Globalisation and abstraction in the Bhopal survivors' movement

In the context of globalisation, the internationalisation of social movements has become a focus of research and theorisation. In particular there is a suggestion that new forms of internationalisation have emerged in response to globalised economic and technological developments. The movement of survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster has been cited as a new/old breed of transnational social movement- whose internationalisation has been facilitated by the anti-toxics movement. Here it is argued that the dynamics of this movement are more complex than has been recounted, and that association with the international anti-toxics movement should be regarded as one form amongst several, of generalisation from the experience of local campaigning. By focusing on the divisions within the movement, the diversity of generalisations may be more properly understood. Raymond Williams' conception of militant particularism, as expounded by David Harvey, is a useful theoretical tool for interpreting the various forms of abstraction which the movement has developed. It is argued that not only does this approach provide a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of this and potentially other social movements, it is also valuable for movement activists to make sense of otherwise negative experiences of division, and thereby reduce the risk of such divisions being exploited.div_MCaPABaviskar, Amita 2005. Red in Tooth and Claw? Looking for Class in Struggles over Nature- in Ray, R. and Katzenstein, M.F. Social Movements in India: Poverty, Power and Politics New Delhi: Oxford University Press pp 161-178 Bhopal Survivors Movement Study 2009. Bhopal Survivors Speak: Emergent Voices from a People's Movement Edinburgh: Word Power Books Census of India 1981. New Delhi: Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India Chakravarti, Uma 2003. Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens Calcutta: STREE Choudry, Aziz and Kapoor, Dip 2010 (eds) Learning from the Ground Up: Global Perspectives on Social Movements and Knowledge Production. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan Freire, Paolo 1972. Pedagogy of the Oppressed London: Penguin Harvey, David 1996. Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference. Oxford: Blackwell Mukherjee, Suroopa 2010. Surviving Bhopal: Dancing Bodies, Written Texts, and Oral Testimonies of Women in the Wake of an Industrial Disaster London: Palgrave Macmillan Mukherjee, Suroopa, Scandrett, Eurig, Sen, Tarunima and Shah, Dharmesh 2010 Generating Theory in the Bhopal Survivors' Movement- in Nilsen, Alf Gunvald and Motta, Sara (eds) Social Movements and the Postcolonial Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Nilsen, Alf Gunvald 2008. The Valley and the Nation - the river and the rage: a study of dispossession and resistance in the Narmada Valley, India. PhD Thesis, University of Bergen Sarangi, Satinath 1998. The Movement in Bhopal and its Lessons- in Williams, Christopher (ed) Environmental Victims London: Earthscan pp. 88-96 Scandrett, Eurig, Crowther, Jim, Hemmi, Akiko, Mukherjee, Suroopa, Shah, Dharmesh and Sen, Tarunima 2010 Theorising education and learning in social movements: environmental justice campaigns in Scotland and India-. Studies in the Education of Adults Williams, Raymond 1989 Resources of Hope: Culture, Democracy, Socialism London: Verso Zavestoski, Stephen 2009 The Struggle for Justice in Bhopal: A New/Old Breed of Transnational Social Movement-. Global Social Policy 9 (3) 383-4073pub2300pub

We are flames not flowers-: a gendered reading of the social movement for justice in Bhopal

This essay is in continuation of the article that Eurig Scandrett and I wrote for the previous issue of Interface (Scandrett and Mukherjee 2011). It looks at gender as one of the abstractions that arises from the material condition of the industrial disaster in Bhopal that happened on 3 December 1984, which is often compared to Hiroshima, in the nature of its destruction. Bhopal has also witnessed a grassroots movement, remarkable in its tenacity and its welldefined battle-line against the monolithic power of the State and the Corporation. The survivors' organisations present two interrelated profiles for the movement. One is local and includes a large section of women, who are illiterate and bound by patriarchy. The other is the international face of the movement. This essay looks at the role played by women in the movement. At the same time, oral history methodology highlights the vision of a gender sensitive world, which is alien to the material conditions these women live in. While academically we can bring in feminist readings, they do not serve the purpose of relating to women's consciousness and how they visualize their own emancipation. This essay looks at gender as a problematic category that needs redefinition.div_MCaPAAmnesty International. 2004. Clouds of Injustice: Bhopal Disaster 20 Years On. Oxford: Amnesty International. Avasthi, Abha, and A K Srivastava (ed.) 2001. Modernity, Feminism and Women Empowerment. Jaipur: Rawat. Bannerji, Nirmala. Ed. 1991. Indian Women in Changing Industrial Scenario. Indo/Dutch Studies on Development Alternatives-5. New Delhi: Sage. Baxi, Upendra. 1986. Inconvenient Forum and Convenient Catastrophe: The Bhopal Case. The Indian Law Institute. Bombay: N M Tripathi. Bhattacharya, Malini (ed.) 2004. Perspective on Women's Studies: Globalization. School Of Women's Studies, Jadavpur University. New Delhi: Tulika Books. Bhopal Survivors' Movement Study. 2010. Bhopal Survivors Speak: Emergent Voices from a People's Movement. Edinburgh: Word Power Books. Connell, R. W. 2005. Hegemonic Masculinities: Rethinking the Concept.- Gender and Society. Sage Journals Online. Eyerman, Ron and Andrew Jamison. 1996. Social Movements: A Cognitive Approach. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press. Fortune, Kim. 2001. Advocacy after Bhopal: Environmentalism, Disaster, New Global Orders. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Foucault, Michel. 1969. The Archeology of Knowledge. London: Routledge Classics. Freire, Paulo. 1972. The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Greenpeace. 1999. The Bhopal Legacy: Contamination at the Former Union Carbide Factory Site, Bhopal India, 15 Years after the Bhopal Accident. Publications: Greenpeace International. Harvey, David. 1995. Militant Particularism and Global Ambition: the Conceptual Politics of Place, Space and Environment in the Works of Raymond Williams.- Social Text 42 (Spring): 69 - 98. Jones, Tara. 1988. Corporate Killings: Bhopals will Happen. London: Free Association Press. Medico Friends Circle. 1990. Distorted Lives: Women's Reproductive Health and Bhopal Disaster. Pune: Medico Friend's Circle.. Mukherjee, Suroopa. 2010. Surviving Bhopal: Dancing Bodies, Written Texts, Oral Testimonials of Women in the Wake of an Industrial Disaster. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Ramaswamy, Uma, Bhanumathy Vasudevan, Anuradha Prasad, Gagan Sethi, and Sulagna Sengupta. 2000. Restructuring Gender Towards Collaboration. Bangalore: Books for Change. Ramaswamy. Vijaya. Ed. 2003. Researching Indian Women. Delhi: Manohar. Rowbotham, Sheila and Stephanie Linkogle (ed.) 2001. Women Resist Globalization: Mobilizing for Livelihood and Rights. London: Zed Books. Saksena, Anu. 2004. Gender and Human Rights: Status of Women Workers in India, New Delhi: Shipra. Scandrett, Eurig and Mukherjee, Suroopa 2011. Globalisation and abstraction in the Bhopal survivors' movement-. Interface 3(1): 195 - 209 Tilly, Charles. 2008. Contentious Performances. New York: Cambridge University Press. Zavestokski, Stephen. 2009. The Struggle for Justice in Bhopal: A New/Old Breed of Transnational Social Movement.- Global Social Policy, 9: 3833pub2616pub

The question concerning human rights and human rightlessness: disposability and struggle in the Bhopal gas disaster

In the midst of concerns about diminishing political support for human rights, individuals and groups across the globe continue to invoke them in their diverse struggles against oppression and injustice. Yet both those concerned with the future of human rights and those who champion rights activism as essential to resistance, assume that human rights – as law, discourse and practices of rights claiming – can ameliorate rightlessness. In questioning this assumption, this article seeks also to reconceptualise rightlessness by engaging with contemporary discussions of disposability and social abandonment in an attempt to be attentive to forms of rightlessness co-emergent with the operations of global capital. Developing a heuristic analytics of rightlessness, it evaluates the relatively recent attempts to mobilise human rights as a frame for analysis and action in the campaigns for justice following the 3 December 1984 gas leak from Union Carbide Corporation’s (UCC) pesticide manufacturing plant in Bhopal, India. Informed by the complex effects of human rights in the amelioration of rightlessness, the article calls for reconstituting human rights as an optics of rightlessness

Die Macht der globalen Unternehmen brechen: Seit drei Jahrzehnten kämpfen Betroffene gegen die Folgen der Bhopal-Katastrophe

div_MCaPApub3192pu

Bhopal Survivors’ Movement Study - video and audio

Video and audio recordings of these data are generally not available for public viewing/listening. Separate permission must be obtained from the interviewee for access to these video and audio data and any enquiries should be made via the Principal Investigator (Eurig Scandrett) or Queen Margaret University archive administrator: [email protected]. The purpose of the collection of data is to record the accounts of the survivor-activists and others involved in the Bhopal survivors’ movement, and these have been represented verbatim wherever possible. The research team is not responsible for the accuracy of any statements made and are aware that there are inconsistencies regarding factual details. No attempt has been made to correct these or provide consistency across the interview data set

Generating Theory in the Bhopal Survivors' Movement

Basingstokediv_MCaPApub1748pu

Bhopal Survivors’ Movement Study - transcriptions and translations

These data comprise anonymised Hindi transcriptions and English translations of interviews conducted as part of the Bhopal Survivors’ Movement Study, which started in December 2007 (mostly between December 2007 and September 2008). These data are for public access and all participants have given their consent for these data to be publicly accessible under the condition of anonymity. Most transcriptions and translations have received a minimal edit in order to remove any information which would identify the interviewee, although there are some interviewees who have given permission for their names to be used

Theorising Education and Learning in Social Movements: Environmental Justice campaigns in Scotland and India

Leicesterdiv_MCaPA42pub1747pub