The impact of air pollution on the health and well-being of people in Delhi and other parts of India is a byproduct of modern civilisation founded on massive consumption of fossil fuels, and in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, due to “incessant multiplication of wants and desires”.The enormity of the crisis was reflected in the convening of the first-ever Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health by the World Health Organisation (WHO) between October 29 and November 1, 2018. The WHO at that time had observed, “As the world gets hotter and more crowded, our engines continue to pump out dirty emissions, and half the world has no access to clean fuels or technologies (e.g. stoves, lamps), the very air we breathe is growing dangerously polluted: nine out of ten people now breathe polluted air, which kills 7 million people every year”.It went on further to add that “the health effects of air pollution are serious” to the level that “one-third of deaths from stroke, lung cancer, and heart disease are due to air pollution”. It sharply stated, “Air pollution is hard to escape, no matter how rich an area you live in. It is all around us. Microscopic pollutants in the air can slip past our body’s defences, penetrating deep into our respiratory and circulatory system, damaging our lungs, heart, and brain.”More than a hundred years back while in South Africa, Gandhi wrote about air pollution caused by modern civilisation. On March 5, 1906, he wrote in Indian Opinion, “A man can do without food for several days and live a day altogether without water, but it is impossible to carry on without air even for a minute. If a thing that is so very vital to life is not pure, the result cannot but be deleterious.”In the context of the constricted areas and narrow spaces of London marked by deficiencies of clean air Gandhi wrote, “This matter deserves consideration by Indian leaders. We suffer much because we do not realise the value of pure air, and this again is a strong reason why diseases like plague spread among us.” Those words sound so contemporary when our leaders hardly do anything to deal with increasing air pollution faced by people.Also read: Delhi Air Quality in ‘Severe’ Category, No Respite from Pollution in Sight He also wrote a series of pieces under the caption “General Knowledge on Health” in the Indian Opinion. In one such piece published on February 1, 1913, under the heading ‘Air’, he observed that the survival of the human body depended on air, water, and food and described air as the most essential. He then presciently wrote with anguish “modern civilisation has put a price even on air”, which he said was provided by nature at no cost. “In these times,” he sharply remarked, “one has to go off to distant places to take the air, and this costs money.”Those words of Gandhi resonate in the present context when people in Delhi, Mumbai, and several other parts of India are breathing air, which as per the Air Quality Index is hazardous and dangerous for health and well-being. Scores of people are leaving Delhi to the hills or far-off places in search of clean air for breathing and in the words of Gandhi “this costs money”.People exercise near the India Gate amid heavy smog in New Delhi Photo: Kabir Jhangiani/Alamy.Apart from leaving the cities and proceeding to far-off places to avoid highly polluted air, people are buying air purifiers for their workplaces and homes. All such developments hardly known two or three decades back affirm Gandhi’s prophetic warning that “…modern civilisation has put a price even on air.”It is illuminating to note that he while indicting modern civilisation for polluting air and putting a price tag on clean air interpreted Swaraj in terms of access of people to clean air, water, and grain. It is well known that Swaraj or independence of India was looked at by him from the perspectives of Hindu-Muslim Unity, abolition of untouchability, economic equality, women’s empowerment, etc. While addressing a meeting on January 1, 1918, in Ahmedabad to protest against the insufficient and irregular supply of water by the Ahmedabad Municipality, Gandhi talked about air, water, and grain and described them as aspects of Swaraj and observed, “Air is free to all, but, if it is polluted, it harms our health. Doctors say that bad air is more harmful than bad water. Inhalation of bad air is harmful by itself and this is the reason we sometimes need a change of air.” Employing the meaning of Swaraj from the perspective of clean air and water, it can be asserted that there is no Swaraj in large parts of India because of the severity of air pollution and deficiency of portable water.Similarly, in 1931, he reflected on just administration and wrote that in Ram Rajya, or in People’s Raj, which he described as a democracy where both the rulers and the ruled would get equal access to clean air and clean water. Mounting air pollution in India and crises caused by the drinking water shortage in our country represent the devaluation of our democracy and governance. It is in this context important to revisit Gandhi’s ideas on air pollution, clean air, and clean water to fine-tune our governance and transition from a fossil fuel-based carbon economy to a clean and sustainable economy.S.N. Sahu Served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K R Narayanan.