Atomic Bombay: Public Representations and Perceptions of Nuclear Issues in India / Atomic Comics

Lead Research Organisation: University of Sussex
Department Name: Sch of Global Studies

Abstract

The Research Leave will be used to complete additional research for publication of a monograph, Atomic Bombay, and for the publication of a journal article 'Atomic Comics' based on translation and analyses of 160 children's comics (already collected) on the atomic theme. Overall, the research concerns public perceptions of nuclear power and armament in India and their representations in popular culture. With the help of ethnographic fieldwork in India, the research reassesses nuclear issues so as they are do not remain simply the concern of nation-states and political parties, but are seen to be intricately entwined with notions of self, community and imaginings of 'national' and 'international' communities. This is complemented with a focus on how nuclear issues have percolated into aspects of Indian popular culture, such as the print media, drama, film, and their reception.

The research material has been largely collated during a term of ESRC funded research from January 2006- June 2008 (including 6 months maternity leave). There is no ethnographic literature providing socio-cultural perspectives on the subject for the case of India, although there are a couple of recent monographs on ethnographic yet quite specific nuclear topics for the case of the USA (namely, work by Hugh Gusterson and Joseph Masco).

The research contributes new knowledge in that it accounts for nuclear concerns from the viewpoint of local communities rather than states enabling a move away from conventional top-down approaches to nuclearisation in India. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in Mumbai focusing on people's memories of India's nuclear history, their views on nuclear power, weapons and radiation, and their perception of risk in relation to conflicts, terrorism and nuclear accidents etc. .

The research enhances understanding of how nuclear debates percolate into aspects of Indian popular culture including films, dramas, magazines and comics. Themes in relation to the history of public debates about nuclear weapons in Europe and the USA are considered as with my comparison of 'western' and Indian movies on nuclear themes; and for my analysis of 'atomic heroes' in children's comics. New perspectives are also provided through archival research, where original material on the atomic theme in mid-1940s public culture has been investigated.

During the period of this research from 2006-8, I completed a co-edited volume on censorship in South Asia, with a co-written Introduction (with William Mazzarella) and an authored chapter 'Nuclear Revelations'. I have also written a chapter for an edited volume by Itty Abraham. My last presentation of this research at the ASA Annual Conference 2008 was selected for the next edited ASA volume Ownership and Appropriation by editors Veronica Strang and Mark Busse (cf Publications). There was not enough time before resuming a heavy load of teaching/administration in September 2008 to complete this monograph although so far I have completed one chapter and drafted four others which require further research for their satisfactory completion:

Chapter 1 (not written)
Introduction

Chapter 2 (draft - requires further research on Marathi/Hindi print media from mid-1940s)
The Dawn of the Atomic Age in the Subcontinent

Chapter 3 (draft - requires further research on Marathi/Hindi print media from mid-1940s)
The Atomic Imaginary in 1940s Bombay

Chapter 4 (draft - requires analyses of comparative contexts and update for recent developments eg the unprecedented Indo-Us nuclear agreement 2008)
Regimes of Nuclear Truths

Chapter 5 (draft - requires update to include perceptions of recent nuclear developments)
Hopes and Fears

Chapter 6 (completed)
Observing the Instruments of Armageddon

Chapter 7 (not written - requires translation and analysis of relevant strips from 160 Hindi comics, and interviews with illustrators/designers) Atomic Comics Chapter 8 (not written) Conclusion.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Title Atomic Bombay poster 
Description Poster highlighting research and outputs as part of Sussex showcase - both as artefact and for website 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2010 
Impact Greater visibility of the research and have been asked to talk on the issues for several talks including one for International Women's Day 
URL http://www.sussex.ac.uk/global/showcase/researchprojects/atomic_bombay
 
Title Collaborations with artists to develop research narratives into creative outlets 
Description I will develop a script based on my ethnographic research in India alongside further new research for further creative and public engagement of nuclear narratives 
Type Of Art Creative Writing 
Year Produced 2014 
Impact In process 
 
Title Short film on Nuclear India produced for Sussex Anthropology 50 years celebration 
Description Found along with my own audio-visual footage of research in south India developed into short film by producers, Will Hood and Nat Jeffers 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2014 
Impact It is to be placed on Sussex website as it was completed just now - November 2014 
URL http://www.sussex.ac.uk/anthropology/
 
Description •The project enabled the recording of idiosyncratic and lesser known accounts about atomic science which had been erased from India's national history in its bid to control atomic science to develop the post-independent nation.
•The atom bomb and the atomic metaphor have been simultaneously fetishised as a source of incredible power, and normalised through repeated use in the culture industries.
•By analysing the local impact of international treaties such as the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement (2008) and national decisions on nuclear development, the study provided a unique, 'ground-up' perspective on nuclear issues, from culturally-embedded perspectives.
Other findings are highlighted in excellent reviews of the book Atomic Mumbai:
http://newcrossreviewofbooks.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/raminder-kaurs-atomic-mumbai-living-with-the-radiance-of-a-thousand-suns-new-delhi-routledge-2013/
http://www.thebookreviewindia.org/articles/archives-1326/2013/august/8/atomic-superheroes-and-039item-bombs039.html
http://aia.sagepub.com/content/1/2/223.full.pdf+html
Exploitation Route to provide further insights into 'nuclear popular cultures' in south Asia including Pakistan and surrounding plans for a nuclear plant in Bangladesh
how scholarly work can be used to creatively engage wider publics to take interest in the nuclear issue
a focus on anti-nuclear movements which will be covered in forthcoming book
exploring user-friendly and people orientated energy networks
'sustainable cultures' that do not depend upon large development projects
'nuclear imperialism' as currently being researched by AHRC funded research by Dr Christopher Hill
a film on 'nuclear India' in process
Sectors Aerospace

Defence and Marine

Creative Economy

Energy

Environment

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

Security and Diplomacy

Other

URL http://www.sussex.ac.uk/global/showcase/researchprojects/atomic_bombay
 
Description Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter - informed MP Caroline Lucas and others to highlight the south Indian case of the Koodankulam nuclear power plant. Led to parliamentary committee meeting on the issue. (2012) Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter - informed Senator Ludlam who raised the Koodankulam nuclear power plant issue in the Australian Senate (2012) I was Invited to write Bulletin of Atomic Scientists article on nuclear India (2012) for general public I collaborated with Indian scientists and doctors to write reports on the Koodankulam nuclear power plant outages and accident (2014) I was a Consultant for the Development Worker's Reading Pack on identities for Department for International Development, UK Government, London (2016) I took about 20 students with me to the Remember Fukushima events in 2014 and 2015 that informed them about an issue which they had little knowledge of.
First Year Of Impact 2012
Sector Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

 
Description Breaking new ground in study of nuclear India - review of monograph Atomic Mumbai
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in systematic reviews
URL http://www.epw.in/book-reviews/breaking-new-ground-study-nuclear-india.html
 
Description Collaborate with MP Caroline Lucas and others to highlight the south Indian case of the Koodankulam nuclear power plant. Led to parliamentary committee meeting on the issue.
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health
Impact The raising of awareness of issues that surrounded the development of the Indo-Russian nuclear power plant in Koodankulam revived media interest in India again. At one point in 2012 there were 8 pages of google entries of media interest in the story. I do not have any quantitative date on impact and have referenced a url site to the parliamentary committee meeting and Caroline Lucas's statement of support http://www.countercurrents.org/lucas091112.htm
URL http://www.countercurrents.org/kaur230213.htm
 
Description Collaborations with Indian scientists and doctors to write reports on the Koodankulam nuclear power plant outages and accident
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Articles and reports that I co-wrote with Indian scientists and doctors from CUSAT, along with one in Bremen University, and based on official documents from India's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd and their Russian counterparts were was referenced in Times of India report and led to taking seriously the discrepancies that lie between official reportage and the available evidence on power outages, an accident at the plant, and reactor details about a weld.
URL http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Power-outages-at-Kudankulam-nuclear-plant-dangerous-Study/a...
 
Description Consultant for the Development Worker's Reading Pack on identities for Department for International Development, UK Government, London
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact I was invited to contribute to e-learning for development professionals and practitioners on the subject of identity. The professional development reading packs provide thought-provoking introductions by international experts to governance, social development, conflict and humanitarian topics and the emerging issues and debates within them. Most packs are accompanied by video presentations.
URL http://www.gsdrc.org/professional-dev/identity/
 
Description Invited to write Bulletin of Atomic Scientists article on nuclear India
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact I have several emails from those outside of Europe and India thanking me for highlighting the main points. The article in this highly important outlet for nuclear issues has been cited in several places - academic and non-academic including wikipedia.
URL http://thebulletin.org/nuclear-power-vs-people-power
 
Description Senator Ludlam raised the Koodankulam nuclear power plant issue in the Australian Senate
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health
Impact Although an ongoing debate, the case of the nuclear power plant development in Koodankulam that I began research on in 2006 alongside fieldwork in Mumbai has certainly become widely known.
URL http://scott-ludlam.greensmps.org.au/content/motions/motion-anti-nuclear-protests-india-koodankulam
 
Description Chair of the World Council of Anthropological Association Ethics Committee 
Organisation World Council of Anthropological Associations
Country Global 
Sector Learned Society 
PI Contribution initiated a review of ethical codes of anthropological associations around the world, as well as co-organised a dedicated panel on the subject at the decennial Association of Social Anthropologists conference in Edinburgh in 2014.
Collaborator Contribution contributed to global review of ethical codes
Impact report on global ethical codes for conducting fieldwork
Start Year 2013
 
Description Collaborator with Dr Christopher Hill for his AHRC-funded project, Nuclear Imperialism 
Organisation University of South Wales
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I am collaborating with Dr Christopher Hill to - participate in planned workshops in 2021 - developing and editing film based on my research and film footage on nuclear issue in South Asia - co-edit book for 2023 Dr Hill invited me to collaborate on the basis of my related research and book, Atomic Mumbai: Living with the Radiance of a Thousand Suns
Collaborator Contribution Dr Christopher Hill is undertaking a research project funded by AHRC (Early Career Leadership Fellow) on the history of British nuclear imperialism. Whilst the project focuses on Britain and the end of empire, it also provides a basis for wider engagement with issues of imperialism or neo-colonialism in nuclear history and politics. In collaboration with fellow academics, creative practitioners and members of the nuclear community, the project considers how nuclear histories can be harnessed in relation to recent debates about nuclear disarmament, with particular reference to the environmental and humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons.
Impact Multidisciplinary outputs in process: History Anthropology and Cultural Studies International Development
Start Year 2020
 
Description Energy Anthropology Network 
Organisation Durham University
Department Durham Energy Institute
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I presented a paper in Milan in 2016 'Power legacies, energy futures: governmentalities along the grid' based on my research on nuclear issues in India. Discussion were developed to set up an Energy Anthropology Network. http://nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2016/panels.php5?PanelID=4278 Aims To bring together social scientists and practitioners with common interest on energy The network is open to people from a variety of backgrounds: practitioners and decision-makers interested in broadening their understanding of energy, students and academics involved in applied projects or fundamental research. The network's activities will include regular meetings at academic events (primarily EASA ), online exchange, publications and newsfeeds (mailing list, webpage). To make energy issues more visible One of the objectives of an anthropology of energy is to problematize energy infrastructures that are often taken for granted, remaining invisible, unnoticed or unquestioned because they are already deeply embedded in ordinary practice, or imposed by national choices which surpass us. Ethnographies of energy are helping people to perceive the energetic infrastructures (both physical, social and powerful) that produce everyday life, empowering people to reconsider their energy practices. To propose alternative understandings of energy systems. Energy is an inspiring topic for fundamental research. In concrete terms, energy systems and infrastructures deserve greater attention from anthropologists not only because contemporary societies face important environmental and energetic challenges, but also because energy has always been inherently constitutive of human cultures. At the same time, there is an increasing demand from engineers and policy-makers for help in understanding the social, cultural and political implications of energy systems in order to improve the relevance and efficiency of their action. While anthropologists can play an important role in helping to implement new energy technologies and by facilitating their social appropriation, they can also help technicians to work through the broader questions of social justice that such technologies imply. To support independent and critical studies on energy choices. The existence of an independent network within a scholarly association is also pertinent in a context where more and more research projects on energy are demand-driven and privately funded. The EAN will represent an academic space for the development of a fundamental and critical understanding of energy issues. To spark public debate, encourage community outreach and feed research agendas The network encourages initiatives to export energy anthropology concerns outside the academic sphere, whether this is through community projects, media interventions or institutional engagements. The EASA EAN will be the main point of contact for informing the agenda for ethnographic and anthropological energy research calls, not least in relation to the European Commission.
Collaborator Contribution Others too presented their work and a network was subsequently formed to look into this emerging area of ethnography of energy. This panel chaired by Tristan Loloum (University of Durham) and Nathalie Ortar (ENTPE) aimed to explore the many forms of political power embedded in energy grids, from resource extraction to daily consumption. Just like energy, political power is intangible and diffuse; it strikes societies when channelled through techno-political infrastructures, imaginaries and legalities. Power is a classic theme in social anthropology, but it is only recently that authors have started investigating the energetics of power and the politics of energy. Pioneering works like Mitchell's Carbon Democracy (2011) are questioning the role of energy infrastructure on the crafting of modern states and corporations, expert and local knowledge, identities and habits, households and communities. Dominic Boyer (2014) calls for a revisit of critical theory in the light of energy, applying Marxian theory to modes of energy production, or extending Foucault's notion of biopower to << energopower >>. For this panel, we are interested in contributions that focus on the govern-mentality of energy, that is, the discursive and symbolic dimensions of energy, their historical incorporation in the body politic and the power/knowledge articulations on which they stand. A reflexive consideration could also be given to the increasingly frequent collaborations between energy actors and social scientists in order to change energy behaviours. Then, to what could possibly look like a critical theory of energy? More generally, we would like to initiate discussions on how can the legacies of political anthropology contribute to envisioning energetic futures differently, and conversely, how can energy studies shed a new light on the understanding of contemporary power?
Impact Multidisciplinary with an emphasis on anthropology
Start Year 2016
 
Description I have become a member of Chatham House, a world-leading institute for the debate and analysis of International Issues. 
Organisation Chatham House
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Information taken from Final Report
 
Description Event at RSA involving film screening and talk at RSA and Pinter Studio, ESRC Festival of Social Science 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Article 'Intergalactic Superheroism across the Globe' for RSA website linked to film screening and panel on superheroism and Indian youth cultures in November 2019
To do with event at RSA and Pinter Studio (QMUL) in London
Film production and edit aided by small grant for the
ESRC Festival of Science
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/fellowship-news/fellowship-news/intergalactic-superheroism-across-...
 
Description I presented an interactive lecture to a cohort of teachers at a Geography, Anthropology and International Development Teachers' Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact My research and photographic records formed the basis of the interactive lecture to teachers
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description International Women's Day event 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact I presented my research on nuclear issues that foregrounded the role of women at the event, and asked others to present their work as well.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description Nuclear Hallucinations with Raminder Kaur, Joram ten Brink, Rosie Thomas and others 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact I collaborated on a panel with film viewings and discussion for FD-zone London Fifth Edition - a collaboration between the Faculty of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster, and the Films Division, Government of India

Imagining Facts: Documentary Narratives and the Indian Nuclear Project

In the current Indian scenario where diverse people's movements challenge the Indian state's nuclear project, we ask what is the role of "scientific facts" in providing legitimacy for particular truth claims? Through a curated screening of non-fiction films from 1960s onwards, the session will explore how documentary becomes a terrain to articulate opposing assertions about the Indian nuclear project. The films from the archives of Films Division, the key filmmaking unit of government of India, provide striking examples of non-fiction strategies which get mobilized to create expert claims about the "safe" nature of the nuclear project. However the certainty of such facts are challenged through other representations. The session will discuss the particular ways in which diverse narratives resist the hegemony and violence of 'undeniable facts', and address the gap between pro-nuclear documentary assertions, on the one hand, and the filing of sedition cases against anti-nuclear protestors, on the other.

The films were introduced by curator Fathima Nizaruddin (University of Westminster). The screening was followed by a discussion with Prof. Raminder Kaur (University of Sussex), author of the book Atomic Mumbai: living with the radiance of a thousand suns, Prof. Joram ten Brink
(Academic Director, International Centre for Documentary and Experimental Film, University of Westminster) and the curator. The session was chaired by Prof. Rosie Thomas (Director, Centre for Research and Education in Art and Media, University of Westminster)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://hutnyk.wordpress.com/2016/04/05/nuclear-hallucinations-with-raminder-kaur-joram-ten-brink-ro...
 
Description Remember Fukushima events in London 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact I took about 20 students with me to the Remember Fukushima events in 2014 and 2015 that informed them about an issue which they had little knowledge of. The events also provided an avenue of mutual knowledge exchange across Japanese, Indian and British concerns
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014,2015
 
Description coordination of Global Voices at WOMAD 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact From 2014, I played a seminal role in the setting up of Global Voices, a series of talks and workshops laid on for staff and students from the School of Global Studies for the WOMAD festival which is supported by the WOMAD administration and colleagues in the School. In 2015 and 2016 I helped co-ordinate the day-time programme with a combination of staff, student, artists among others.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2016
URL http://www.sussex.ac.uk/global/about/newsandevents/womad
 
Description request for wider access of 'A 'nuclear renaissance', climate change and the state of exception' journal article 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact I was later asked to collaborate with Indian scientists and doctors seeking further information on India's civilian nuclear developments

I co-wrote 2 papers with them which were picked up by local and national media - details below
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
URL http://www.dianuke.org/a-%E2%80%98nuclear-renaissance%E2%80%99-climate-change-and-the-state-of-excep...
 
Description •Public talk 'The Nuclearisation of the Asian Seascape' twenty years after India and Pakistan's nuclear tests in 1998 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact I gave a public talk and was a workshop participant, 'Twenty Years after Pokharan and Chagai', Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, May 2018. I was invited to do so by M.V Ramana. The workshop and talk included scholars, students, think tank representatives and journalists. I later wrote up my presentation on nuclear submarines and popular culture in India for an open access journal, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25751654.2020.1864184