Why is Indian democracy unable to respond to the problem of pollution?

 

Reuters

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The people of Delhi once looked forward to winter. Not anymore. The season is now accompanied by some of the most severe pollution anywhere in the world. The past week saw the Air Quality Index in the capital hit “severe” levels, meaning even healthy people could face breathing problems and all physical activity was dissuaded.

 

In industrialised nations, this apocalyptic pollution would have seen the government face massive pressure and, hence, seen hectic activity to combat it. China’s capital Beijing, for example, was notorious for its polluted air. To combat it, the city launched a massive five-year action plan in 2013. By 2017, with China spending billions of dollars to clean up its capital, the United Nations Environment Program wrote, “cleaner air was visible”.

Inactive state

In sharp contrast, Indian democracy seems to have produced no such drastic action. This when, not only Delhi, but almost all of North India, is blanketed by killer smog for much of the winter, affecting hundreds of millions of people. The pollution comes like clockwork every winter, with the Indian state putting in little effort to fight it.

What explains this governance paralysis on something as critical as pollution?

First, let us be clear that Indian voters themselves are quite concerned about pollution. According to a Lokniti-CSDS survey published in December, 2019, 45% of Delhiities believe that pollution was the biggest problem facing the capital and 10% said it would be a factor when they vote.

Nevertheless, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party actually swept the elections just a few months later. The answer to this paradox lies in a couple of things. Principally was the fact that the Aam Aadmi Party was rated highly for bread-and-butter issues like lower electric and water bills. Elections in India are multi-issue and it is clear the Aam Aadmi Party’s populist measures earned it huge popularity.

Moreover, only 27% of Delhiities considered the Delhi government to be responsible for pollution, reflecting possibly the attenuated powers of Delhi as a Union territory, with the Union government having vast powers in the city in a way that is not possible in full states.

In effect, while pollution might be an issue, clearly it is being outweighed by other factors when the voter goes to vote in Delhi.

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Records of 320,000 Punjab soldiers from first world war uncovered

Military files of Indian troops left unread in Pakistan museum for 97 years go online

Rajeev Syal
Wed 10 Nov 2021

A woman pins a flower on the uniform of Ganga Dat Singh, a Hindu risaldar-major, during the 1916 Bastille Day parade in Paris. Photograph: Toor Collection

The records of 320,000 troops from the Punjab who fought in the first world war, left unread in a basement for 97 years, have been disclosed by UK-based historians to offer new insight into the contribution of Indian soldiers to the allied war effort.

Files found in the depths of the Lahore Museum in Pakistan have been digitised and uploaded on to a website in time for Armistice Day on Thursday.

Whereas historians and the descendants of British and Irish soldiers could search public databases of service records, until now no such facility existed for the families of Indian soldiers.

Some UK citizens of Punjabi origin have already been invited to search for their ancestors in the database. They have discovered that their family’s villages provided soldiers who served in France, the Middle East, Gallipoli, Aden and east Africa, as well as in other parts of British India during the first world war. Punjab was split between India and Pakistan in 1947.

A sample of entries from one of the 26,000 pages of the Punjab registers. Photograph: UKPHA

The shadow minister Tanmanjeet Dhesi uncovered proof among the files that his great-grandfather had served in Iraq and had been wounded in action, losing a leg.

It is hoped that the records will help to dispel myths surrounding the contributions of soldiers from the Commonwealth. Last year, the actor turned activist Laurence Fox apologised after he had earlier criticised the historical accuracy of a Sikh character’s inclusion on the western front in the film 1917.

Amandeep Madra, the chair of the UK Punjab Heritage Association who worked with the University of Greenwich to digitise the files, said: “Punjab was the main recruiting ground for the Indian army during world war one. And yet the contribution of the individuals has largely been unrecognised. In most cases we didn’t even know their names.”

Punjabis of all faiths – including Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs – made up about a third of the Indian army, and about one sixth of all the empire’s overseas forces.

Victorian racial ideology mythologised the qualities of soldiers from the region. In 1879, the Eden Commission report noted that “the Punjab is the home of the most martial races of India and is the nursery of our best soldiers”.

The registers were compiled by the Punjab government in 1919 when the war ended. Comprising 26,000 pages, some are handwritten while others are typed. But all provide village-by-village data on the war service of recruits, as well as information on their family background, rank and regiment.

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