The last year in America has been one in which, every day, we were confronted with images, sounds and commentary on what can go horribly wrong on a typical day in the lives of average people. Not a single day this year did we have total reprieve from the reminders of events that changed our lives in so many ways – the shadows of those lost, the tireless work by rescue and recovery workers, the flags on lapels and vehicles, a paradigm shift in popular view of our national leadership.

Approaching the anniversary of that late summer morning, we must be mindful that an anniversary does not bring closure. We will continue to grapple with the aftermath of a slaughter of innocents on many levels. Legal questions will someday overtake memorial questions, and issues of historical interpretation will someday overtake the visceral reaction widely shared.

As we examine how Sept. 11 will be woven into our national fabric, we should take a page from the people of India, who for the past eighteen years have also been forced to deal with a mass tragedy, striking down ordinary citizens in the midst of their daily lives.

They can teach us about continually facing the sad reality of destruction in lives, businesses and communities.

Many of us are hardly old enough to remember the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India, that claimed nearly 4000 lives almost immediately after the disaster struck.

Rather than in a Tuesday morning, the victims of Bhopal were roused from their sleep when caustic, toxic gases enveloped their homes after 40,000 tons of methyl isocyanate gas burst from Union Carbide’s pesticide plant.

Like on the streets of Manhattan, dust, darkness and confusion reigned as hundreds of thousands of people ran for their lives, not knowing what had struck. Thousands of people were unable to get home, unable to find their families and unable to grasp the transformation of their lives.

The chaos and immediate loss of life in Bhopal and in three sites in the eastern United States are eerily similar. Today, the people of both nations still deal with the loss. Memories are still fresh in the United States, memorial services are underway across the country and our new national focus is bringing justice to bear on the perpetrators of the crime.

In some ways, the tragedy of Bhopal still hangs over India like the noxious gases that killed thousands. Like those directly touched by the events of Sept. 11, survivors in India are still seeking legal recourse, awaiting justice.

The Bhopal victims have not yet received the $470 million in compensation they were awarded. Unlike the terrorist attacks on the United States, the Bhopal tragedy continues to claim lives.

The BBC estimates that more than 20,000 deaths resulted from Bhopal, and more than one hundred thousand people suffer from illness attributed to the explosion.

While the causes of the terrorist attacks in the United States and the tragedy in Bhopal have entirely different roots, they both decimated the lives of thousands of families and left governments to create policy to address the unimaginable. Both the United States and India are populous democracies, large countries home to a vast spectrum of people, and thus we have some common methods for coping with such atrocities.

Today, the U.S. government continues to make retribution for the terrorist acts its top priority, enacting laws and engaging abroad. India too is under pressure to bring the perpetrators of the Union Carbide explosion to justice.

Indian intelligence officials intend to seek extradition for the former chairman of Union Carbide, an American named Warren Anderson. Indian officials charge that Anderson’s culpability in the deaths of thousands of people in Bhopal, stems from negligent management of the pesticide plant and cost-cutting practices that compromised the safety of the plant.

When the water rushed into the Union Carbide plant and faulty disks ruptured to let the gas escape into the night air, Bhopal citizens were not warned until two hours after plant officials knew that the gas leakage could not be contained, one hour after the gas began spreading through the nearby neighborhoods.

India can provide an example for us in learning how to grieve as nation, learning that the road to justice is long and hard.

However, our understanding of the horrors of losing so many citizens so senselessly should spur us to cooperate with India and honor the extradition treaty between our governments.

Just as we want those connected to the September 11 attacks to be subject to justice here, Indians want those responsible for the Bhopal disaster to be tried there.

In a gesture of remembrance to all those lost, let us be cooperative in the pursuit of justice everywhere, so that for all the innocents in the United States, India and the world, fewer uncertainties can haunt the daily lives of average citizens.

Rachel Faber Machacha

is a graduate student in international development studies. She is the opinion editor of the Daily.ÿ