Bhopal Tragedy

Indra Sinha on the other hand is a writer and social worker, whose novel Animal’s People is the result of his long-term acquaintance with the Bhopal survivors. He has campaigned for the justice of the Bhopal victims since 1993 and is also a part of the Bhopal Medical Appeal programme. The characters in the novel are reflections of the real people whom he had met in Bhopal. Thus, both the novels guide us in examining the effects of the Bhopal tragedy on the characters who are the victims of the tragedy.

As a first step in this research, literary articles were collected on the novels and the Bhopal tragedy to understand better the effects of the tragedy from the perspective of the three objectives mentioned. The articles collected bring out

The victim’s relation to the public outside, which is made problematic through his painful experiences of the tragic event, and the response of society to the victim, often create alienation and isolation which might result in an identity crisis making way for a change in identity. Thus, there is a confusion of who a person is exactly, resulting in an alternation of identity. The article also examines how life turns out differently after the tragedy which involves unusual stress and coping with new and unfamiliar situations. A victim has no trust in oneself nor in others in the world outside, as a result of the impact created by the incident. This is followed by an identity crisis and finally a change in identity. He is then able to meet the demands of whatever difficulty confronts him and take an active role in efforts to help both his community and himself recover from the disaster. This article by Conger helped in understanding the symptoms related to identity crisis. Dynes, in the article “Response to Social Crisis and Identity in the aftermath of a Disaster,” also mentions identity change as one of the major characteristic features of the aftermath of a tragic event, especially a man-made disaster. This article gives emphasis to the ideas of A.H Barton, a scientist and psychoanalyst. The article begins by saying that when disaster strikes, whether it is natural or man-made, it is more like an event or process that affects many aspects of the lives of the individual. Barton describes identity crisis resulting in identity change as not a terminal crisis but a point of growth for the individuals affected by the disaster. The change in identity is a process of dynamic transformation.Dyne extends this concept and describes the different levels at which this change in