to do away with fireworks during festivals, the YMA had been exhorting people from bursting crackers and bombs for many years. However, without government backing, the YMA, powerful though it may be, could not prevent people from indulging in a practice that has become customary and synonymous with Christmas and New Year. Only one YMA branch in a southern Aizawl locality, in fact, had been able to stop the practice of bursting crackers and bombs for some years and senior citizens and heart patients who had relatives or friends
living in this locality would flock to it during Christmas and New Year to avoid the disturbance caused by the loud noises of fireworks.
Another factor that made the task of banning fireworks a little easy was that though no research has been carried out, it was popularly believed that poultry and infants suffered heavily from the air pollution caused by fireworks. A few days after New Year every year, poultry reared in back gardens would die off by the dozens and pediatric wards of hospitals filled to the brim. This belief has been been proved to be true as chickens did not die and neither did babies become sick after Mizoram became a ‘silent’ state.
The reader may now begin to get glimmerings of why I decided to write about a silent Mizoram while they are so many other important subjects that I could touch on. I must confess that though I am not an active environmentalist, I am an environmentalist at heart and I do not approve of anything that could hurt the environment. As a matter of fact, I have been urging my relatives in rural areas to give up their guns and stop killing wild animals and birds. There is a need to keep the balance in nature and if this balance is destroyed, the world will be gone with all the things living in it, including us humans. So, in effect, we are preserving ourselves when we protect the environment.
I would like to urge our sister states in the Northeast, if not throughout India, to take a leaf out of the lesson book of Mizoram. As we all know, the states in the Northeast are the green belt of the country though development projects have slowly started to erode its environment stability. We have to accept that as much as we dislike it, we cannot do without hydropower as we cannot live without power in this modern age. So dams have to come up. But we can contribute towards conserving and preserving our environment in other areas and in things we can do without where the people can actually participate in. One of these areas, as the reader may have already guessed, is in controlling noise and air pollution. I don’t have any data with me, but I believe fireworks during festivals would contribute hugely to the already high noise and air pollution in the country. When Mizoram gave up fireworks three years ago, it did not lose out on anything. If anything, it gained.
When the Mizoram Government first brought out the idea of banning fireworks, I was among those who did not believe that it would work (and I secretly hoped that it would not work because I thoroughly enjoy bursting crackers!) because it had become an inherent part of Christmas and New Year celebrations in the Mizo society. I had even suggested to the government that it designate specific hours and place where people could go to burst crackers and fire rockets. The government, luckily, did not pay heed to my suggestion. I say ‘luckily’ because had such an area and time been designated by the government, people would still be spending hundreds and thousands (the affluent and more enthusiastic of revelers even spend tens of thousands) of rupees on frivolous and unnecessary fireworks while the air still became polluted. Instead, parents now save their hard earned money for more important things such as school bills and school uniforms for the new academic year which they would otherwise have squandered away on fireworks as a mindless festival mood always takes over the Mizo community during Christmas and New Year.
Within three short years, Mizoram has become accustomed to Christmases and New Years without fireworks. Senior citizens and heart patients now look forward to the festivals which they used to dread. Infants have become healthy and parents save money that they would have spent for medications and hospitalisation. In a nutshell, a silent Mizoram has become more beneficial for its citizens than a noisy one.
It is my fervent hope that our other sister states take notice of how one of its smallest sister is tackling the enormous expenditure incurred by the public during festivals and through it, how it is tackling the problem of the high noise and air pollution festivals bring about. If Mizoram can do it, so can they.
(The writer is former journalist based in Aizawl and a member of the media department of the Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee)