School of Global Studies

Atomic Bombay

Living with the Radiance of a Thousand Suns

Raminder Kaur

The nuclear topic has been of significant concern at global, national and local levels, but has not received adequate ethnographic attention in the newer nuclear weapon states. Much of the existing literature on nuclear debates in South Asia concerns itself with international relations, national policy, science and economics rather than the intricacies of political cultures and vernacular lives. This research set out to explore how people conceptualise nuclear issues and what role this plays in people’s everyday lives.   

Findings

comic book
  • 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.

The Research

Data was collected in Bombay (renamed Mumbai in 1995) and also in Kanyakumari District in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant over the course of 12 months’ fieldwork in 2006, with one month follow-up in 2010. The fieldwork consisted of participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, archival research of newspapers from 1945, as well as analysis of texts and cultural products such as historical and contemporary films, advertisements and comic books.

The research was initially funded with a Small Grant from the British Academy, followed by a Research Award from the Economic and Social Research Council for the core research and fieldwork, and a Research Leave Award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to complete the monograph. 

Publications

Kaur, R. (forthcoming). Atomic Bombay: Living with the Radiance of a Thousand Suns, forthcoming monograph, Routledge 2011.

Kaur, R. (2009) ‘Nuclear Revelations’ in Censorship in South Asia: Cultural Regulation between Sedition and Seduction, eds. Raminder Kaur and William Mazzarella, Indiana University Press, 2009.