Remember Bhopal Museum

Last updated

Remember Bhopal Museum
Remember Bhopal Museum
Established2 December 2014 (2014-12-02)
LocationSenior HIG 22, Housing Board Colony, Berasia Road, Karond, Near Triveni heights Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India
Coordinates 23°17′34″N77°24′02″E / 23.292665°N 77.400600°E / 23.292665; 77.400600
Type Memorial museum
OwnerRemember Bhopal Trust
Website rememberbhopal.net

The Remember Bhopal Museum is a museum in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India that commemorates the Bhopal disaster. It collects and exhibits artifacts and records of the affected communities. The museum was opened on 2 December 2014, the 30th anniversary of the disaster.

Contents

History

The Bhopal disaster was caused by a gas leak that occurred at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal on 2 December 1984, and became the largest industrial disaster by death toll. [1]

In 2004, Yaad-e-Hadsa, a memorial museum, was created by survivors of the disaster. [2] Its exhibits, such as clothing and other belongings of those who had died, were donated by survivors. However, records of the origins of the exhibits were eventually lost by the organisers. [3] Rama Lakshmi, who is a journalist, museologist and oral historian, and Shalini Sharma, who is an activist and an assistant professor at the Tata Institute for Social Sciences, decided to collect accounts from the survivors directly to link with the donated objects, to be exhibited at a new memorial museum. [3]

In 2009, the Madhya Pradesh government and the Union Government made proposals to build a memorial of the gas tragedy, but the proposals failed.[ citation needed ]

The Remember Bhopal Trust was formed in 2012 by survivors of the disaster and activists campaigning for restitution for the victims of the disaster. It was formed with the aim of helping sustain the memory of the incident, and to organise commemorative activities, with a focus on the concerns of the victims and survivors of the disaster. [4]

On 2 December 2014, the Remember Bhopal Museum was opened by the Remember Bhopal Trust. The museum is located in a converted flat near the site. According to its curator Rama Lakshmi, it is the first museum in India focusing on a "contemporary social movement for justice". The project, which was the trust's first, is co-ordinated by Shalini Sharma. [5] [6]

Exhibits

The museum exhibits artefacts, oral histories, photographs, protest songs and campaign posters that have emerged in the movement for justice for the victims of the Bhopal disaster.

The survivor groups have worked with Lakshmi and other museum professionals to design and create their own memorial museum, filled with posters, photographs, and artefacts, such as a small victim’s dress, a stopped pocket watch–donated by the families of victims and survivors. Survivors have given to the museum personal objects that are often their last tangible link to those who died because of the gas leak. Many others have recounted their harrowing tales of survival and struggle. The museum’s narrative is shaped by their stories and objects.

Administration

The central goal of the Remember Bhopal Museum is to focus on the voices and concerns of the survivors, as opposed to the government or the industry, in museum or memorial projects.

Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post's India correspondent (and also a museologist) is the curator of the Remember Bhopal Museum. [7]

The museum is housed in a rented building, owned by a disaster-affected family, around 2.5 km away from the Union Carbide factory.

The museum does not accept any government or corporate funds. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhopal</span> Metropolis and state capital in Madhya Pradesh, India

Bhopal is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the City of Lakes, due to presence of various natural and artificial lakes near the city boundary. It is also one of the greenest cities in India. It is the 16th largest city in India and 131st in the world. After the formation of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal was part of the Sehore district. It was bifurcated in 1972 and a new district, Bhopal, was formed. Flourishing around 1707, the city was the capital of the former Bhopal State, a princely state of the British ruled by the Nawabs of Bhopal until India's independence in 1947. India achieved independence on 15 August 1947. Bhopal was one of the last states to sign the ‘Instrument of Accession’. The ruler of Bhopal acceded to the Indian government, and Bhopal became an Indian state on 1 May 1949. Sindhi refugees from Pakistan were accommodated in Bairagarh, a western suburb of Bhopal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhopal disaster</span> 1984 gas-leak accident in Bhopal, India

The Bhopal disaster or Bhopal gas tragedy was a chemical accident on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. In what is considered the world's worst industrial disaster, over 500,000 people in the small towns around the plant were exposed to the highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate (MIC). Estimates vary on the death toll, with the official number of immediate deaths being 2,259. In 2008, the Government of Madhya Pradesh paid compensation to the family members of 3,787 victims killed in the gas release, and to 574,366 injured victims. A government affidavit in 2006 stated that the leak caused 558,125 injuries, including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries. Others estimate that 8,000 died within two weeks, and another 8,000 or more have since died from gas-related diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Carbide</span> American chemical company

Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) is an American chemical company. UCC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company. Union Carbide produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers before reaching consumers. Some are high-volume commodities and others are specialty products meeting the needs of smaller markets. Markets served include paints and coatings, packaging, wire and cable, household products, personal care, pharmaceuticals, automotive, textiles, agriculture, and oil and gas. The company is a former component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren Anderson (American businessman)</span> American businessman (1921–2014)

Warren M Anderson was an American businessman who was the chair and CEO of the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) at the time of the Bhopal disaster in 1984. He was charged with manslaughter by Indian authorities. In 1989 UCC paid $479 million dollars to the Indian government to settle litigation stemming from the disaster.

Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) was a chemical company founded in 1934. UCIL employed 9,000 people. UCIL was 50.9% owned by Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation (UCC) located in the United States and 49.1% by Indian investors including the Government of India and government-controlled banks.

Sunil Verma, himself a victim, was a campaigner for the rights of victims affected by the Bhopal disaster, the deadliest industrial disaster as of 2007. He testified in a case against the company when it came up for hearing in New York City in 1986. He formed the Children Against Carbide organization in 1987, when he was fifteen.

Students for Bhopal (SfB) is an international network of students and supporters working in solidarity with the survivors of the Bhopal disaster – the world's worst-ever industrial catastrophe - in their struggle for justice. Through education, grassroots organizing and non-violent direct action, SfB builds pressure against Dow Chemical and the Indian Government to uphold the Bhopalis' demand for justice, and their fundamental human right to live free of chemical poison. It was coordinated by Ryan Bodanyi, who founded the organization in 2003.

The International Medical Commission on Bhopal (IMCB) was established in 1993 to organise medical responses to the 1984 Bhopal disaster (India).

The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB) is a coalition of disaster survivors and environmental, social justice, progressive Indian, and human rights groups that have joined forces to hold the Indian Government and Dow Chemical Corporation accountable for the ongoing chemical disaster in Bhopal.

<i>Animals People</i> 2007 novel by Indra Sinha

Animal's People is a novel by Indra Sinha. It was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize and is the Winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best Book From Europe & South Asia. Sinha's narrator is a 19-year-old orphan of Khaufpur, born a few days before the 1984 Bhopal disaster, whose spine has become so twisted that he must walk on all fours. Ever since he can remember, he has gone on all fours. Known to everyone simply as Animal, he rejects sympathy, spouts profanity and obsesses about sex. He lives with a crazy old French nun called Ma Franci, and his dog Jara. Also, he falls in love with a local musician's daughter, Nisha.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sambhavna Trust Clinic</span>

The Sambhavna Trust Clinic, or Bhopal People's Health and Documentation Clinic, is a charitable trust run by a group of doctors, scientists, writers and social workers who have been involved with various aspects of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India, ever since its occurrence in December 1984.

<i>Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain</i> 2014 Indian English-language historical drama film

Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain is a 2014 Indian English-language historical drama film directed by Ravi Kumar. Based on the Bhopal disaster that happened in India on 2–3 December 1984, the film stars Martin Sheen, Mischa Barton, Kal Penn, Rajpal Yadav, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Fagun Thakrar. Benjamin Wallfisch composed the film's music. Kumar's idea for making a film based on the Bhopal disaster came after he read a book about it. Shot over a period of 18 months, it was originally scheduled for a late 2010 release. However, the lack of responses from distributors kept delaying the release.

<i>Five past Midnight in Bhopal</i> 1984 book by Dominique Lapierre

Five Past Midnight in Bhopal: The Epic Story of the World's Deadliest Industrial Disaster is a book by Dominique Lapierre and Javier Moro based on the 1984 Bhopal disaster. It was first published in 1997 and the English edition was published in 2001.

Rashida Bee is an Indian activist from Bhopal. She was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2004, together with Champa Devi Shukla. The two have struggled for justice for the surviving victims of the 1984 Bhopal disaster, when 20,000 people were killed, and organized campaigns and trials against those responsible for the disaster.

Satinath (Sathyu) Sarangi was born in Chakradharpur, Jharkhand, India, on 25 September 1954. Since 1984 he has lived in Bhopal. Sarangi has been involved with the multiple activities run by a network of local, national, and international groups, pursuing health and economic needs, fighting legal claims, providing medical support, and working to ensure remembrance of the Bhopal disaster of 1984. Sarangi is the founder of several activist organizations and is also the founder and manager of Sambhavna Trust.

Rachna Dhingra is a social activist working in Bhopal with the survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy, a gas leak from a Union Carbide plant in 1984 that has killed 20,000 people. She is also currently a member of the Aam Aadmi Party of India.

Lalit Shastri is an Indian journalist, Category:The Hindu journalists columnist, wildlife film maker, birder, and environmentalist. He has headed the Madhya Pradesh Bureau of The Hindu and The Asian Age - two of India's leading English newspapers - for more than two decades. He founded and is now Editor-in-Chief of This is News. He quit a corporate job to investigate the causes leading to the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster and subsequently became a full-time journalist. He has extensively covered from ground zero for The Hindu, the riots that followed the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya and repeated attacks by Naxalite-Maoists in the Central Indian States of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamla Nehru Hospital</span> Hospital in Madhya Pradesh, India

Kamla Nehru Hospital is located in the campus of Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal, the capital of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The hospital, overlooking Bhopal Upper Lake, houses the Bhopal Gas Tragedy related wards for treatment of victims of the world's worst industrial disaster, the 1984 gas leak in Bhopal from a Union Carbide (India) pesticide factory which killed tens of thousands of people. The Kamla Nehru Hospital also has general medical departments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdul Jabbar Khan (activist)</span> Indian activist (1957–2019)

Abdul Jabbar Khan was an activist who fought for the victims of Bhopal Gas Disaster. Himself a victim of the gas leak, he devoted decades of his life, up until his death, towards seeking justice for the victims by fighting for their fair treatment and rehabilitation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Narendra Prasad Misra</span> Indian physician (1932–2021)

Narendra Prasad Misra was an Indian physician known for his pivotal role during the Bhopal gas tragedy and his contributions to medical education. Originally from Gwalior, he lived in Bhopal in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

References

  1. ↑ "Bhopal trial: Eight convicted over India gas disaster". BBC News . BBC. 7 June 2010. Archived from the original on 7 June 2010. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
  2. ↑ Sharma, Shalini (2014). "The Politics of Remembering Bhopal". In Convery, Ian; Corsane, Gerard; Davis, Peter (eds.). Displaced Heritage: Responses to Disaster, Trauma, and Loss. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 112–115. ISBN   9781843839637.
  3. 1 2 3 Chari, Mridula (30 November 2014). "Thirty years later, a museum wants to change the way we look at the survivors of the Bhopal gas leak". Scroll.in. Scroll Media. Archived from the original on 15 May 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  4. ↑ "About us - Remember Bhopal Trust". Remember Bhopal Trust. 21 November 2013. Archived from the original on 12 August 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  5. ↑ Shaini, K.S. (3 December 2014). "The Museum of Memories". Outlook India . Outlook Publishing India. Archived from the original on 6 December 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  6. ↑ Jennings, Gretchen (7 December 2014). "Remember Bhopal Museum: A Victory for Museums of Difficult History". Archived from the original on 12 August 2015.
  7. ↑ https://www.saddahaq.com/objects-in-the-museum-are-not-just-of-that-night-but-of-the-last-30-years-of-their-struggle-rama-lakshmi
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.