India's Narmada Bachao Andolan: River of Resistance, River of Hope
[Author: Shivani Chaudhry | Date Published: 17 December 2005]
Narmada Bachao Andolan, Tujhe Salaam
The Narmada river flows, not just from Amarkantak in the Maikal Hills down to the Arabian Sea, but as writer-activist Jai Sen rightly says, “The Narmada flows through the world…”
Thanks to the Narmada Bachao Andolan’s (NBA) sustained 20-year campaign and fired dedication, the Narmada is no longer just an Indian river but a global river. It is a river of hope, of peoples’ movements, of solidarity. A river of resistance, of freedom, of truth. A river of rights, of satyagraha, of commitment. A river of life.
For the people who love her, Narmada is mother, devi, Ma Rewa, strength, timeliness, wisdom, history, heroism, ideology, testimony, and faith.
But there is another Narmada too. The Narmada that flows in classrooms, in progressive development literature, in pages of neo-liberal critique, in strategies of anti-establishmentists, in hearts of dreamers, and in dreams of those committed to a more just, equitable, sustainable world. This is the Narmada that flows from the NBA.
The establishment of the Indian State and its cohorts tried to dam the Narmada. They have dammed the river, to some extent. But they could not and they will never be able to damn the Narmada. Nor will they ever be able to damn the people who have been struggling for the last 20 years to save the river and their lives that are intertwined with it. They might have dammed the river, but they will never be able to dam the spirit, the strength, and the non-violent struggle of the people who have put their lives on the line and experienced the severest of hardships to speak out against injustice, time in and time out.
I salute the Narmada Bachao Andolan. On it’s twentieth anniversary, I salute the many hundreds of women, men, and children who are the breath, the wheels, and the soul of NBA. The many radical revolutionaries in and behind the movement. The faces we see and the many more we do not see. The sacrifices we know of and the many more we do not hear of. I salute them all. And I salute the people who lost their lives while struggling for the cause: Rehmal Vasave, Nirmal Patodi, Punjiyabhai, Shobharam Baba, and Shobha Wagh, among others. The people who succumbed to police violence, to rising waters, to organized state crime. The martyrs who gave up their lives not because they hated life, but because they loved it. Their sacrifice is permanently etched in the collective memory of the movement, and each call for justice emanating from the valley echoes their dedicated passion.
Twenty years is a long time. And the movement is still resisting, still inspiring, and still struggling. Its mission is the same, its message is the same. People first. Development not destruction. Sustainable, equitable development. People’s control over resources. Human rights. Justice. Non-violence.
Non-violent struggle is the core of the movement. Yet NBA activists have been brutally targeted by the state; beaten black, blue, and red; abused; and repeatedly jailed on non-grounds. Yet in the face of the savage avatar of the state machinery, they have not once deterred from their chosen path of non-violent resistance. For the NBA activists, their only weapon is their self. And the truth.
Because truth is not imagined. Hidden, twisted, suppressed, perhaps, but never imagined. Justice though, in many places, still is. Still a dream, an imagined reality.
It all started in 1961 when Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone for a 49.8 metre dam – the progenitor of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) in Gujarat. A dispute between the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra delayed construction, and in 1969, the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) was set up to mediate on the issue. In 1979, it fixed the height of SSP at 455 feet. The World Bank sanctioned a project loan of US$ 450 million in 1985, even before an environmental clearance was passed. Resistance against the inimical project started brewing. The first rally against the dam was held in November 1985 and organized mobilisation began to escalate. Finally, several groups, including the Narmada Dharangrast Samiti (Maharashtra), Narmada Ghati Navnirman Samiti (Madhya Pradesh), and Narmada Asargrast Sangharsh Samiti (Gujarat) joined forces to form the Narmada Bachao Andolan.
From its origins in the Narmada valley, the NBA has grown to become one of the most successful peoples’ movements in the world. From rallies to hunger-strikes, from boycotts to jal samarpans, NBA has worked incessantly for the people of the Narmada Valley while questioning capitalist ‘development.’ As a political force, NBA has played a significant role in critical engagement with the State. It has attempted to redefine the politics of debate and renegotiate spaces for inclusion.
The international outreach of the Narmada Bachao Andolan has shaped new transnational global identities, and given rise not just to global solidarity but to unified resistance and action that forced the World Bank and Japanese Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund to withdraw from SSP.
There have been victories but there are many reasons to continue fighting. Despite a sustained campaign, the Sardar Sarovar dam has reached 110.64 metres. Despite the October 18, 2000 Supreme Court verdict that stresses the completion of land-based rehabilitation for all families before any increase in dam height, the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat have not complied. Despite another Supreme Court judgment of March 15, 2005 that reiterated land-based rehabilitation on cultivable and irrigable land, no steps have been taken to rehabilitate the over 10,000 affected families.
Too much has been lost and destroyed. Under no conditions can the dam height be raised above the present 110.64 metres. Also, because there is no land to offer as rehabilitation. This is evident in the practice of the Madhya Pradesh government to give cash compensation instead of land, which is illegal under the Supreme Court order.
Six thousand hectares of land already submerged (of the fated 11,000 hectares to be submerged at the present dam height). Archaeological relics of the world’s oldest civilization already lost. Villages already drowned out. Domkhedi, Nimagavan, Manibeli, Jalsindhi, Anjanvada. Tapestries of interaction and association ripped, and sites of love and longing, of food, work and sustenance, washed away. For what? It’s just been abortive promise after abortive promise, elevated lie after elevated lie. Reports confirm that the much-touted benefits of the dam at the current height have not materialized. Contrary to claims of the Gujarat government, only ten per cent of the villages claimed as beneficiaries have received drinking water. As reality unravels, the words of NBA are only proving to be true.
One river. Thirty large dams. But NBA efforts coupled with dam-triggered human rights violations and the projects’ non-compliance with standards, has led to cessation of work on the Narmada Sagar, Goi, and Maheshwar dams, as well as the Sardar Sarovar Project.
There are much better, more sustainable alternatives.
And NBA is developing and promoting them. Water harvesting schemes that provide drinking water and micro-hydel
projects, as in Bilgaon (Maharashtra), that bring electricity with no
destructive costs.
Twenty years is a long time. And there is much to celebrate and much to reflect on.
“Completion of 20 years of the NBA’s struggle is a testimony to the commitment, perseverance, and strength of thousands of people; at the same time, it is a telling commentary on the establishment that people have had to fight this long for their basic rights,” says Shripad Dharmadikary, an NBA activist.
The NBA organized a week-long event in the valley from 23–27 November 2005 to commemorate its 20 years. On 27 November, over 15,000 people congregated in Badwani, Madhya Pradesh, and participated in a historic and poignant rally where they collectively pledged to intensify their struggle.
For sure, there are challenges and a long road ahead. Medha Patkar, a tireless andolankari and leader, affirms, “The struggle for justice continues through an alternative water policy and challenge to water privatization and river interlinking. It is an unending battle for life and livelihood, for people’s rights, and for real democracy.”
The piercing cry of “Narmada Bachao, Manav Bachao” (Save the Narmada, Save Humanity), makes your hair stand on end. But when it emanates from a nine-year-old girl who waves the flag of the movement with an unbridled dream in her eyes, it does much more. It echoes not just in the valley, but in one’s inner being for a long moment, a moment that swirls and resonates and drenches your core with a mystical awe. And when the cry of the moment moves from your ears to your eyes, you look at the determined girl and realize that she is an andolan child. Born into the movement, born in the shadows of the deadly SSP, born in the belly of resistance, in the river of dreams. And you see many like her, all dressed in blue – the blue of hope, blue of water, blue of the NBA flag, and you raise your hand in salaam to the andolan of tomorrow. The andolan brewing in the 14 Jeevanshalas being run by NBA. Jeevanshalas or “schools of life” where struggle and education go hand in hand. Jeevanshalas that give direction to the pain and hope of children who have witnessed what no other children have, what no child should.
And no matter what the State does, no matter what neo-liberalism’s gurus propose, and no matter what direction democracy takes, the struggle will go on… Because hope cannot be liquidated. And dreams, for sure, can never be liquidated.
Nehru was so wrong. No dam is a temple. For a temple can never symbolize destruction and death. The real temples of modern India are its vibrant social movements. The people’s movements where faith is worship and prayer is action, where justice is a dream and humanity is religion.
In tribute to one such movement, I bow my head and raise my hand: Narmada Bachao Andolan, tujhe salaam. Baar baar salaam. Hazaar salaam.
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