Unyielding humanity from catastrophic ruins: new political society for social and environmental justice after Bhopal

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the ways in which a site of catastrophic ruins transpires as a new political society for critical social and environmental justice. Predicated on two and half months of fieldwork in Bhopal – consisting of 60 interviews with gas and water victims and activists, archival research, and observation of sites and events – the paper specifically explains how the Bhopal Movement, the longest-running social movement in post-colonial India, has become an exemplar of what I call ‘unyielding humanity,’ one that rejects conciliatory posturing and ad-hoc solutions, constraining states and corporations alike to meaningfully address the ongoing social and environmental mutilation of Bhopal. Underlining the agency, targets, means, objectives, and determinations of the subaltern people, the paper illustrates how this women-led movement poses triumphant challenges to dominant narratives by focusing on the politics of long-term, intergenerational suffering. Findings indicate that prolonged marginalization can give rise to distinct forms of politics, diverging not only from labor and identity politics but also from various environmental justice movements that have been theorized emphasizing primarily material, visible, and immediate consequences. The paper holds implications for social and environmental justice struggles worldwide.

KEYWORDS:

• Unyielding humanity
• new political society
• Bhopal
• critical social and environmental justice
• Union Carbide and Dow

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Dow refused to accept any liabilities for previous corporations, maintaining that it never owned the Bhopal plant, and therefore, that the cleanup of the contaminated sites, according to its official statement, is not its responsibility. See Dow’s official statement here: https://corporate.dow.com/en-us/about/issues-and-challenges/bhopal.

2. Recently, Indian farmers marched to New Delhi with the skulls of farmers who committed suicide due to a devastating loan burden. In 2007, in Nandigram, West Bengal, 14 people were killed, and many women were raped to protect their land from the corporation. Repression to Narmada Bachao activists is well known. Antinuclear activism by fishermen in India was also met with state repression. Relatedly, Bhopal survivors’ 2011 Rail Blockade Movement met with massive attacks on women and older adults.

3. The works of various scholars shed light on the implications of long-standing patterns of environmental injustice. Cordner and Brown (2015) delve into the convergence of different sectors in response to environmental risks. Rea and Frickel (2023) show how state actions tied to less captivating ‘ordinary’ features lack resonance and fail to generate public backing, leading to environmental injustice manifesting in various ways. Gill et al. (2012) examine the effects of the BP oil spill, while Bunker (1988) investigates how extractive economies contribute to the impoverishment of resource-rich regions. In my research, I analyze the politics employed by marginalized communities in their struggle against prolonged, intergenerational suffering at a notorious site of corporate catastrophe.

4. Baxi (2010), who wrote extensively on the legal catastrophe after Bhopal, used a somewhat similar characterization of Bhopal victims.

5. Culture of political avoidance has been analyzed by various social scientists. For instance, Eliasoph (1998) in her analysis on the production of apathy shows that how apathy and apolitical ideas among ordinary people are created and disseminated. For a similar analysis on quiescence (and rebellion) in Appalachian valley, see Gaventa (1982). For a similar type of discussion, see Gans (1974).

6. Bhopal activists express solidarity with and participate in other movements, such as the Narmada Valley Movement protesting the injustice against marginalized people, especially women. More importantly, Two Bhopali women activists use the money they received from the Goldman Environmental Prize to give an annual grant, the Chingari award, to women fighting to protect the environment and fighting corporate crime across India.

7. See a coverage here: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/story/2023-06-08/disaster-effects-might-be-far- reaching-ucsd-paper-finds.

8. Dow had a total of $200 million investment in India 10 years ago. It has employed approximately 900 people in India.

9. The Indian Supreme Court in 2004 ordered the MP government to supply clean drinking water to the victims of water contamination. Finally, since 2010, the MP government started providing the victims with drinking water, although the supply is intermittent and the water quality is, as victims say, is poor.

10. For a detailed discussion on Bhopal Museum, see Lakshmi (2012, who is an independent museum consultant and has been enlisted by activists for ‘collecting and cataloging the objects, conducting oral histories, designing and shaping the content’ of the bus exhibition that travelled across India for one year.

11. I visited the museum in the summer of 2018. The museum is located approximately one and half miles away from the abandoned factory and warmly welcomes visitors. Two women works at the reception desk, one of them is a second generation victim and activist. The other one is a divorcee (employing a divorcee women in Bhopal, a religiously conservative place, is significant as well) and is very proud of serving the museum.

12. The concept of ‘biological citizenship’ as described by Petryna (2002) in the aftermath of the Chernobyl incident brings to mind the idea of how citizens’ health becomes a subject of political bargaining, where their relationship with the state hinges on the provision of welfare.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Society for the Study of Social Problems Racial/Ethnic Minority Fellowship.

Notes on contributors

Nikhil Deb

Nikhil Deb is Assistant Professor of Sociology at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, USA. His research broadly examines whether the change in the governance of the global South (i.e., transition to market liberalization) has contributed to socioenvironmental problems in marginalized locales, with particular attention to India and Bangladesh. His research in India illustrates how the neoliberal turn in Indian governance played a crucial role in the production of many lingering consequences, evident in the 1984 Bhopal catastrophe in Bhopal, India. His research in Bangladesh investigates how climate-induced disasters have been leveraged to advance neoliberal ideals, leading to the commodification of nature and the detriment of local livelihoods.