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China-India relations
This Week in AsiaPolitics

India’s latest ‘boycott China’ move involves cow dung Diwali lights

  • A campaign is urging patriotic Indians celebrating the Festival of Lights to swap cheap Chinese LEDs for oil lamps made out of cow dung
  • Move will affect an industry worth billions of rupees, while its backers say it will also be good for the environment

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An Indian girl lights an earthen lamp ahead of Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, in Ahmedabad. Photo: AP
Kalpana Sunder

India’s latest salvo against China is not to be sniffed at. Ahead of Diwali, the country’s biggest religious festival, a campaign is urging patriotic Indians to swap once popular, cheap Chinese-manufactured festive lights for environmentally friendly oil lamps made from cow dung.

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Behind the campaign is the Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (RKA), a group set up last year to conserve the nation’s population of cows, viewed as sacred by Hindus – India’s majority religion. The RKA hopes to produce some 330 million oil lamps, known as diyas, each of which will cost between 4 rupees and 20 rupees (US$0.05 to US$0.25).

More than 15 states – including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh – have agreed to be part of the campaign and 300,000 cow dung diyas are to be lit in Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, and another 100,000 diyas in the holy city of Varanasi.

In recent years, cheap Chinese-made LED lights have flooded the market and on some accounts India imports 10 billion rupees (US$134 million) worth of the lights from China and a few other countries every year.

Oil lamps made from cow dung. Photo: Kanha Gaushala, Jhansi
Oil lamps made from cow dung. Photo: Kanha Gaushala, Jhansi
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However, growing tensions between India and China – whose troops have been locked in a sometimes deadly stand-off along the countries’ disputed Himalayan border for the past six months – have led New Delhi to rethink its business dealings with Beijing. Since the beginning of the stand-off it has banned 218 Chinese apps and terminated multiple contracts with Chinese companies, while Indian traders have launched campaigns to boycott Chinese goods.
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