India’s Firecracker Ban an Explosive Issue

Pollution versus pleasure

By: Neeta Lal

A decision by some of India’s most populous states to prohibit the manufacture and sale of firecrackers in the runup to the Nov. 4 start of Diwali, the country’s biggest Hindu festival, is setting off a different kind of fireworks as a populace beleaguered by Covid-19 and other tribulations rebels against the ban.

Last week, the western Indi…