Kanpur: Citizens of a northern Indian city organized a rally on October 6 to press for the boycott of Chines products sold in the Indian market, especially during Diwali, the festival of lights.
Diwali, an ancient Indian festival that commemorates victory of light over darkness, falls on October 30 this year.
During Diwali, the majority of Indians light up their homes to celebrate the festival, and install new idols of Hindu deities for worship.
However, most of these lights and idols are now being imported from China.
The Kanpur Nagrik Manch (KNM, Kanpur Citizens’ Forum) that organized the march, described the Chinese products sold especially at Diwali time as cheap and sub-standard.
“Cheap, yes, in both price and quality,” KNM convener Chhotebhai. “Most of this trade is in the grey market without paying any taxes; and none of the products have guarantee cards, or a quality assurance. Yet the country has gone crazy about them, just because they are cheap,” he lamented.
The forum distributed thousands of handbills calling for a boycott of these products and appealing to the citizens to support those cottage industries and artisans who produce non-polluting earthen lamps and idols from clay.
Chhotebhai said they decided to take the bull by the horns, and organized the swadeshi (patriotic) march calling for the boycott.
The march began from Bara Chauraha, the city center, and wound its way to Bagia Mariram, the nerve center of the wholesale and retail market for electric goods.
The KNM drew attention to the fact that Pakistan would never have the audacity to attack India if it didn’t have the backing of China. In turn, China has its own vested interest because of the gigantic China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that it is constructing from western China, through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, to the Pakistani port on the Arabian Sea.
The CPEC would give it swift and cheap access to the lucrative markets of the Gulf and Europe. China would have the double benefit of importing and transporting petroleum products from the oil-rich Gulf, at a fraction of the cost.
The KNM said that no true Indian would like to buy these Chinese products that are flooding the market. “Doing so would be tantamount to supping with the devil. It was also an assault on the Indian economy and an insult to our brave soldiers who are sacrificing their lives to protect us,” said Chhotebhai, a former president of the All Indian Catholic Union.
The march was flagged off by noted litterateur and Gandhian, Padmashree Dr Giriraj Kishor. It was organized by Madanlal Bhatia, Suresh Gupta and chhotebhai. Prominent among those who participated were Jagdambabhai, Shakir Ali, Rajesh Shukla, Seema Pandey, Saket Gupta, Kuldeep Saxena, Peter Fernandes, Maaz Alam and Prem Balmiki.
Diwali is an official holiday also in Fiji, Guyana, Pakistan, Malaysia, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
Its celebration includes millions of lights shining on housetops, outside doors and windows, around temples and other buildings in the communities and countries where it is observed. The festival preparations and rituals typically extend over a five-day period, but the main festival night of Diwali coincides with the darkest, new moon night of the Hindu Lunisolar month Kartika. In the Gregorian calendar, Diwali night falls between mid-October and mid-November.