Securing a happy Diwali for farmers amid climate crisis

The country is getting ready for Diwali with lights illuminating homes, markets bustling with record sales and global e-commerce giants accelerating their Indian appeal.

- Purvi Mehta

Diwali, the celebration of light over darkness and prosperity over hardship, is a celebration rooted in India’s agrarian heritage. For centuries, Diwali has marked the time when farmers across much of India rejoice in the completion of harvest, offering gratitude to the land, the rain, the cattle, and the deities that bless them with abundance.

India’s cultural calendar has always been synchronised with its agricultural cycles. Diwali coincides with the kharif harvest. Close to 60% of India’s food production is done in this season when paddy, pulses, cotton, sugarcane, and oilseeds are brought home after months of toil. For millions of farmers, the festival symbolises prosperity and economic security. In Gujarat and parts of western India, Diwali also marks the end of the financial year for traders and farmers alike — a fitting symbol of how agriculture, economy, and culture were once inseparable.

The lighting of lamps in villages once symbolised the light of a new agricultural year — the hope of a better season to come. Families prayed for rains, fertility of soil, and above all, fair prices in mandis. Diwali, in essence, was a farmer's festival long before it became a consumerist celebration of wealth and gifting especially in urban India.