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| BHOPAL GASSED, pen and ink on paper |
After 25 years of waiting nothing, absolutely nothing for the BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY victims. Verdict was given in a concocted manner, making it more tragic and painful for the victims of this human error. 1984, I was a school student at that time. I still remember Raghu Rai’s B&W photograph of the buried dead child’s face on the cover of India Today magazine.
Very haunting and horrific picture of modern India. Unborn fetuses were killed and chemically destroyed inside the womb, kept as evidence in laboratory jars. So horrible were their state of deformation that even god will cry for them. Hundreds of people died, deformed in the most horrific way, blinded, their bodies were marked with the most painful memories of a careless and criminal company; UNION CARBIDE. It was a scene from a chemical warfare, played in our own motherland. Cruel joke played by a multinational company on the face of India.
Children, women, some of them pregnant, old people, men and cattle’s were sacrificed at the alter of development. Indians, mostly poor and helpless group of people were punished for no fault of theirs. People screaming for help at the dead hour of night, running, pushing each other, crying. Holocaust revisited!
So much noise was made after this tragic incident, but except for some peanuts in the form of monetary relief, no concrete help was given to the victims.
My responsibility as a creative soul raises few questions through this series of drawings titled ‘GASSED’. Like the Nazis did to the Jews during the World War II, a foreign firm did this to the people of India and the Govt. of India just kept quiet and even helped the main accused,
Warren Anderson of UNION CARBIDE escape from India. But my drawings will speak the rawest language of pain and despair on behalf of millions of Indians. Injustice was done and still continued on the victims of the gas tragedy. Any rational and humane soul will raise his voice against this barbaric act. I sought the way through lines on paper, drawings of the macabre is what you going to observe now.
And let your heart feel and your mind think about this chemically altered face of human beings.
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| GASSED 1, pen and ink on paper |
Truely fearful.........I cannot bear this though it is true
ReplyDeleteTruly brilliant works in Gassed! The unbearable pain is evident.
ReplyDeleteThe Bhopal Gas Tragedy was a catastrophic event. It inflicted upon the hapless citizens of our country the tragedy of the worst kind. The responsibility for this heinous crime falls on Union Carbide Corporation, a multinational company. The government also acted in a way which makes it equally guilty of this act of criminal negligence which left hundred thousands dead and an uncountable number maimed and handicapped.
ReplyDeleteThe effect of the leakage of the deadly poisonous gas methyl isocyanate from the factory of Union Carbide India on a night of December 1984 is still continue, either in the form of struggle for justice or in the form fight against the debilitating effect on the health of human, plants and animals.
The paintings here capture the tragedy that occurred on the fateful night. The pain and suffering, which cannot be explained in words, are depicted through this masterly work. These paintings by Soumen Bhowmick , in fact, act as a reminder of a national shame and also of a responsibility that we should not be unmindful of the consequences of an irresponsible pursuit of development. The society as a whole is responsible for each of this kind of human suffering. Let us all pledge to raise our voice against all kinds of injustices. These paintings leave on us a deep impact by showing the scale of tragedy depicted vividly through them. Great work.
Khalid Perwez
Such and heart-pulling work Soumen ~ your portrayal of such an awful human atrocity.
ReplyDeleteTruly Fantastic work and thoughts behind this creation
ReplyDeleteDilip Banerjee