Indra Sinha founded the Bhopal Medical Appeal following the Union Carbide gas leak in India in 1984. There was great passion among colleagues but today, he said: “Passion has gone out of many organisations and charities. They see themselves almost like corporations and they sit there with their flow charts and their profit and loss.”
Professor David Taylor, the university’s Dean of the College of Social Sciences, in his oration, said: “Indra’s skills and passion as a writer were demonstrated when he created eight advertisements as part of a campaign to raise money to found and run a clinic in Bhopal for victims of the disaster.
“Today, over 30 years after the gas leak, more than 100,000 people are still chronically ill in that city while tens of thousands more are drinking water poisoned by chemicals leaking from the abandoned factory.
“Opened in 1996 the clinic has so far provided free medical care to over 30,000 people. The advertisements were crucial to the success of the clinic.”
Mr Sinha worked as a copywriter before opening the Bhopal clinic to which he dedicated 20 years of his life. He published a non-fiction memoir and two novels including Animal’s People which was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize.
His honorary degree was awarded in recognition of his major contribution to literature and demonstrating the power of words in changing people’s lives.