Introduction

Abstract

The Bhopal gas tragedy—the world’s worst manmade disaster—is much written and talked about, and yet surprisingly it has not generated enough academic interest in different disciplines. It is not a topic that is included in school and college curriculum. It is not part of the medical course or disaster management. It is taught as a case study in law schools at the undergraduate level and from what one gathers it has produced a few PhD degrees in Indian universities. What began as a failure of documentation and lack of authentic data on the cause and fallout of the disaster has over the years become a saga of neglect. At the same time, unknown to mainstream research, local efforts have gone into collecting indigenous material, which is then stored in the grassroot-level offices of survivors’ organizations. Despite paucity of funds and limited expertise, a lot of meticulous care is taken to keep records of newspaper clippings, campaign material, and press releases on organizational activities. In recent years, student volunteers have come to Bhopal on short-term projects that are conceptualized and funded by bigger nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in India and abroad. The findings of such research are freely circulated on Web sites and brought out as low-cost pamphlets that are meant for the layman and activists. The Bhopal gas tragedy has also created a plethora of visual images and creative writing in popular forms—including photographs, documentary films, video clippings, theater presentations, dance dramas, a novel short-listed for the Booker, an international bestseller, a children’s book, a mainstream Bollywood film, a script for a forthcoming Hollywood production, and musical rendering—all of which have made Bhopal an integral part of the folklore.