Early in the 20 th century, young cousins A. Shanmuga Nadar and P. Ayya Nadar set off to Calcutta from their home town Sivakasi, an arid region in the present-day Virudhunagar district, to learn the know-how of the match work industry.
When they returned, they also brought with them the knowledge of making firecrackers. Thanks to their enterprise, Sivakasi evolved into the ‘Little Japan of India’ and a fireworks capital. Soon Sivakasi will enter its centenary year of firecracker business, but it is not yet celebration time as the industry is embroiled in a legal tussle over air pollution and is staring at a bleak future.
For many decades, the fireworks industry had proved a boon to the locals. “Rain-fed farming happens between November and February and then the entire workforce used to be rendered jobless in those days,” said G. Abiruben, a fireworks manufacturer and grandson of Ayya Nadar. The hand-made matches offered jobs to a good number of people. It was then that the entrepreneurs switched to colour matches and graduated to sparklers before making sound emitting crackers.
