Surviving Bhopal: Dancing Bodies, Written Texts, and Oral Testimonials of Women in the Wake of an Industrial Disaster

by S. Mukherjee

Overview

On December 2-3, 1984, India witnessed arguably the world s worst industrial disaster in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, which continues to this day as an economic, medical, environmental, and political disaster. Surviving Bhopal draws on oral testimonials of the affected community and analyzes the cause and aftermath of the disaster from the perspective of those who suffered the severe consequences of systemic failure and travesty of justice. The event resulted in a resistance movement, led by women, against corporate and state power. Mukherjee explores the underlying gender politics, showing how activism challenged and redefined the contemporary model of development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230608115
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	05/14/2010
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Oral History
Edition description:	2010
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

SUROOPA MUKHERJEE is a Reader in the Department of English at Hindu College, University of Delhi, India.

Table of Contents

Series Editors' Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Killer Factory: A Disaster Waiting to Happen 17

Chapter 2 Monstrous Memories: "Reliving" the Night of the Disaster 41

Chapter 3 Bhopal Lives On: The Many Faces of the Continuing Disaster 61

Chapter 4 Women as Bread Earners: Shattered Lives and the Relentless Struggle for Survival 81

Chapter 5 "We Are Flames Not Flowers": The Inception of Activism 101

Chapter 6 "No More Bhopals": Women's Right to Knowledge and Control of Their Bodies 131

Chapter 7 "Dancing in the Streets": Protest, Celebration, and Modes of Self-Expression 159

Notes 185

Bibliography 197

Index 209

Editorial Reviews

"From the outset this superb book does more than represent the voices of those maimed or bereaved; it suggests that the social costs of industrial progress have never really been calculated for the poor. At the same time, the book s latter chapters document the ways in which survivors have struggled for better futures, how affected individuals (in particular, women) have acquired new habits of resistance and autonomy, and how oral history itself can assist in the acts of both remembering and analysing the politics of the disaster. Lucid and remarkable." - Times Higher Education

"Suroopa Mukherjee's important book tells how Bhopali women from one of the poorest sections of society on earth have thrown off the veil and led a spirited, inspiring resistance against corruption and injustice by a multinational corporation and its political allies." - Indra Sinha, Author of Animal s People, based on the Bhopal tragedy

"This is a captivating read and the work is an admirable example of scholarship and artistry guided by moral principle and passion. Mukherjee designed it to purposefully and forcefully keep the Bhopal gas tragedy in global public discourse - indeed, to reintroduce it. She works diligently and passionately with oral history narratives from women survivors together with vivid accounts of women s collective participation in activities that continue to press for compensation, justice, respect, and dignity. With poignancy, her brave and timely objective is to pierce the veil of secrecy by using indigenous oral traditions to deconstruct corporate and bureaucratic obfuscation that function as a tool of oppression. This work is an outstanding examination of every imaginable dimension of the Bhopal gas tragedy." - Raymond E. Wiest, Professor Emeritus, Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Canada

From the Publisher