The pyrotechnic saga

The wedding of Dara Shikoh, Shah Jahan’s eldest son, in 1633 was a grand affair organised by his sister Jahanara Begum in accordance with the wishes of her dead mother Mumtaz Mahal. It cost nearly Rs 32 lakh and included a magnificent display of fireworks, which was witnessed by an English traveller, Peter Mundy. 

Quoting the Englishman in her book Daughter of the Sun, author Ira Mukhoty writes, “Peter Mundy, an English traveller, describes the fireworks, hidden inside huge puppets shaped like ‘great elephants, whose bellies were full of squibs, crackers, etc., giants with wheels in their hands then a rank of monsters, then of turrets, then of artificial trees (and other) inventions, all full of rockets.” A painting in the National Museum, New Delhi, depicting Dara Shikoh’s marriage procession, features fireworks in the background and corresponds with the description. 

But it is uncertain when exactly fireworks began to be used in India. While some historians suggest they came with the Mongols in the 13th century, Mukhoty says they surely existed in the subsequent Mughal era. The Mughals, she adds, associated themselves with light, fire, and the sun – a symbolism that matched the firecrackers. “Akbar used to say that we must celebrate everything to do with fire and fireworks. It was very much a part of their tradition. When Akbar defeated Hemu Vikramaditya [Second Battle of Panipat, 1556] in Delhi, he apparently made a Ravana-style effigy of Hemu, using fireworks. This was the 16th century. So they certainly existed from the 16th century onwards.”

In his book, Medieval India: From the Sultanate to the Mughals, historian Satish Chandra mentions that in the 17th century, at the wedding of the daughter of a courtier of Ibrahim Adil Shah, Sultan of Bijapur, around Rs 80,000 was spent on fireworks alone!

Another historian, PK Gode claimed in an account titled History of Fireworks in India between 1400 and 1900 (1953) that firecrackers existed in India two centuries before that. He refers to various texts that mention the use of firecrackers. One of the earliest mentions Gode found was by Kamal-ud-din Abdur Razzaq, the ambassador from the court of the Persian Sultan Shah Rukh, who stayed in Vijaynagar in 1443, and mentioned the use of pyrotechny in the Mahanavami festival. In another instance, Gode, cites a description by Portuguese traveller Duarte Barbosa in Travels (1518), of a Brahmin wedding in Gujarat, where rockets were used.

Gode says some texts, such as Kautukacintamani by Odiya scholar Gajapati Prataparudradeva (1497-1535), described formulas for preparing different fireworks using sulphur, saltpetre, charcoal, powder of steel, powder of iron, a hollow piece of bamboo, cow’s urine, and vermillion, among other ingredients. Gode concludes that “it is possible to suggest that the Chinese formulae for the manufacture of fireworks were brought to India sometime in AD 1400 and then modified by the use of Indian substitutes for Chinese ingredients.”

The story now

In modern times, the story of firecrackers is centred around Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu, and features two brothers P Ayya Nadar and Shanmuga Nadar, who went to Kolkata in search of work in 1922. They learnt how to make safety matches and began manufacturing them in Sivakasi. Some years later, they diversified into firecrackers. Over the years, more units were set up. “Today, about 1,050 factories manufacture firecrackers around Sivakasi. They employ roughly three lakh people directly and about five lakh for other works such as packaging, transportation, etc.,” says Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers Association (TANFAMA) president T Asaithambi.

But other manufacturers, like the Moranis, claim to be the first cracker family of India. Gulamali Morani started the business in 1937. He started making firecrackers at his village Mangrol in Kutch. He then moved to Mumbai in the early 1940s, set up a small factory in Andheri and launched the Morani brand. In later years, the Moranis entered the fireworks display market catering to government and private events – from a marriage at the Gwalior Palace in 1960, to the Michael Jackson concert in 1996 and the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

“After my grandfather [Gulamali Morani], his sons joined the business and introduced electrical firing of pyrotechnics in India, making the old unsafe method of hand firing obsolete. Today, technology has reached a peak with fireworks displays synchronised to music, lights, lasers and other special effects that take events to another dimension,” says 26-year-old Azan Amir Morani, who has trained at New York-based heritage company, Fireworks by Grucci. Azan has moved the business towards professional pyrotechnic displays, his first project being Global Citizen’s Coldplay concert in Mumbai (2016).

While the Moranis have shifted their focus away from crackers, the Sivakasi units, which have not, were hit hard by the recent Supreme Court order decreeing that crackers be burst for just two hours on Diwali in all states, except Delhi where only ‘green and improved’ firecrackers can be used.

TANFAMA president Asaithambi says that this means heavy losses for Sivakasi. “We can’t have green crackers this Diwali,” he asserts. “Till today, there is no such thing as a green cracker. When Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) gives us a formula, we will manufacture the crackers and test the samples to Petroleum And Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO). They have to approve it before we can start production. I have no idea how much time all this will take.”

Scientists at Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI) in Pilani have developed four varieties of battery-fitted e-crackers, while the CSIR has developed less-polluting firecrackers called Safe Water Releaser (SWAS), Safe Minimal Aluminium (SAFAL), and Safe Thermite Cracker (STAR).

Whether these are really safe, and/or better for the environment, only time will tell.