Animal's People: An Ecocritical Study through Memory, Trauma and Disaster

Abstract: Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People is a collective memory of the repercussion of a severe industrial catastrophe caused by the Bhopal disaster in 1984.The narrative of the novel is centered round Animal, an adolescent boy who describes “that night” (industrial catastrophe caused by Bhopal Gas tragedy) to the foreign journalists who visit Khaufpur to write about the victims of the disaster. The excruciatingly traumatic memories of that night recorded in several tapes by the titular character represent contamination, industry-driven bio-disaster, uneven ecological development and so on. The writer here is introspecting the future of our country by memorizing the past incidents of claustrophobic sickness, filth, environmental degradation, industrial pollution through the eyes of Animal. Mankind is conspicuously committing ecocide to make their lives more comfortable and easy-going but any developments without environmental research will certainly have a negative impact on the quality of our life and our surroundings too. Indra Sinha has particularly pointed out the toxic gas tragedy by which people lost their loved ones and met extreme poverty. Not only the living beings, but also the entire ecosystem of the area was completely shattered and battered by such unimaginable disaster of that unforgettable night. This paper aims to give voice to the voiceless so that each person living on this earth can realize the extreme need of preserving and nurturing our nature to have an ecological balance through which we can make a world worth living. Keywords: ecocide trauma, memory, ecology, industrial development.