BhopalNet

The Bhopal.Network is the website of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB). Run by an editorial team of Bhopal survivors, activists and supporters, it offers news, information and background to the 1984 Union Carbide Gas Disaster in Bhopal and the subsequent water poisoning. It also seeks to document the Bhopal survivors’ long, brave struggle for justice and a life of dignity.

More than a quarter of a century after gas leaked from Union Carbide's pesticide factory at least 100,000 people in Bhopal remain chronically ill. Union Carbide left without cleaning its factory, abandoning huge quantities of lethal chemicals at the site and bulldozing thousands of tons of highly toxic wastes into huge solar evaporation ponds. These chemicals are leaking into the water of some 30,000 people living inear the plant. Rates of cancers and birth defects have soared. Union Carbide and its owner Dow Chemical refuse to clean the site.

A quarter of a century of entangled issues.

From the beginning, the story of Bhopal involved issues of planning, design, engineering, funding, unproven technology, chemical risk, labour relations, management competence, the Indian subsidiary’s relationship with its US parent and decision-making process, cost-cutting, lack of maintenance and a near-complete and well-documented disregard for safety. (There had been several gas leaks, some fatal, prior to 1984.) With the disaster of 1984 the subject acquired a horrific new medical dimension and began to sprout lawsuits and legal stand-offs (several distinct phases of bitter legal warfare can be counted).

In this site we aim to disentangle and clarify these issues, make available the entirety of our huge collections of source documents and other materials, collected over the years. We are building a photo archive and collecting films, documentaries and writing about and from Bhopal.

Spirit of the survivors

A great catastrophe, followed by years of sickness, poverty and injustice can overwhelm and crush the human spirit, or it can enable ordinary people to discover that they are extraordinary. For twenty five years some of the poorest, most helpless people on earth, sick, living on the edge of starvation, illiterate, without funds, powerful friends or political influence, have struggled for their lives against the world’s biggest chemical corporations, their allies in the US and Indian governments and an army of hired lawyers, lobbyists and PR agents. Undaunted by these odds, or the depth of their long suffering, the Bhopali survivors will never give up their struggle for justice. Most can look back on a lifetime of street demos, sit-ins, roadblocks, boycotts, hunger-strikes with and without water. They’ve staged exhibitions, satirical awards, concerts, street theatre and created some of the most extraordinary protest art ever seen. In the site we chronicle the history of their struggle, campaign by campaign with photos and film. We have exhibitions of art, music and film created by the survivors and, of course, their stories.

A press cutting from weeks after the gas disaster records how American lawyers descended on Bhopal promising vast sums to people still half blind from the gas and who could not in any case read. Prominent among these was Mr Melvin Belli, the flamboyant attorney from San Francisco whose law firm has represented many famous people, Belli reeled off the names of film stars, then added: 'But these people in India are nobodies. Some poor little bastard living in a railroad shack goes home to find his wife and child dead. Now Union Carbide have the effrontery to offer a fucking orphanage and a million dollars. It is a monumental goof.'

Educational, media, medical, legal, environmental resources

We are gradually filling each of these sections with source materials and articles to help students, journalists, doctors, lawyers, environmentalists and others with a professional interest better to understand the story of Bhopal. We are putting our complete collections of resources online, including hundreds of pages of Union Carbide’s private papers, obtained via discovery in a US court case, and a unique collection of news clippings dating back to the disaster.

The walls cry out: art, music film and writing

In their struggle for justice, the survivors of Bhopal, having nothing, have had to fall back on their imaginations and whatever materials came to hand to express their anger and determination to win justice. So brooms, paint, cloth, torches and above all, the traditional street art of the effigy maker were all pressed into service. “Hum Bhopal ke naari hain, phool nahin chingari hain”, the chant went up in the streets and on the pavements of the capital, Delhi, where the survivors camped for months at a time to force an uncaring government into action, “We are the women of Bhopal, we are not flowers but flames.” Over the years a series of fantastic straw and clay sculptures were fashioned into likenesses of the Bhopalis’ enemies, and burnt at anniversaries and rallies. The effigy maker’s experience of creating the arch demon Ravana has been aptly deployed against Dow and the Bhopalis’ legendary arch enemy Warren Anderson, the ex-CEO of Union Carbide Corporation who is still a wanted fugitive from justice in India. A recent target of Bhopali wit was the Indian industrialist Ratan Tata, who led a bid to get Dow off the hook of its inherited liabilities.

The battle song of the Bhopalis

There are many ways to respond to years of pain, illness and neglect. Pain turns to anger, anger to despair and despair to violence. Despite the enormous suffering and injustice inflicted upon them the Bhopali justice movement, despite sore trials, has always been dedicated to non-violent struggle. The long march on foot, the sit-in, the hunger strike: our methods are those of Gandhi, who also battled against overwhelming power and overcame it. We may be poor and sick, but we are not weak, powerless, or despicable. We have found that we have the grit to survive, the vision to help ourselves and the resolve to fight on for as long as it may take. We have discovered the joy of the shared fight, of comradeship, of affection and caring for one another and when, as so often, there is nothing else we can do, in laughing at our oppressors and ourselves. We may have nothing, but having nothing makes us undefeatable for we have nothing to lose. Perhaps living so close to death makes each day more intense, more colourful, more alive.

The true Bhopali spirit at the Tinshed hunger strike, 2007. We are women of Bhopal, we are not flowers but flames

Our struggle is yours too, join us

Our struggle is one of the most important in the world today, because it is not just about Bhopal, it is about bringing to an end the rule of greedy unaccountable corporations and corrupt politicians. If we win, everyone wins.

The struggle of ordinary people to assert their fundamental human rights in face of the power, greed and heartlessness of giant corporations will be the defining battle of the twenty first century. We are in the front line of that battle, which takes many forms. Some are played out in the courts, others on the streets, but the crucial battlefield is the heart.

There are many ways in which you can be involved. Support us in your own home or work in our clinic in Bhopal. Volunteer as a medic, baker, writer, artist, student, singer, guitar player, film maker, housewife, IT person, lawyer, activist, cook, teacher, or just as yourself, with whatever skills you have or none. You are welcome. And that’s what this website is really about, getting good people involved with us. Do what you are good at, learn how brilliant you can be and meet some of the most remarkable people on earth. Contact us.