George Orwell did a swell job in The Animal Farm, a lampooning satire on Communism and predominantly Stalin. The characters in his allegorical book were thinly disguised to reflect the personality of political leaders ruling centre stage during the pre-Russian revolution and the Stalin era.
Animal’s People, by Indra Sinha is likewise an allegory for the horrific 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. Shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize and the winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, this novel is in the form of a narrative by a 19-year-old boy, who goes by the name Animal. The story has been recorded in Hindi, on a series of tapes, in the fictional city of Khaufpur, an allegory for Bhopal. It was done by the main protagonist Animal for a ‘journalis’ from ‘ostrali’ (a journalist from Australia).
We readers are directly addressed by Animal as ‘Eyes’ and informed about how he wants to tell us the story that is locked up in him — I can feel it coming, words want to fly out from between my teeth like a flock of birds making a break for it. You know that sudden clap of wings when they take off in a hurry, it’s that sound, listen, clap, clap, clap.
Animal, we learn is an orphan, who was born a few days before the night of the gas spill and who becomes a misshapen cripple, his back twisted like a hairpin, losing his ability to walk. He learns to walk on all fours, like an animal. He never mentions his yearning to walk upright and repeats to anyone who wants to know his “real name” that, “My name is Animal. I am not a human being. I have no wish to be one.”
The closest he has to a mother is Ma Franci, a French nun at the orphanage, who has taken Animal under her care. The gas leak has affected Ma Franci’s ability to understand Hindi and English forcing her to converse in French, sometimes speaking gibberish. Animal is the lone person who understands what she says.
Animal has a friend in Banjara or Jara, a yellow dog, who was as thin as him, her hide shrunken over her ribs. In his days of living in the street, they were rivals for food, but their relationship develops into friendship, sharing the food they scoured from the street.
Then, there is Nisha, the daughter of musician Pandit Somraj Tryambak Punekar and object of his affection, who lives in a part of Khaufpur known as Chicken Claw. Unfortunately for Animal, Nisha is in love with Zafar, a do-gooder outsider, who has become a legend in the bastis because he gave up everything in his life for the poor. He advocates for the people of the city in the court.
Kha-in-the Jar is another friend of Animal. It is a two-headed foetus aborted by a woman who was poisoned by the chemicals released by the Kampani. Animal can listen to its voice as also other voices from all around him, voices inside the head of people.
All the characters in the novel are seen through Animal’s eyes. There is Elli, the beautiful American doctor, who sets up a free clinic in the city and has to deal with the hostility of the city people who suspect she is there with ulterior motives — as an agent of the Kampani.
The Kampani is an allegory for Union Carbide factory, the origin of the 1984 gas leak. Locked up and abandoned, it is described thus ...With walls which are never-ending, with an area inside that equals the whole of Nutcracker. Here and there are holes in the wall as if a giant has banged his fist through, it’s where people have dug out bricks for their houses…Look inside, you see something strange, a forest is growing, tall grasses, bushes, trees, creepers that shoot sprays of flowers like fireworks.
Right in the editor’s note, the author provides the address to a website, with glossary on the city of Khaufpur, complete with maps and photographs. This delightful and clever literary device by author leads us to believe that there is actually a city in India by the name of Khaufpur!
Animal narrates his story in a mix of Hindi, English and French. He is often bawdy, irreverent and crude but there is no succumbing to self-pity and melancholy. “I am Animal fierce and free/ in all the world is none like me.” It is a story worth reading once you manage to read past the first few pages and become familiar with the language.
