Sambhavna: A Possibility
A Memorial Screening on the 41st Anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy
Event type: Film Screening and Discussion
Organiser: Yash Gupta (Research Fellow, RTG2686: Contradiction Studies) & The Decolonial Disability Studies Collective (Carleton University)
Guest Speakers: Dr. Satinath Sarangi (Founder, Sambhavana Trust Clinic)
Date & Time: 26th January, 2026, 8:30 EST/14:30 CEST/19:00 IST/20:30 ICT
Location: Online
Collaborators: RTG2686: Contradiction Studies (University of Bremen); The Decolonial Disability Studies Collective (Carleton University); Sambhavana Trust Clinic (Bhopal)
For online attendance, please email: ygupta@uni-bremen.de
What does care look like when harm cannot be undone?
On the night of December 2–3, 1984, a leak from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal released over forty tonnes of methyl isocyanate gas, exposing more than half a million people to one of the deadliest industrial disasters in recorded history. Forty-one years later, the disaster is often remembered as a singular event; yet for survivors, its effects continue to unfold across bodies, families, and environments. To mark the 41st anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Sambhavna: A Possibility presents a memorial film screening that revisits not only the night of the leak but its enduring aftermath.
The film offers an entry point into broader conversations about survival, memory, and the politics of care in a chemically saturated world. Moving beyond narratives of catastrophe alone, it foregrounds the everyday labour of endurance: how communities live with ongoing exposure, chronic illness, and institutional abandonment, and how care is reimagined when repair is partial and justice remains deferred.
A post-screening discussion will follow with Dr. Satinath Sarangi, Founder of the Sambhavna Trust Clinic, a community-run organisation in Bhopal that has provided free, long-term care to survivors since 1995. The discussion will be moderated by Yash Gupta, a second-generation survivor of the tragedy, together with the Decolonial Disability Studies Collective (DDSC) at Carleton University. Together, they will reflect on the resonances of the disaster, the limits of institutional accountability, and the forms of solidarity that emerge from lived exposure.
This event is a collaboration between the Decolonial Disability Studies Collective (Carleton University), RTG 2686: Contradiction Studies (University of Bremen), and the Sambhavna Trust Clinic (Bhopal).