After celebrating this auspicious day in our religious calendar with loved ones, I am appalled by the amount of hate speech I have seen on social media directed at the Indian community over the use of fireworks.
It is an absolute eye-opener to see many Joburg residents who keep this resentment hidden in their hearts and on a special day in the Hindu community, see all of this hate spewed out on social media at our ancient religion.
I am formerly from Durban and experienced my second Diwali in Joburg this year. I shrugged off the comments I saw last year on social media because I assumed it was just a select few that posted.
After another year here in Joburg, I witnessed the rage of the intolerant people of Joburg. I saw posts that urged Indian people to return to India and Diwali being slandered by being referred to as ‘Bang’wali. People post about, ‘You Indian people’ and many more hateful things that were said about the Indian and Hindu communities.
Click here to read: Do’s and don’ts of fireworks
I, myself, am an animal lover. I care for animals deeply. The use of fireworks was the topic that drove so many people to let out their racial slurs on social media. There can be no excuse for all of those who did this. People need to look within themselves before doing such things.
Fireworks are a part of Diwali. People knew that Diwali was coming and they should have prepared themselves and their pets. Sadly, though, I don’t think many people did this. Instead, they took to social media in their ignorance and decided to attack Hindus who celebrate Diwali.
Hindus have pets as well. They take care of their pets by keeping them inside their home, giving them calming medication and so on. They know what Diwali is all about and in this day and age, people who do not celebrate Diwali have no excuse not to know what it entails and what is needed to be done to ensure their pets are safe.
Instead, intolerance takes over and people are filled with hate.
I will not go too deeply into the use of colour fireworks and big bangs, but, as I have used fireworks throughout my life (sadly not in Joburg because of complex rules), I know that an aerial display of fireworks (which are classified as colour fireworks) has about the same noise level as those loud bangs when they explode in the air).
Fireworks are traditionally used on Diwali. Fireworks were invented in China in 1040AD and have always been used in Diwali celebrations, as well as Chinese New Year celebrations. There is no use in trying to fight this issue, especially when there are many more serious issues in this country that need to be addressed, let alone the world. People need to learn to become more tolerant of other religions and cultures or this country will never move forward.
Learn to live with others instead of hating and throwing around racial slurs.
Click here to read: “I now fully understand where and why religious intolerance develops”
