The nine activists who have been fasting in protest against the government's indifference towards the Bhopal gas victims, received a shot in the arm with Indra Sinha, author of Booker-shortlisted Animal's People, joining them in Delhi.

For Sinha, who is based in southern France [Images], the connection goes deep. His book is set in the slums of a make-believe Bhopal, and is a searing indictment of corporate buccaneering  and apathy to mass suffering. There is more connection with reality: the book ends with a hunger strike to shame the authorities into action.

Sinha tells The Guardian, London [Images], that his protest was a form of 'giving back to the people who had given me so much.'

On the night of December 3, 1984, poisonous gas from Union Carbide's Bhopal plant snuffed out thousands of lives and many more over the next few weeks. Dow Chemicals, which bought out Union Carbide in 2001, has disowned all responsibility for the disaster since it never owned the plant. Till date, not one of Union Carbide's executives has gone on trial for the worst chemical disaster on earth.

'The survivors have gone through hell and been let down by everybody that matters. The judges, politicians have all sold them down the river,' Sinha tells the Guardian. 'I know the problem with a hunger strike is that it hurts you more than the government but there has to be some moral pressure on this government which appears dazzled by Dow Chemicals and promises of god knows what investment. How long can I go on, I don't know honestly.

'Next week Dow are sponsoring an event at the Cannes [Images] advertising festival which is about using marketing for good causes. It is absurd.'

Meanwhile, the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, where 8000 tonnes of chemicals remain, is a hot spot for toxic contamination. Studies have shown that the hazardous flow has contaminated ground water supplies, but the protestors point out that no one has come forward to clean up the mess. Literally.

Image: Author Indra Sinha poses with his book Animal's People at a photo call in central London, October 16, 2007.
Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images