Dummies' guide to countering whataboutery on Bakrid animal slaughter during Deepavali

Haven’t you started hearing / seeing arguments equalising animal slaughter and crackers, and asking why animal sacrifice in Islam is not banned, but cracker bursting in Hindus is? Supreme Court became anti-Hindu recently, with its ban on crackers and green cracker advocacy. Finally they had to clarify that it was applicable only for Delhi.

Every time Deepavali comes, crackers burst outside my home, my kid curious to watch it all but scared because she is sensitive to polluted air, my kittens terrified and sitting next to us. Let me tell you, I have a huge list of things to be avoided, and things to be done — crackers are only one small part in the list. I avoid it because my kid is allergic to cracker fumes and had to be hospitalised once after getting exposed to Deepavali celebrations.

While a lot of people agree that chemicals in crackers are actually bad, some people feel crackers are not as bad as they are projected to be. Some of them think ban on crackers is an attack on their religion. They find conspiracy against Hindus, and ask: “Why are you not protesting against Bakrid animal slaughter?” Some of them suspect Congress conspiracy behind campaign against crackers. Some people wonder why cracker is not opposed in other occasions like new year, but only during Deepavali.

While arguing is fine, it should lead to enlightenment. Some of us are left wondering why on earth we are opposing crackers, and get into self-doubt mode. This is for those of you at this stage — because, crackers are bad, no matter what the argument for them is. Let me do a postmortme of all the popular arguments for crackers.

1. Why isn’t Bakrid animal slaughter opposed?

Bakrid animal slaughter has its own importance religiously, unlike crackers which are NOT originally a part of Deepavali. Deepavali is the festival of lights, a celebration of good over evil, a festival that symbolises knowledge and enlightenment. Crackers aren’t a part of any story associated with Deepavali. 

Crackers aren’t Indian by origin. The first example of fireworks dates back to 9th-century, being used in medieval Chinese Tang Dynast. It is a business opportunity today, at the cost of environment.

Why aren’t we talking about animal sacrifice? Because India is a secular country, and everyone has religious freedom. Also, the society and communities have the power to modify the religion which they are a part of. We did away with Sati and tonsuring the head of widows etc long back, though they were once part of our religion. 

If a protest against animal sacrifice has to come, it has to be from WITHIN the community, NOT from outside. Outsiders talking about it can only make the communities defensive about it, and won’t make them think about it. When Hindus are offended about cracker bans and link it to religion, Muslims can also do it easily because it is afterall religious. Cracker isn’t — cracker is just fun.

So why should we talk about another religion?! We have no business to interfere in it. Don’t we have animal slaughters in some of our own temples? Though it’s banned under law, isn’t it happening? Is even the law stopping it? Again it’s our own folks who are talking about it and protesting, not from the other religions. That is how it should be — we should clean up our houses first before doing anything else.

There’s another issue here. If one is batting for kindness to animals, it should extend beyond pointing at Bakrid slaughter. Animals are food material — many among us eat nonveg. And a global city like Bengaluru doesn’t even have scientific abattoirs (scientific slaughter houses) that conform to international standards against animal cruelty. Is anyone talking about it at all? Does anyone even know about it? Why point out Bakrid slaughter when we don’t have systems to deal with everyday animal slaughter which amounts to much more than Bakrid slaughter annually?

So please stop comparing crackers to animal slaughter — both are totally different, and not comparable. The argument that questions why people are ok with the latter while they are against the former serves a certain propaganda and political ideology, which doesn’t go anywhere as far as policies are concerned. It’s a reflection of our own insanity, a product of our own ignorance to refuse to see things as they are.

2. Why aren’t crackers opposed in other times? 

Crackers are bad for health due to the toxic composition they have, so they must be opposed whichever occasion they are used — be it a death burial ceremony, an electoral victory or a cricket match victory. There is no doubt about it. But the debate about crackers reaches a peak during Deepavali especially because it is winter and cities like Delhi become unlivable due to pollution, and crackers worsen the situation. And the celebration is mass and much wider than any other firecracker celebration.

Cracker sellers put up special stalls during this time and sell their stuff at highly discounted price. Crackers come flying from different directions in the bylanes of Bengaluru, making it unsafe to go out in vehicles during Deepavali. Someone loses eyes, someone faces an accident, someone’s vehicle catches fire. Eye hospitals are on high alert during this time, and eye injury cases see a spike. This might happen during new year celebrations too, but access to crackers is low during that time. 

Irrespective of when they are burst, crackers are bad for health. Why do we need such a health hazard?

3. Why are you not doing a, b, c, d, e and f, why campaign only against crackers?

Someone asked me this actually sometime ago. They assumed that people who campaign against crackers do only that and nothing more. That’s not the reality — everyone fights on so many fronts, but they needn’t advertise about it. 

Also, each one of us can do only so much, only what each one’s bandwidth permits us to do. One cannot become an activist in every issue — so people choose what matters to them immediately. ‘There are so many issues out there, and we have to pick our battles,” as a friend of mine puts it. Doing what one can is better than doing nothing, or questioning people who do something, however small it is! Rather than asking the other person why they are not doing abcdef&g, you do it, if it’s your calling and if you feel like doing it. Don’t question the motive of others. Don’t judge others.

4. What about other types of pollution? Vehicular pollution? Industrial pollution?

There are laws to deal with all types of pollution. But corporates hoodwink the authorities and do what they want. An individual can only lament that they found superbugs in Bairamangala tanks, but further action is beyond individual’s scope — it’s a bigger battle that needs to happen in a different level. Comparing that with crackers is totally problematic. 

In fact, all cities are waking upto the realities of pollution. A collective of cities around the world called C40 cities systematically organises exchanges regarding pollution, and member cities have started taking conclusive actions and building up pressure. Recently a few mayors asked car manufacturing companies to stop producing petrol and diesel cars. Electric cars are the future. Cities like Bengaluru will get electric vehicles for last mile sooner than other cities. Stories of air pollution and impacts are everywhere, globally. Pollution is unacceptable, whatever is the source.

5. Congress conspiracy theory

No. It’s not a conspiracy by any political party. In fact, All parties including Congress and left pollute atmosphere by bursting crackers when they win elections. So the argument that it is ‘a lot more than environmental angle’ as one of my friends puts it, is just hilarious. It also reflects the lack of awareness on environment we have. 

But the times are changing. Awareness is a lot more these days. School children go around campaigning against crackers in the school neighbourhood, and hopefully will carry forward the message in their life too. So people like me don’t have to write such long boring posts on social media some day in future.
 So let’s not find fault with the theory that crackers are bad. We buy and burn them and have fun, justifying it by saying ‘okay to use it once in a while’ etc, just like we do many other bad things, with excuses. That’s our problem.
Campaign against crackers cannot be won fully unless there are laws and regulations on manufacturing, or people become aware enough because of their own circumstances, or unless we move over from 45 to 55 degrees in Bangalore and collectively realise the myriad ways in which we spoil our own surroundings. 

We can only rant on our own FB walls, but education / awareness has to come from within, not from other’s FB posts or WhatsApp forwards — we are doing it just for the sake of our own peace of mind, that’s it. If you don’t like it, you have many options ranging from unfriending the person to going and buying more crackers in revenge, so no need to raise the blood pressure and get into argument mode

And lastly to all those who become one-time environmentalists during Deepavali for whatever reason:

 1) Having no crackers is not the only eco-friendly stuff you can do in life — if anyone thinks that please change yourself. There are so many other ways that promote eco-friendly living — right from thinking what you should buy in shops, to where you choose to live to what you wear to how you travel to what you invest on. In Bengaluru, garbage burning is the seasonal hottest thing that’s causing much more damage than crackers regularly. Avoiding crackers is a smallest in the scheme of things. There are bigger things happening, so please expand the horizon beyond the realm of your own pets or your own intolerance to noise, if you have the bandwidth for it.

 2) Don’t get abusive on anyone — even if someone burns crackers they will have their own justification for it. These are not issues that can be won by arguments — change of heart takes place at a different level, so don’t ever argue. If someone bursts crackers, avoid the area, tolerate it, or plan a trip to a quiet place. Someday we are doomed to die in the mess we create. It will only be preponed a bit, that’s all.

3) Lastly, please do not argue on social media against crackers, if you don’t know how to justify your arguments — that makes the entire lot — all folks like us — look like jokers!

And the GOOD NEWS IS: a lot of people find sense in these arguments, cracker sales have gone down, and cracker bursting has reduced with each passing year. Officially as declared by Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, the pollution levels have reduced every year. A real indication of this for me has been my own kid, who suffers every year after Deepavali with health issues, but none last year. Thank you Bengaluru, for listening to people like us, and making sense of it, and changing the actions.