Bhopal survivors tell their stories in print on 25th anniversary of disaster

As the world remembers the Bhopal disaster 25 years on, a book by and about the survivors’ experiences of rebuilding their lives is published in Edinburgh.

Research led by Eurig Scandrett of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh has led to the publication of Bhopal Survivors Speak, published by Word Power Books, in which survivors, many of who are not literate, are given the opportunity to tell their stories in print through translations of interviews.

On 3rd December 1984, toxic gas leaked from a pesticide factory in the central Indian city of Bhopal, killing an estimated 8,000 people. Since then, survivors and their supporters have been conducting a campaign for healthcare, economic rehabilitation, environmental remediation and compensation justice from the owners of the factory, US multinational Union Carbide and its successor Dow Chemical Company.

In addition to translations of interviews with over 20 survivors and the children of survivors, Bhopal Survivors Speak includes essays from supporters who have lived and worked with the Bhopalis since 1984 and an introduction by the research team which comprises Suroopa Mukherjee and Tarunima Sen from Delhi, Dharmesh Shah from Chennai and Eurig Scandrett from Edinburgh.

Of the research project, Eurig Scandrett says:“Interviews were carried out in Hindi by Tarunima and Dharmesh who put the work into getting trusted by the survivors and their campaigning organisations. Once they got to know people, the stories they were told were nothing short of remarkable. The survivors are mostly poor and with very limited education but highly intelligent and articulate. Women who barely set foot outside the family home before the disaster, learned to be effective community workers, trade union leaders and campaigners.”

Booker prize winning author James Kelman commends the book: “On the one hand the repugnant complicity of political authority and capital: on the other the indomitable courage of the survivors and survivor-activists, mainly women. This important work offers insight into the history of the struggle as well as campaign strategies.”