Surviving Mumbai (ATOM Study Guide)

Surviving Mumbai is a very different story about a different kind of terrorism – told from the inside, and with a challenging message not just of survival, but of compassion and bravery from those who lived through three days of terror.

The 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai was one of the most dramatic in recent years. It was also very different to other acts of terrorism in that it lasted over two days, was conducted like a military operation and was controlled directly from neighbouring Pakistan, using mobile phone technology.

On 26 November, ten young Pakistani men sailed into Mumbai harbour armed with assault rifles, grenades and plastic explosives, as well as satellite phones connecting them directly to their controllers in Pakistan and mobile phones to maintain contact with each other. Global positioning systems (GPS) took them to the exact beach to land and to their targets.

They spread out across the city in pairs. Quick strikes on the busiest railway station in India – Chahatrapati Shivaji (Victoria) Station, the iconic Leopold Café and the Cama Hospital saw more than a hundred dead in only an hour. But this was just the beginning. The gunmen had come for a longer engagement, in destinations chosen to grab and hold the world's attention.

On entering the lobby of the historic Taj Mahal Hotel, one of the world's grandest hotels, they opened fire indiscriminately, set fires and threw grenades. All over the hotel, hundreds of people scrambled to find a hiding spot. Some hid alone or in family groups, isolated in their rooms. In 'The Chambers', a private club area, two hundred hid and waited together in silence in the dark. Across the city, at the modern Oberoi-Trident Hotel the same deadly game was in play. Two gunmen stormed the building, spraying the lobby and restaurants with bullets and starting fires. Guests high up in their rooms soon found themselves choking from the fumes seeping into their rooms, and wondering if there was any way out. Downstairs, others in hiding were discovered and taken hostage.

Surviving Mumbai brings together candid and very personal accounts from the ordinary and extraordinary people who were caught up in the siege. Their one connection with the outside world was their mobile phones. From friends, family and security agencies around the world, they received updates, information and support. But mobile phones, the internet and 24-hour television news gave vital information not just to those in hiding – but to the killers hunting for them. Readings from the actual transcripts of phone calls between the gunmen and their commanders, intercepted by Indian intelligence, and Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) footage from the hotels give a chilling real-life edge to their stories.

Meanwhile, hotel staff tried to lead the terrorists away, down the hotel's labyrinth of back corridors.

Curriculum Links:

• SOSE / History / Political Studies / International Studies – Terror groups; the changing face of terrorism; ideals and objectives of terrorism; intercultural conflict; Asian studies (India–Pakistan); personal communication technology as a tool and a weapon (mobile phones, smartphones, VoIP).
• Psychology – The psychopathology of terrorism; creating the terrorist personality (nature or nurture); survivor guilt/syndrome, altruistic behaviour.
• Sociology – Perceived and actual risk; the violent or sociopathic (political) group; loyalty and duty.
• Media Studies – reportage of breaking news; unrestricted flow of sensitive information; documentary technique; Citizen journalism – the role of diffused technologies
• Philosophy – political and religious argument – logic and justification; ethical duty to others; alternative ethical and moral contexts; the concept of 'evil'.