On July 30, inside the Supreme Court, legal arguments clashed with a physical tragedy. At the heart of the debate were Sahil Lochab, a 19-year-old student fighting to save his eye after a metal pellet tore into it, and Irshad Sheikh, a young worker who underwent surgery for embedded pellets.

The court refused an outright ban, noting exceptional situations, but left the door open for an inquiry. Yet, a chilling question hung in the air. How did a shotgun, used for years in conflict zones, end up being fired at unarmed students in the heart of Delhi?

To understand how we got here, we must look at the history of pellet guns and their use in crowd control. Using them on civilian crowds is a modern nightmare born from an attempt to be ‘merciful’. The blueprint was drawn in 1950s’ Hong Kong. Following the bloody Double Ten riots, colonial police fired wooden baton rounds, or projectiles made of wood, to control violent mobs. The British military improvised further during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. In 1970, facing Catholic civil rights protests, soldiers fired rubber and later, plastic bullets. Fired at close range, they shattered bones and skulls. A 10-year-old boy in Derry was completely blinded, and 17 people were........

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