https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/world/asia/india-air-pollution-sickness.html

The New York Times reports the start of air pollution season in northern India and its drastic impacts this week in New Delhi and across the state. The primary cause is due to straw burning from leftover rice harvests by farmers, a process that releases particulate matter into the air. The air quality has become so bad that schools have gone online, and residents have been asked to work from home to prevent exposure. Air pollution killed more Indians than any other risk factor in 2019 and is only increasing. Though the political debate is heating up as India’s 2024 elections approach, it is important to reflect on the colonialist history behind these events in the first place.

This article reminded me of the agricultural reforms set when India was under British rule. The zamindar system established was meant to collect taxes from local landlords, but landlords took advantage by increasing taxes and forcing poor farmers to become tenants under them. The establishment of a cash crop-based economy was to the benefit of the British, making it more challenging to create an internal market. Each of these reforms disproportionally affected, and still impact, the large, rural, and poor population who primarily work in agriculture. As such, crop burning is tied to systems established centuries prior to today.