Voices of the dammed: discursive resistance amidst erasure in the ...

Political Geography 22 (2003) 243–270www.politicalgeography.com

Voices of the dammed: discursive resistanceamidst erasure in the Narmada Valley, India

P. Routledge∗

Department of Geography and Topographical Science, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ,Scotland, UK

Abstract

This paper analyses the conflict surrounding the construction of mega-dams along the Narm-ada river valley in central India. In particular, the paper examines various repertoires of resist-ance employed by theNarmada Bachao Andolan (save the Narmada movement, NBA) theprincipal protagonist resisting the Narmada valley development project. Various spaces ofeconomic, cultural, ecological, and political erasure are engendered by the construction of theNarmada dams, and the NBA articulates resistance, and engages in constructive developmentalternatives, in each of these spaces. The discursive articulations of resistance provide a crucialcounterpoint to material expressions of struggle. Discursive resistance takes the form of aca-demic analyses, peasant testimonials and slogans. Utilising Warren’s concept of testimonios,the paper argues that movement identity articulates a unity that effaces internal difference,contradiction and ambiguity. The paper concludes with some thoughts on the role of academicsin highlighting such ambiguities, in the context of collaboration with social movements. 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Narmada river; Spaces of erasure; Resistance; Testimony

In the Pawra hamlet of Domkhedi, Maharashtra, people watch the skies. It isMonsoon season, but the rains do not fall and the crops of maize are failing inthe drought. If the rains come then the village is faced with submergence fromthe reservoir of the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river. Villagers havepledged to drown rather than be forced from their homes and lands against theirwill. A group of perhaps fifty people are huddled under the meeting tent in thehamlet. Under the light of a single hurricane lamp, the faces ofadivasis (tribal

∗ Tel.: +44-141-330-5171; fax:+44-141-330-4894.E-mail address: [email protected] (P. Routledge).

0962-6298/03/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/S0962-6298(02)00095-1

244 P. Routledge / Political Geography 22 (2003) 243–270

people) are dimly illuminated. A waning moon casts a silvery light across theNarmada river. In the distance the thrum of a motor boat fades into the darkness.One by one the assembled men relate their testimonies concerning the impacts oflarge dam construction in their valley—the trauma of displacement, the hardshipsand deceits of resettlement, the ongoing struggle for justice. Testimonies fill thespace within the meeting long into the night, recounting adivasis’ experiencesof erasure

(Personal research diary entry, Domkhedi, August 13th, 2000).The testimonies of adivasis in a tribal hamlet in central India form part of a discur-

sive repertoire of resistance that challenges state—and corporate—sponsored devel-opment in the Narmada valley. In the flow of words that follow, I want to chart theprocesses of erasure that threaten the people of the Narmada valley, and which havegiven rise to the movement that attempts to resist erasure, the Narmada BachaoAndolan (save the Narmada Movement, hereafter NBA). In particular, I want toanalyse the discursive flows of the movement, understanding such flows as a fieldof strategies that create knowledge about the development of dams in the Narmadavalley, and their human and ecological consequences (Foucault, 1979). No idlemeanders, the naras (slogans), testimonies and analyses of the movement are criticaltactics in the movement’s struggle against governmental development discourse,which legitimises various processes of erasure in the Narmada valley. While the warof words launched by the NBA attempts to challenge the limits on what can be saidabout development and by whom, such discursive resistance also elides the move-ment’s internal power relations and contradictions. This paper opens with a briefdiscussion of economic development in India and the official discourses that legit-imise the construction of the dams on the Narmada River. The paper then examinesthe various processes of erasure that accompanies such construction. The paperexamines the discursive and material resistance to erasure conducted by the NBA,and closes by raising certain questions about the role of the academic in analysingsuch processes.

Development, discourse, and the Narmada dams

The Narmada valley development project (NVDP) entails the construction of aseries of dams—30 mega-dams, 135 medium sized dams, and 3000 small dams—across the entirety of the Narmada river valley, which flows through the states ofMadhya Pradesh (MP), Maharashtra and Gujarat. The project, initiated in 1961, waspart of India’s post-independence plans to develop its agriculture and industry in aneffort to achieve economic and political self-reliance.

Certainly, economic development in India has had many successes. India has seenan increase in foodgrain production since the 1960s, and has diversified its industrialbase, life expectancy risen from 44 years in 1960 to 60 years today, and many urbaninhabitants enjoy (albeit unequal) access to electricity, piped drinking water, publiceducation, and health care (Brass, 1990; Corbridge & Harriss, 2000; Khilnani, 1997;

245P. Routledge / Political Geography 22 (2003) 243–270

Rudolph & Rudolph, 1987). As Rangan (1996) notes, development is often inter-preted as ‘vikas’ in India, which incorporates the idea of moving towards a newsocial era, implying greater social equality and prosperity for all citizens.

However, there is also a dark side to the development experience in India. Forexample, Fernandes and Thukral (1989) estimate that at least 15 million people havebeen displaced by development projects since Independence. Concerning India’s3600 large dams, there are more flood-prone and drought-prone areas in the countrythan in 1947 (Mishra & Rangachari, 1999), and 200 million people in India do nothave access to safe drinking water (World Resource Institute, 1998).

Scott (1998) has argued that state-initiated development planning in much of theThird World has often resulted in human and environmental disasters owing to theconvergence of four elements. First, states have engaged in the administrativeordering of nature and society, simplifying ground-reality (and ignoring localknowledge) for the purposes of planning, and in doing so effacing or radically trans-forming that ground-reality. Second, states have adopted a high modernist ideology,putting their faith in the legitimacy of scientific and technical progress, which hasoften been embodied in certain forms of planning such as huge dams. Third, stateshave often engaged in authoritarian and coercive practices to ensure that such highmodernist plans come into being. Fourth, there has often been a weakly developedcivil society, lacking the capacity to resist such planning (Scott, 1998: 3–5). In thecase of India since Independence—and certainly with regards to the planning andinitial construction of some of the Narmada dams—I would argue that the first threeof the elements have been present. These have resulted in development as erasure,which I shall discuss in the next section. The exception has been the capacity ofpeople who live along the Narmada valley to resist.

Discourses of development

In keeping with Scott’s analysis, official Indian discourses of development havetended to associate a (Westernised) culture of progress and modernity—what Visvan-athan (1985) terms a ‘vision of conquest’—with development projects such as largedams. Meanwhile ‘non-modern’ , traditional and indigenous systems of knowledgehave been devalued, and portrayed as ‘unscientific’ and ‘ irrational’ . By their veryexistence, such practices have been perceived by development planners as in theway of India’s continued modernisation, and more recently, liberalisation.1 Thedeployment of development has frequently been preceded by the discursive creationof abnormalities in a place (such as environmental degradation). Such problems havethen required the professionalisation and institutionalisation of development prac-tices. These have taken place through the discourses of development experts, and

1 With the liberalisation of the Indian economy, has come the increasing influence of global actorssuch as the World Bank and transnational corporations upon Indian development schemes. For example,the World Bank sanctioned loans totalling US$ 450 million for the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP). Althoughthe Bank eventually withdrew from the project, the financial momentum for development of the SSP hadbeen set in motion.


the colonisation of the development process by ‘authorities’ such as the NarmadaControl Authority (NCA)2 (Escobar, 1984, 1995). Further, to rationalise the ‘ trans-formation’ of culture and livelihood, particular developments must be redolent withpromise for prospective customers and beneficiaries. In the context of large damconstruction, promises concerning the alleviation of drought and the provision ofsustainable development have permeated the discourses of development.

For example, in a recent article published in Ambio, Ahmad (1999), Director(Rehabilitation) at the NCA explains how the Sardar Sarovar dam—the largest ofthe Narmada dams—will bring sustainable development to the Narmada valley. Inthis discourse, submergence of the valley and displacement of people are requiredto bring water, electricity, and environmental improvements to an already eroded,degraded landscape. Those responsible for this degradation—the people of the val-ley—are thus dispensable. Ahmad argues:

Human activities…have accelerated ecological degradation in the basin…popul-ation pressure…unplanned land use; timber, fuel and fodder demand; overgrazing;encroachment etc…[have resulted in] barren soils, and declining food production;[and] deterioration of the socioeconomic and cultural environments. The develop-ment of the Sardar Sarovar (Narmada) Project…is probably the most viable sol-ution for the sustainable development of the basin

(Ahmad, 1999: 399–403).Furthermore, Ahmad (1999) recognises that there will be massive human displace-

ment from the valley ‘ (m)ore than 40,000 families will be affected by the project’(p. 400), but assures us that ‘benefits are being extended to displaced families toimprove their quality of life’ (p. 401) and that for displaced adivasis ‘attention hasbeen paid to protection of their socioeconomic and cultural environments’ (p. 400).

However, a closer analysis of the realities of displacement and resettlement chal-lenges the discursive assurances provided by the professionals of the developmentprocess. In the next section I will detail the various processes of erasure that willaccompany the development of the Narmada dams.

Development as erasure3

Displacement and resettlement as economic erasure

According to the government, the SSP, when completed, will affect 245 villagesin three states (Sangvai, 2000).4 Officially submergence will displace 40,000 families

2 The supposedly independent authority supervising construction of the SSP.3 The notion of erasure was developed by me in another paper written under the non de plume Pablo

Kala (Kala, 2001).4 One hundred and ninty-three villages in MP, 33 villages in Maharashtra, and 19 villages in Gujarat.


deemed ‘project affected persons’ (PAPs) by the planners and bureaucrats.5 Mean-while, according to official data, the construction of the Maheshwar project—whichis to be built in the Nimar region of MP—will affect, through submergence, thehomes, lands, and livelihoods of approximately 40,000 people in 61 villages in thearea (Schuking, 1999).

However, such calculations are based upon a mathematics of erasure. The con-struction of the SSP involves a series of other associated developments. Theseinclude an immense canal network (to channel the Narmada’s waters to Gujarat),compensatory afforestation, catchment area treatment schemes, construction workercolonies, a wildlife sanctuary at Shoolpaneeshwar, and secondary displacement forthe rehabilitation of the Narmada oustees. None of the people who will be impactedby these developments are considered PAPs by the government. According to theNBA, approximately 85,000 families face displacement by the SSP. In total the SSP,when completed, will cause the displacement of 4,00,000 people and a further6,00,000 will have their livelihoods seriously impacted (McCully, 1996; Ram, 1993;Sangvai, 2000).

According to an independent review of the Maheshwar dam, construction isunderway despite the unavailability of even the most preliminary demographic andsocio-economic data, and with wholly inadequate resources and capability to carryout appropriate resettlement and rehabilitation (Bissell, Singh, & Warth, 2000). Evenwhere official data is available, it erases ground reality. A member of Urgewald, aGerman NGO who investigated the impacts of the dam, found that S. Kumars6 hadassessed that the number of houses to be submerged in the village of Sulgaon to be196. In reality the village has over 400 houses (Schuking, 1999). Moreover, theMaheshwar dam will submerge some of the most fertile agricultural land in India,consisting of black cotton soils, which enable farmers to grow three crops a year,including cotton, pulses, and various grains, fruits, and vegetables. The economicsof displacement and resettlement for these people will mean the erasure of theirprosperity. In addition, the resettlement plan only considers landed families. How-ever, the Narmada river sustains a host of communities whose livelihoods are basedupon sand quarrying, fishing (Kahars), ferrying (Kevats), and draw down agri-culture.7 This accounts for between 7000 and 8000 families, all of whose livelihoodsare to be erased without compensation (Agarwal, 2000; Roy, 1999). In Pathrad,Neerav, a Dalit fisherman, referred to this, commenting:

If the dam is made and the water rises we are finished. We depend on fishing.Neither the contractors nor the government will discuss what happens to thepeople. We fish and collect silt from the river, which we sell as soil. With thewater rising, we don’ t have the tools to fish. If the dam is built we are com-pletely finished

5 To date 50 villages have already been submerged by the SSP.6 The private company granted the contract for developing the Maheshwar dam as part of a government

initiative to involve the private sector in power generation.7 i.e. the cultivation of draw down silt banks.


(Interview, Pathrad, 1999).Of course, the economics of erasure has a method of dealing with (at least some

of) its victims. The lack of adequate resettlement and rehabilitation policies andprovision for oustees of development projects in India since Independence has beenextensively documented (Fernandes and Thukral, 1989; Lokayan Bulletin, 1995). Inthe particular case of the SSP, the resettlement package differs between the threeriparian states. PAPs from Gujarat, or those from Maharashtra and MP willing tomove to Gujarat, are eligible for a minimum of 2 ha (five acres) or irrigable landin the command area of the project as well as house sites and some cash compen-sation. Major sons (those over 18 years) and landless families are also eligible for2 ha under Gujarat’s policy. Landless oustees and major sons settling in Maharashtrareceive only 1 ha; those in MP are not eligible for any land (International RiversNetwork, 1994).

The reality of resettlement has been quite different. The World Bank’s independentreview discovered that those who had been resettled due to the SSP had tended toface a multitude of hardships including: (i) a lack of grazing lands, firewood, drinkingwater, and cremation facilities; (ii) poor quality, flood-prone cropland, land whichis not irrigable and plots which are less than the 2 ha promised; (iii) disputes overownership of resettlement plots and conflicts with host communities; and (iv) vil-lages, hamlets and even families split up among many different resettlement sites8

(Morse & Berger, 1997).9 Meanwhile, the MP government has admitted that it doesnot have the available land to resettle the numbers of people that will be displacedby the SSP (International Rivers Network, 1994).10

Resettlement replaces dependence on subsistence economies and the commons bydependence on the cash economy, increasing people’s vulnerability to debt. Whileindebtedness was virtually absent from the village of Manibeli, once resettled in theSSP site of Parveta in Maharashtra, 80% of the households were forced to take outloans in 8 years after displacement began (McCully, 1996). In Jalsindhi, a Bhil adiv-asi village in MP, Luharia put it like this:

Here we get things without money—fodder, fuel, wood for housing. In resettle-ment everything needs money therefore we must take loans and we are trappedin the cash economy. We have never had to migrate for work—everything weneed is here

(Interview, Jalsindhi, 2000).

8 The inhabitants from the 19 villages slated for submergence in Gujarat have been scattered to 175separate rehabilitation sites (Roy, 1999).

9 Having said this, the experiences of resettlement have been varied. As Dwivedi (1999) has argued,some resourceful farmers from MP have managed to acquire quality land in Gujarat, and for some landlesslabourers, resettlement has been a risk worth taking. Still others have ended up leasing their allotted landsto farmers in host communities and have returned to their submergence-threatened villages.

10 Six dams have already been completed along the Narmada river: Bargi, Barna, Tawa, Sukhta, Kolar,and Matiari.


Economic erasure can also be fatal. For example, in the first year at the resettle-ment site of Parveta former inhabitants of Manibeli watched 38 of their children die(Roy, 1999). Economic erasure also means the erasure of alternatives. Small scaleand traditional systems of water harvesting water more land than large dam andcanal schemes and tend to be more productive and sustainable. For example, it hasbeen calculated that small scale water harvesting schemes such as small check damsand bunds, and the regeneration of watershed vegetation, could potentially collect afifth of the rain which falls in Gujarat, an amount 50% more than the water suppos-edly to be delivered by the SSP (McCully, 1996). However, 85% of Gujarat’s irri-gation budget has been invested in the SSP (Roy, 1999). Meanwhile, vernacular,commonly owned irrigation systems such as the tank11 are being replaced by govern-ment-promoted privately owned tube wells which increase private control over water(McCully, 1996).

Ecological erasure

The Narmada river runs for 820 miles (1312 km) through the Indian states of MP,Maharashtra, and Gujarat, passing though fertile plains and a series of hill rangessuch as the Vindhyas and Satpuras. According to government statistics, the SSPalone, when completed, will submerge 37,690 ha (86,088 acres) of land, which com-prise 11,279 ha of agricultural land, 13,542 ha of forests, and 12,869 ha of riverbeds and waste lands (Kothari & Ram, 1994).12 Once all of the dams are constructed,the entire valley will be submerged.

Concerning the reduction of biodiversity, Kothari and Ram (1994) and Morse andBerger (1997) highlighted the impacts of the loss of fish and agricultural land toadivasi communities who depend on them for their nutrition and livelihoods. People,like the Pawra and Bhil adivasis, who have lived by the Narmada River for gener-ations, are the most authoritative sources concerning the ecological changes broughtabout by the SSP. After all, their livelihoods and culture—so entwined with the localecology—are also subject to the same threat of erasure that casts its shadow overthe environment. People’s trust in the river and their local traditional knowledge isnow threatened:

When the Narmada would swell we would know rains were coming—the riverand the rain were related. Now everything depends on the dam and the dam gates.The upper dams have affected the system of nature. Earlier we would know thefour months when the monsoon would be here.13 In the third and fourth months,on full moon days, the river would swell. During the rains the river would behave

11 A small reservoir impounded by a dam across a seasonally flooded depression or gully (McCully,1996).

12 The MP state government has already commenced massive tree felling operations in the valley, toexploit the economic value of the trees before they are submerged (Interviews, Domkhedi, 1999, 2000).Given the importance of trees to local culture and livelihood, we might term this ‘preemptive erasure’ .

13 These are budhbua, dalvaliya, rakiyo, and kheliya.


just like a nala14—from all its catchments it would swell and be a torrent andafter a few days it would return to normal. Now because of the dam nothing ispredictable, because the water is not flowing anymore and it depends on waterreleased from the upper dams. Therefore it brings changes to traditional knowl-edge of how the river behaves—the knowledge system of the river

(Interview with Narsing Munga Vadvi, Domkhedi, 2000).Changes in the hydrology of the river also precipitate changes in people’s health.

Kothari and Ram (1994) and Morse and Berger (1997) argue that the presence ofthe SSP reservoir, as well as residual water pools and waterlogged surrounding lands,could increase the incidence of diseases such as malaria. Indeed, residents along theNarmada claim that since the waters of the river have become sullen, so mosquitoeshave been able to breed and the incidence of malaria has increased (Interviews,Domkhedi, Jalsindhi, Nimgavhan, 1999, 2000).

It may come as a surprise to learn that, the SSP was not subject to a comprehensiveenvironmental impact assessment (EIA) prior to clearance. The clearance given tothe SSP in 1987, by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, was conditional. Itwas stipulated that within a specified time period, various assessments and work-plans had to be prepared—the implication being that if not prepared, clearance wouldbe revoked, and further construction would be halted (Kothari & Ram, 1994). How-ever, ecological erasure entails the erasure of environmental controls and planning.In short it involves a politics of erasure (see later). In the service of ecologicalerasure, the original purposes of environmental assessments have been completelysubverted in the case of the SSP. During the late 1980s, the World Bank and Indianauthorities agreed that environmental studies should be done parallel with, ratherthan before, work on the dam. Using the logic of erasure, it was argued that anyenvironmental impacts would necessarily be less than the purported benefits of theproject. However, the authorities did not know what the environmental conditionsprior to construction were, what the scale of the impacts would be, nor how muchproject benefits might be curtailed by environmental factors such as unsuitable soilsin the areas slated for irrigation (McCully, 1996). In short, the logic of ecologicalerasure means that, in the words of the World Bank’s independent review, theapproach pursued in the development of the SSP ‘subverts any acceptable notion ofecological planning’ (quoted in McCully, 1996: 57).

Cultural erasure

The Narmada river valley is home to a range of different people, including wealthyPatidar cash crop farmers of the Nimar region and adivasi subsistence farmers suchas the Bhil, Bhilala, and Pawra. The valley has been these peoples’ home for gener-ations, and the river is of great cultural and spiritual importance to all communities,whether Hindu or Animist. As Baviskar notes:

14 Stream, tributary.


The link between nature and society is central to the religious belief of the adivasisof the hills…For Bhilalas, affecting nature’s cycle is intrinsic to a cosmology thatimbues all natural phenomena with spiritual life, so that the hills, trees, stonesand crops actively intervene in people’s daily life. The conjunction of the natural,spiritual and social worlds can be seen in the collective performance of the mostimportant Bhilala ritual—indal pooja (the worship of the union of the rain andearth which brings forth grain)…The gayana, creation myth sung during indal,links the origin of the world to the river Narmada. Adivasis refer to the river asNarmada mata (mother)…

(Baviskar, 1995: 90–91).For Hindus, Narmada is, literally, ‘ the giver of bliss’ , born of the body of the

Hindu deity Shiva, Narmada is worshipped as mother. The people along her banksconsider Narmada to be more sacred than the Ganga. As Paranjype notes:

The Matsya Purana says that all sins are washed away by bathing thrice in thesaraswati, seven times in the Yamuna, once in the Ganga, but the mere sight ofthe Narmada is enough to absolve one of all sins

(Paranjype, 1991: 23).There are numerous sacred places, or tirthas, along both banks of the river, includ-

ing temples, ghats,15 villages such as Amarkantak (the source), Omkareshwar, andMaheshwar, and also other regions. For generations, devotees have undertaken aparikrama, a foot pilgrimage, circumambulating the river which traditionally takesthree years, three months and three days (Deegan, 1977; Paranjype, 1991). The riverhas several sacred roles: “ [a]s a river it is an idol. As a deity, it is subject to, andgiver of, darshan,16 As a temple, it is circumambulated. As a tirtha, it is a sacredcrossing” (Deegan, 1977: 66).

People who live beside the Narmada feel a deep sense of attachment to the parti-culars of the landscape—to the sounds, the smells, the look, the feelings that areengendered by living in the place. In addition, what the land provides—the sorghum,maize, millet, pulses, oilseed, tendu leaves, mahua flowers, gums, and fruits—isimbued in the cultural practices of the people. People’s language, their sense ofcommunity, their faith in the bonds of kinship, and the structures of material andemotional aid given to one another, the memories of people’s ancestors evoked byparticular settings, are tied to the place of their inhabitancy. The imagined worldsof both Hindus and adivasis, interpreted—albeit in different ways—through myths,stories, songs, and poems, are specifically placed on banks of the Narmada (Baviskar,2000). Ranyadaya evokes the intimate connection between ethnicity and ecology—what Parajuli (1996) terms ‘ecological ethnicity’—when he says:

15 Steps down to the river, used for taking purifying baths in the waters and for worshipping the river.16 Literally ‘viewing’ meaning a perception of the Divine, and worshipping the divine representation

as ‘ idol’ (Hartsuiker, 1993).


The place has a living history. We have lived here for 20 generations. The landis not only for us but for ants and insects and cattle and birds and trees and godsand demons—for all of us together

(Interview, Domkhedi, 2000).Flooding by the SSP submerges more than just the land. In addition to the erasure

of their livelihoods and their physical environment, the adivasis of Jalsindhi andDomkhedi, the Hindus of the Nimar region, and all those who live along the riverare faced with cultural submergence. As the river’s sacred sites will be submerged,as people are forcibly displaced, so the specificity of their culture that has beennurtured by proximity to the Narmada river and its landscape for generations willbe lost. In the adivasi village of Pimpalchop, Maharashtra, Cheema commented uponthe importance of the river to local culture and the cynical vacuity of governmentattempts to reproduce sacred sites:

Narmada is life for us. Our drinking water is from the river. The water for ourcrops comes from the river, and when we are ill we do puja by the river to getwell. All the small temples by the side of the river have been covered by thesubmergence. In Manibeli, the important temple of Shoolpaneshwar was sub-merged. Many festivals were held there, centuries old, and people from all overwould go there for festivals. The government has built another temple near thesite, but it has no meaning for the people—you can’ t replace centuries of faith

(Interview, Pinpalchop, 1999).

Political erasure

On the 18 October 2000, the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court deliveredits verdict on the public interest litigation filed by the NBA against the Union ofIndia and the state governments of Gujarat, MP and Maharahtra.17 After six and ahalf years of litigation, the majority verdict of the Court18 was that the constructionof the SSP be completed as ‘expeditiously’ as possible. The ruling went on to saythat the Court should play no role in deciding such matters. The Court’s majorityjudgment determined that environmental clearance was ‘only an administrativerequirement’ and declared: “Pleas relating to height of the dam and the extent ofthe submergence, environmental studies and clearance, hydrology, seismicity andother issues except implementation of relief and rehabilitation, cannot be raised atthis belated stage” (Roy, 2000).19

17 The MP government has now filed a suit in the Supreme Court for a complete review of the projectby a new tribunal.

18 The majority judgment was that of Chief Justice Anand and Justice Kirpal. A dissenting judgmentwas written by Justice Bharucha.

19 Much of this section borrows from a critique of the Court’s judgement articulated by the authorArundhati Roy.


Such are the politics of erasure. Despite the lack of adequate rehabilitation pro-vision, despite the absence of an adequate EIA, despite the economic, ecological,and cultural erasures that have, or threaten to be, enacted, the SSP is to be completedas quickly as possible. According to the Court there is no evidence that the construc-tion of large dams has any adverse environmental effects. The politics of erasurenecessitates the erasure of evidence to the contrary. For example, the erasure of astudy by the Expert Committee on River Valley projects in India which found that89% of them violated the guidelines laid down by the Ministry of the Environment(Roy, 2000). Or, indeed, the minority judgement given by Justice Barucha, whichcalled for the complete stoppage of work at the dam and the establishment of renewedenvironmental clearance based on social and environmental impact studies andaction plans.

The Court went on to decree that the SSP should be completed according to theguidelines set out by the 1979 Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award (Patel,1997). However, those guidelines—concerning adequate rehabilitation and resettle-ment provisions—have been continually violated, and the Tribunal Award will besupervised by the ‘ independent’ NCA whose chairman is the Secretary of the Minis-try of Water Resources (Roy, 2000).

Through the discourse of the judiciary we see precisely what is entailed by theerasure of space in all of its dimensions. Abstract space as Lefebvre (1991) argues,is the objectified space of the state, which empties places of differential subjectivity,lived experience and local meaning in the interests of economic, political, and cul-tural domination. The dominating discourses of the state and its institutions are shotthrough with state-centred—and, under the sign of globalisation, corporate-biased—abstractions like ‘national interest’ , ‘administrative requirements’ , and ‘develop-ment’ . Through such abstractions it seeks to erase the rights of particular communi-ties, and erase difference and diversity in the interests and propagation of the same.These abstractions are encoded with hegemonic geopolitics and geoeconomics—per-petrated by the agents of the state and globalisation—for which the people and theenvironment of the Narmada valley are simply dispensable.

State hegemony, as Gramsci (1971) argued, consists of coercion and consent.Given that the development of the Narmada dams is going ahead without the consentof the vast majority of the people of the valley—itself a prime example of the erasureof the political process in a supposedly democratic society—then the politics oferasure must resort to coercion. In other words, when it cannot rely on the courts,or on accommodation to erase opposition, the state must repress dissent. In 1992,the human rights group Asia Watch reported that thousands of the opponents of theSSP had:

…been subjected to arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions, beatings and other formsof physical abuse. These abuses appear to be part of an increasingly repressivecampaign by the state governments involved to prevent the groups organizingsupport for the protests…and disseminating information about the environmentaland social consequences of the project


(Gossman, 1992: 1).Police have also been guilty of the rape of young adivasi women, and the death—

by firing—of a 15 year old adivasi boy, Rehmal Puniya Vasave (Sangvai, 2000).Arrests, detentions, harassment, physical violence, and the prevention of people’smovement all continue to be perpetrated by state governments to this day, frequentlyin direct violation of the laws of the land.20 A recent example occurred on 24 August2000, when the NBA had invited several dignitaries from civil society to attend the‘Saga of the Narmada’ public hearing in Nimgavhan, Maharashtra. Several of thesepeople, including a retired Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court (RajendraSachchar), a former Member of Parliament (Haroobhai Mehta), a human rights acti-vist (Girishbhai Patel) and the editor, of a Marathi women’s magazine (Vidhya Bal),were illegally arrested in Baroda and prevented from participating in the public hear-ing in the Narmada Valley. In preventing law-abiding citizens from attending a legalpublic hearing, the state government of Gujarat acted fully within the remit of thepolitics of erasure. It exhibited a complete contempt for the law, and betrayed itsfear and distrust of ideas and opinions that are different to its own—a fear that mustbe assuaged by repression. Such fear was epitomised by the spectacle of BookerPrize-winning novelist Arundhati Roy—whose book on the Narmada dams, TheGreater Common Good (1999) had already been subjected to a public burning bySSP supporters in Gujarat—arriving by boat at Nimgavhan, being pursued by boatfull of police.21

If all of the projected dams are constructed along the Narmada up to 15 millionpeople will be affected by the project—either by being forcibly evicted from theirhomes and lands as they are submerged, or by having their livelihoods seriouslydamaged (Roy, 2001). Since their consent to be erased has not been sought, thevictims of erasure have but one path open to them. They must resist. In the wordsof Ranyadaya: “we live in the time of exploitation - that’s why we have to fight”(Interview, Domkhedi, 2000).

The resistance to erasure

The struggle against the dams has been ongoing for 15 years, organised since1985 by the NBA.22 Dwivedi (1997) has argued that the movement exhibits a ‘core-periphery’ structure. It consists of a core group of dedicated activists (15–20 people),

20 A Bill has recently been passed in the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha—the MP Special SecuritiesAct—which gives the administration the right to term any people’s organisation (or person) which opposesthe government as an unlawful organisation (or person), and gives it seeping powers to jail the person(s)and sell their property.

21 The reaction of state governments to the NBA has varied between states and within states. Forexample, the Gujarat government has tended to be more repressive towards the NBA than the governmentof MP. The latter has used both coercion and accommodation in its dealings with the NBA.

22 Initially concerned with adequate rehabilitation, the NBA adopted an anti-dam position in 1988. Fora deep history of the Andolan see Sangvai (2000).


mostly highly educated and professionally qualified, who constitute the leadershipof the movement, and who take the major decisions regarding resources, strategies,and politics of the NBA. Many of these activists come from outside of the Narmadavalley and operate from the movement’s urban offices. They are concerned withliasing with NGO’s and other activist groups nationally and internationally, con-ducting research, documentation, and dissemination; lobbying with governmentdepartments, international organisations and the media; mobilising and coordinatingprotests in the valley; raising funds and planning strategies. The support groups ofthe NBA comprise Indian activists groups and NGO’s outside of the valley, withinterests in human rights, the environment, and alternative development. They pro-vide logistical and financial support as well as participating in actions within thevalley. They also serve as links between the NBA and other struggles in India. TheNBA also has local level committees constituting small informal groups of localpeople who lend logistical support to the movement. In the Nimar plains—one ofthe areas threatened by submergence if the dams are constructed—these groups con-sist largely of rich and influential farmers. In the adivasi areas, those influencingcommunity power structures play an important role in forming and running suchgroups. These groups participate in demonstrations and rallies and also raise funds(Dwivedi, 1997; Interviews Baroda, Domkhedi, 2000).

The NBA has conducted its resistance simultaneously across multiple scales. Ithas grounded its struggle against the dams, in the villages along the Narmada valley,mobilising adivasi (tribal) peasants, cash-cropping peasants, and rich farmers to resistdisplacement. The NBA has been able to use their local knowledge of the valley tofacilitate communication between disparate communities, and to mobilise, at times,tens of thousands of peasants to resist the dams. The NBA has also taken its struggleto non-local terrains, including the national and international levels. Nationally, theNBA has served writ petitions to the Supreme Court of India, and has established,and participated as a convener in, the National Alliance of People’s Movements—a coalition of different social movements in India collectively organising to resistthe effects of liberalisation upon the Indian economy. Internationally, the NBA hasforged operational links with various groups outside of India, such as the Inter-national Rivers Network (IRN), and the International Narmada Campaign.23 Variousgroups who have visited the Narmada valley over the years to learn about the strug-gle, to participate, and to subsequently disseminate information about it, continue tomaintain links with the NBA and conduct solidarity work on its behalf. For example,the German NGO Urgewald produced a comprehensive report based upon theirresearch in the Narmada valley on the effects of the Maheshwar Dam, while thegroup Narmada UK was formed after several individuals who had participated inthe 1999 ‘Rally for the Valley’ along the Narmada, and the subsequent People’sGlobal Action (PGA) conference in Bangalore, decided to conduct solidarity work

23 A broad alliance of interested groups and NGO’s whose terrain of resistance was that of internationallobbying against the World Bank’s financial support for the largest of the Narmada dams, the SardarSarovar (Udall, 1997).


in the UK in support of the NBA. Various demonstrations have been undertakenincluding the banner drop that was conducted from the Millennium Wheel in Londonin November 1999.

A convergence of individuals, NGOs, and social movements have participated inthe NBA’s struggle. At the satyagraha24 during July–September 2000, participantsincluded local adivasis, farmers from the nearby Nimar Plains, members of NAPM,Indian students, activists from a range of Indian women’s, environmental, and peas-ant organisations, and international activists, researchers, and students from Britain,Canada, US, and the Netherlands. International solidarity work has been conductedby groups such as International Rivers Network (IRN), Environmental Defence Fund,Friends of the Earth; human and indigenous rights groups such as Survival Inter-national; development organisations such as Association for India’s Development;and groups formed explicitly around the Narmada issue such as the Narmada Soli-darity Coalition of New York. These in turn are also part of larger networks suchas the Narmada Action Committee and Friends of River Narmada which are mainlyUS-based collectives of South Asian, development and environmentalist activistswhich have developed links with other groups through flows of common experience,writings, and materials such as documentaries. As part of a broader convergence,the NBA has been actively involved with the People’s Global Action network sincethe latter’s formation in Geneva in 1998. NBA activists have participated in the 1999Inter-continental caravan as well as the global days of action in Seattle and Prague,while still others have mounted concurrent protests within India.

The Andolan has waged two interrelated forms of struggle. First, it has wageda representational struggle over the meaning of such processes as democracy anddevelopment. This has involved a discursive conflict over very different imaginedgeographies, pitting the abstract space of the state and of transnational corporations—what I have termed a space of erasure—against the lived space of adivasi and peasantcommunities. Such a ‘war of words’ has included the testimonies, songs, poems,and naras, (slogans) of the Andolan, as well as detailed research and analysis onthe impacts of the dams, and on sustainable development alternatives. Second, theAndolan has waged a material struggle, over land and water resources, where thepeople of the valley struggle to protect their cash crop and subsistence livelihoods,and their cultures against exploitation and erasure. Their tactics of struggle span therepertoires of resistance, including institutional and extra-institutional forms of con-flict, and myriad methods of non-violent direct action—from demonstrations andrallies, to satyagraha camps and occupations, fasts, and hunger strikes. Throughoutthe conflict, the Andolan has deployed moral idioms of discursive resistance braidedwith mutually supporting practices of material resistance.

24 Litreally ‘ truth force’ . Each Monsoon since 1991, the NBA has initiated non-violent satyagrahas,whereby villagers in the submergence-threatened areas near the dams resist eviction from their homes,pledging to remain even at the risk of being drowned.


Material resistance

The NBA articulates resistance within a number of interrelated realms withinsociety. Each realm corresponds to a form of erasure described before. This multi-dimensionality is indicative of an alternative politics that seeks to create autonomousspaces of action outside of the state and transcorporate arenas (Peet & Watts, 1993).In the political realm, the NBA has challenged the state-centred, and increasinglytranscorporate-biased character of the political process, articulating critiques of neo-liberal development ideology and of the role of the state. By articulating concernsof justice and ‘quality of life’ , the NBA has enlarged the conception of politics toinclude the autonomy and dignity of diverse individuals and groups. For example,the NBA, in concert with adivasi communities along the valley has initiated a pro-gramme of ‘our rule in our villages’ . Founded upon the belief that the state is thecause of exploitation and deprivation in the Narmada valley, this programme assertsautonomy from the state and its developmental apparatus, and seeks to engage withalternative development practices (Kothari & Parajuli, 1993). As Dwivedi notes:

Translated into policies and actions, the slogan implied non-cooperation with anunresponsive government and the development of self-reliant institutions andactions in the villages. The resolve was that villages would henceforth boycottgovernment activities like census operations and oppose all survey work relatedto resettlement. They would also take up reconstruction activities such as soilconservation, irrigation works, health training, and adult education

(Dwivedi, 1998: 153).In the environmental realm, the NBA is involved in a struggle to protect local

ecological niches—e.g. forests, rivers—from the threats to their environmental integ-rity through the processes of erasure. The NBA has been involved in various typesof reconstruction work, or Nav Nirman, in the valley since 1991. Through the NavNirman programmes, the NBA has been actively engaged in alternative energy pro-jects, conservation work, tree planting, and agricultural initiatives in the valley(Interviews, Domkhedi, Jalshindhi, 1999, 2000).

In the economic realm, the NBA articulates a conflict over access to productivenatural resources such as forests, land, and water that are under threat of exploitationby the tri-riparian state governments and transnational corporations. Such economicdemands are not only concerned with maintaining adivasi and peasant use ofresources, which maintain their different livelihoods along the Narmada valley. Theyare also involved in the creation of new services in rural areas. For example, onIndependence day (15 August 2000), the first micro-hydel project was launched inDomkhedi. The project has an installed capacity of 300 W and provides light in eachof the eight houses in Khutavari-pada (hamlet) at Domkhedi. Along with generatingelectricity, the project brings drinking water from a spring to the houses, therebyreducing water carrying workloads, especially for adivasi women. Moreover, theproject is also of immense symbolic importance. Unlike the SSP, the project hasbeen undertaken with the consent of villagers and places the control over the benefits


being generated in their hands. In addition, the project shows that water and elec-tricity can be provided in an environmentally sustainable way without necessitatingerasure. The micro-hydel project is a model of hybrid knowledges. It was originallyconceived when two activist-engineers based in Kerala’s ‘People’s School of Energy’visited the Narmada valley on previous satyagrahas. The engineers had learned tech-niques of micro-hydel management from a London-based group, The IntermediateTechnology Development Group. Such alternative development, then, does not rep-resent a withdrawal and return to a pure grassroots existence, but rather a conver-gence of multiple, international actors interested in imagining a different develop-ment paradigm (Gandhi, 2001).

In the cultural realm, the identities and solidarities of the communities who supportthe NBA are grounded around issues of kinship, neighbourhood, and the social net-works of everyday life. The struggle against erasure is a cultural struggle, not onlyover material conditions and needs, but also over the practices and meanings ofeveryday life (Escobar, 1992). For example, as part of the Nav Nirman initiative in1991, two Jeevan shalas (schools for life) were established by the NBA for adivasichildren in Maharashtra, at Chimalkhedi (Akkalkua tehsil) and Nimgavhan (Akranitehsil). These schools were meant for both formal education and for children tounderstand their own society, heritage, and knowledge systems. There are now atotal of 10 schools, eight in Maharashtra, and one each in Gujarat and MP. Variousprogrammes have been launched, such as collecting medicinal herbs from the locale,and writing poems and stories in the children’s indigenous languages. While alsolearning state languages children are actively taught adivasi languages such as Pawriand Bhilali. Indeed, in 2000, the first book to ever be published in the Pawri languagewas published. The first was Amara Kanya (our stories), which includes a collectionof stories and also information on the trees, plants, and medicinal herbs of the forest.Given the intimate relationship between adivasi culture and the forest, such a bookprovides an important means of asserting and continuing adivasi culture that is underthe threat of erasure. The second was Aksharan Olkhan (getting to know alphabets),published in Pawri and Bhilali, to facilitate reading and writing in adivasi mothertongues—again an important means of strengthening education based upon the tra-ditional knowledges of adviasi communities (Narmada Bachao Andolan, 2000).

Alongside such longer-term initiatives, the NBA has utilised an array of non-violent tactics of resistance. In particular there have been monsoon satyagraha campssince 1991, at each of which the Andolan has declared jal samarpan (self sacrificein the rising waters of the Narmada). This was declared to force the government toinitiate a full independent review of the project, and to assert that the villagers wouldrather drown than be forcibly evicted from their homes and lands. In 1999, on twooccasions in July and August, the water rose up to the Samarpit Dal’s (drowningsquad) necks, but each time the squad were forcibly arrested by police to preventjal samarapan. In addition, another tactic frequently used by the NBA, in the contextof rallies and demonstrations, has been fasting or hunger striking. One of the mosteffective was undertaken during the Jan Vikas Sangharsh Yatra (struggle march forpeople’s development) in 1990—a six-day march by 8000 people across the Narmadavalley with the intention of ending up at the SSP construction site and physically


stopping work on the dam. The marchers were stooped at Ferkuva on the MP–Gujaratborder, by pro-dam supporters and the Gujarat state police. A month-long standoffensued, whereupon Medha Patkar25 and seven other marchers went on a hunger strikethat lasted 22 days (Sangvai, 2000). This strike, mediated by national and inter-national press, built upon existing pressure that the World Bank was facing fromthe International Narmada Action Committee26 which coordinated a campaign toinfluence legislators, finance ministers, and executive directors of the World Bank’smajor shareholder countries.27 Under intense pressure, the World Bank was forcedto constitute an independent review committee, the Morse Commission (Udall, 1997).The first independent review of any of the Bank-funded projects, the Morse Reportindicted the Bank on many counts (particularly concerning the lack of adequateresettlement provisions), leading to the withdrawal of the Bank from the SSP.

Such tactics rely upon an ability to articulate the moral and political justifiabilityof the NBA’s cause and the contrasting unjustifiability or moral violence of theNarmada dams and the actions of the state. In India fasting resonates with Hinduideas of sacrifice and of personal, spiritual and moral self-deprivation in the nameof family and other loyalties, and for a greater common good. Moreover, it alsoresonates with, and in many cases directly mimics, the strategies of Gandhi againstBritish colonialism in India: his insistence on non-violent protest (in the form offasts, yatras (marches)) to counter state violence and to call attention to unjust rule,and to mobilise grassroots support. Such tactics used by the NBA challenge thelegitimacy of the state insofar as the state exists primarily in a relationship of ward-ship of its citizens. One of the state’s obligations is to protect its citizens from harm—even is that harm is intentional on behalf of that citizen. For NBA activists to threatento sacrifice themselves by drowning in the rising water’s of the Narmada river—ifsuccessful—also symbolises the state’s failure to protect its citizens. Since indepen-dence, the Indian state’s legitimacy has been inextricably bound up with its abilityto both protect life and impart the benefits of development. Such actions as jal samar-pan and hunger strikes, strike at the heart of that moral legitimacy, articulating thecritique of the unjust actions of the state, and by contrast, the moral justness of theNBA cause which is embodied by personal deprivation or possible death (Gandhi,2001). Such morality is informed, in part, by narratives of self-sacrifice and martyr-dom (see later). In addition, the material resistance of the NBA is intimately entwinedwith its discourses of resistance to which I will now turn.

Discursive resistance

The deployment of demonstrations and rallies by the NBA are frequently in theform of public confrontations with officials involved in the Narmada project fromlocal revenue or forestry officials, to state leaders, to World bank officials (Dwivedi,

25 One of the leaders of the NBA, Patkar has spent the past 15 years in the Narmada valley organisingresistance to the dam project.

26 An international coalition of groups and NGOs.27 US, Japan, France, Germany and the UK.


1999). At these events the NBA demands that the state be held accountable foractions that belie the state’s claim to protect and enhance the well being of its citi-zens, through moral accusations, adivasi narratives of state violence, and tactics ofcivil disobedience. Development and other discourses become articulated and con-tested in such sites, drawing upon local experiences that attempt to show the dis-juncture between state claims of beneficence and local realities of corruption andviolence. Such resistance tactics neither deny authority tout court, nor uncriticallyaccept its legitimacy (Gandhi, 2001). Hence while the NBA can launch discursivecritiques of state practices, it also attempts to use established legal channels of thestate, such as India’s Supreme Court, to contest the legitimacy of development policyin the Narmada valley. The NBA has also attempted to use Indian legal provisions—for example concerning the necessity of EIAs in development projects—to highlighthow the Narmada dams are unlawful. While the NBA contests the Indian states’development discourse, the movement still appeals to the state because it retains thepower to resist the material effects related to the influence of international institutionsand transnational corporations in the Indian economy.

Discursive resistance, like its material counterpart, acts as a political disruptionin the unanimity implied by state discourses regarding development. In India, devel-opment is coded within a moral idiom; being equated with a prosperous, civilised,advanced society. However, through various discourses, the NBA critiques state andcorporate sponsored development, and articulates alternative forms of development.Such a war of words takes place within different, yet entangled spatial registers.

First, the NBA uses and produces academic and activist analyses of the ecological,social, and economic effects of the construction of big dams (International RiversNetwork, 1994; Kala, 2001; Kothari and Ram, 1994; McCully, 1996; NarmadaBachao Andolan, 1999). Such analyses are deployed in India at both state andnational levels (for example to challenge the construction of the dams in India’sSupreme Court). In addition, they are also deployed internationally for use by inter-national lobbying and solidarity groups. While attempting to use the state’s mech-anisms of legibility against it (e.g. law, science), the NBA has made use of lawyers,literate activists, scientists, and social scientists to contest the legitimacy of the Narm-ada project. In addition, the NBA has represented itself discursively as an environ-mental movement within a framework recognised by certain global audiences (e.g.environmental NGO’s such as the IRN). In so doing, the NBA has been able to drawupon a global discourse concerning the human and ecological impacts of dams inorder to lend itself legitimacy in its dealings with state governments. Through arange of discursive sites—e.g. protest letters to national and state governments,national, and international reportage via the internet—the NBA has been able tomaintain a national and international network of support (Baviskar, 2001).

Second, the NBA utilises adivasi and peasant testimonials, through eye-witnessaccounts and speeches at public demonstrations and village meetings. These aredeployed to address state injustices such as encroachment on tribal land, harrasment,corruption, and violence, as well as the effects of displacement and resettlement uponadivasi communities. Such discourses are deployed locally, to recruit more sup-porters to the struggle, and in confrontations with state and national officials. They


have also been used in the recent (2000), submission of the NBA to the InternationalLabour Organisation (ILO) concerning the effects of displacement upon tribal com-munities (Gandhi, 2001).

Warren’s concept of testimonios—developed in her analysis of indigenous Mayanresponses to state violence in Guatemala—is useful here.28

Testimonios, which have been widely used in Latin America to personalize thedenunciation of state violence and to demonstrate subaltern resistance, gain theirnarrative power from the metaphor of witnessing. On the one hand, they representeye-witness experiences, however mediated, of injustice and violence; on the otherhand, they involve the act of witnesses presenting evidence for judgement in thecourt of public opinion

(Warren, 1997: 22).In the Narmada valley, testimonials are important elements in both mobilisation

and education meetings in adivasi villages, as well as in large public demonstrationsand rallies held in regional towns and cities such as Bhopal, Mumbai, and Delhi.Such testimonials detail instances of harm done to the speaker by the state apparatusand its functionaries in the context of the Narmada project. For example, in theextract of a testimonial quoted below, Bawabhai, an adivasi from the village ofJalsindhi (threatened with submergence by the SSP reservoir) comments on how theriver has been silenced (by the reservoir), and with it the cleaning function of theriver, leading to illness in the community:

Narmada used to be a narrow, melodious river, where we could walk downthrough the forests to its edge. Earlier the river was melodious—now it hasbecome a silent river. When the river was flowing the water was very clean, thecattle had enough water to drink from the Narmada and the nala. Earlier duringthe rains all the dirt would be washed away by the nala into the Narmada andthe flowing Narmada would wash it away. Now siltation has taken place—cattleget caught in the silt and some die, and it is difficult to get access to the water.Sickness has increased due to the dirty water

(Interview, Jalsindhi, 2000).Bawabhai goes on to explain the desacralisation of place brought about by sub-

mergence:

Before there were many people doing parikrama. They would take shelter by therocks and we would give them food. Now far fewer take the parikrama. Manymandirs29 have been submerged and the route is more difficult. The blame is onthe government as they are responsible for submergence. God exists in everything

28 I am indebted to Ajay Gandhi for drawing my attention to this. See the work by Gandhi (2001).29 Temples.


and therefore it is not right to submerge places where so many people had theirfaith, for adivasis and non-adivasis. Jalsindhi Mata was a small temple, now it iscompletely submerged. Also the Narmada is a mother to us. Even people fromother villages came to our temple. Now we offer devotion from the village onlyin the name of our goddess, from the upper bank. They have drowned our gods

(Interview, Jalsindhi, 2000).Testimonials also provide justification for action and resistance. The crucial power

of these testimonials is to construct a reality where other adivasis will reconsiderstate efforts at resettlement and re-evaluate the risks and benefits of working withthe Andolan. Such testimonials are normative, constructing a political climate inwhich resistance occurs. By narrating corrupt state actions (in the case ofdevelopment) adivasis and activists produce adivasi resistance. As such testimonialsresult in mobilisation against the dams, since adivasis speak in the language of otherpotential oustees and recount experiences germane to their existence (Gandhi, 2001).Testimonials act to reinsert adivasis and their experiences into a social system thatmarginalises them and makes them invisible. As such, it symbolises a revoltagainst invisibility.

Supporting these testimonials are highly symbolic displays of reverence, whichcommemorate those who have died (such as Rehmal Vasave) or who have beeninjured as a result of state violence. In the summer of 1999, I attended a memorialfor Rehmal Vasave, where the sacrifice of those killed or assaulted by the statewas praised and the righteousness of the cause affirmed. As Dedlibhai attested ayear later:

It’s our land, forest, river and life. Not only governments but foreign companiesare trying to snatch this away. We have taken the challenge to save human life,protect human rights. Our Rehmal has sacrificed his life for us. We too are readyfor that

(Interview, Nimgavhan, 2000).By memorialising such incidents, the NBA is able to transform them into touch-

stones for further action, and also to insert them into human and indigenous rightscritiques articulated by human rights groups. For example, the Narmada InternationalHuman Rights Coalition was formed in the mid-1990s by over 20 NGO’s operatingin 40 countries allied to the NBA through solidarity organisations in the West(Gandhi, 2001).30

The siting of the testimonials is also important. They take place at village meetings

30 In 1989 and again in 2000, the NBA produced a formal submission to the ILO, using ILO Convention107 concerning state obligations to indigenous and tribal peoples, to protest the Indian state’s treatmentof adivasis in the Narmada valley. In particular the NBA focused upon the violation of article 6 (mandatingthe provision of economic development), article 11 (concerning indigenous ownership rights over tra-ditionally occupied lands) and article 12 (concerning state-initiated involuntary displacement of indigen-ous populations).


for local consumption (to inform and mobilise); at rallies and demonstrations (oftenoutside or within government offices) and with national and international presspresent. The testimonials offer visceral and passionate denunciations of state prac-tices, and underpin the moral legitimacy of the NBA’s struggle. They are enteredas grievances in the public record, and together with other testimonials form part ofthe overarching narrative of adivasi experience in the Narmada valley. However,such testimonials are voiced at rallies where there are adivasis present who are sym-pathetic to NBA cause, and who have chosen to ally themselves with it. Meanwhile,other adivasi communities in the valley have supported state initiatives related tothe Narmada project, allowing compensatory afforestation to take place on villageland, and accepting resettlement (Dwivedi, 1999). Moreover, there are many intra-and inter-village disputes concerning whether to accept government-sponsoredresettlement and rehabilitation and on what terms. Within some villages disputeshave arisen leading to some but not all families accepting resettlement and leaving,while others have remained. Some higher-ranking village leaders with existingrelationships to government bureaucrats have managed to obtain favourable resettle-ment terms while ignoring the fate of others in their villages. In the Narmada valley,it is not uncommon to find villages with some families living in resettlement sites,others that have been almost entirely resettled, and still others where those whoinitially relocated have returned due to poor loan conditions (Gandhi, 2001). Hence,movement testimonials are selective, seemingly speaking on behalf of the adivasiexperience in the Narmada valley, while representing only certain adivasi communi-ties.

Third, slogans (naras) also form an important component of the NBA’s discursiverepertoire. The term slogan owes its origin to the Gaelic word sluggh-ghairm (host-call) referring to the war cries and assembly signals of the Highland clans of Scot-land. In the context of the NBA, naras articulate what Castells (1997) terms the‘ resistance identity’ of the movement. Resistance identity is generated by socialactors based on principles different from, or opposed to, those permeating the insti-tutions of society. For the NBA, this identity voices both a sense of injustice andreligious and moral legitimacy in order to motivate people to resist. As succinctarticulations of the NBA’s counter-discourse of development, the slogans tend to beof use both within the movement, and at public expressions of movement identitysuch as demonstrations.

During the course of my research, I participated in two satyagraha camps (in1999 and 2000) and several of the NBA’s actions. Throughout my engagement withthe movement, naras acted as the pulse of the Andolan. In addition to performingthe traditional role of slogans—i.e. succinctly articulating movement demands withindemonstrations and rallies, and on protest banners and political graffiti—naras wereutilised for a range of purposes within the spaces of meetings and rallies. Theseincluded: (i) to lift the energy of a meeting (especially if it is long); (ii) to intersperseor punctuate a speech, to incite moments of participation and inclusion amongst theaudience; (iii) to fill a lull in a movement meeting, or during moments of prolongedsilence; (iv) to end a person’s speech, contribution, or introduction to a meeting; (v)to weave a meeting or crowd together; (vi) to propogandise the goals and demands


of the movement; (vii) to act as a greeting or farewell when activists arrive at ameeting in a village, or when they leave; (viii) as an call and response mechanismthat unifies the speaker and the audience; and (ix) to add voice to particular pointsmade by a speaker, as an echo and amplification of the speaker’s voice.

The naras of the NBA also represent the confluence of different, yet braidedcounter-hegemonic discourses. First, they articulate activists’ political intent in theface of threatened submergence and attempted eviction (e.g. Koi nahi hatega, bandhnahi banega—we shall not move, the dam will not be built). Second, they articulateadivasi’s customary rights (e.g. Jungal jameen kuni chee, amri chee, amri chee—towhom does the forest and land belong—it is ours it is ours). Third, they articulatethe politico-cultural project of the movement within adivasi areas of the valley (e.g.Humara gaon, mai humara raj—our rule in our villages). Fourth, they articulate acritique of the government’s economic policy (e.g. Vikas cha me yeh, vinaash nahi—we seek right development, not destruction) and the government’s compensatoryafforestation schemes (e.g. Jangal jangal dubadta—Rupa thanin kay karta—you aresubmerging forests, what’s the point of planting trees?). Fifth, they articulate move-ment solidarity amidst cultural differences (e.g. Hum sub ek hai—we are all one).Sixth, they articulate tribal unity amidst different adivasi groups (e.g. Adivasi ektazindabad, zindabad zindabad—victory to tribal unity, victory, victory). Finally, theyarticulate the self-sacrifice inherent in the practices of satyagraha (e.g. Doobengehpar hatengeh nahi—we shall drown but we shall not move).

Naras run like a river through the Andolan’s political practice. They are repeatedall the time: to punctuate talks in meetings, to end personal introductions at rallies,and for activists to call to one another from boats and hills. This discourse forms ariver that braids the ideology of the NBA together through its participants. It alsoweaves the NBA’s different constituencies—adivasi, caste Hindu, men, women—together. Hence when an NBA activist is speaking, every so often s/he will stop andchant a slogan to inspire people, to get them to participate in the meeting, to reinforcethe NBA critique of the dams. Moreover, for those who are illiterate, and for thosewho do not share same tongue (e.g. Bhilala, Pawri, Hindi, and English are all spokenin the satyagraha camps) naras become a common unifying discourse. They rep-resent a shared voice—albeit one generally spoken in Hindi—of the resistance,despite internal differences of gender, caste, political affiliation etc. As a group ofus walked over the hills beside the Narmada in the dark of night, Medha Patkar putit like this: “We will mark out the space between ourselves with slogans”(Jalsindhi, 2000).

Through its material and discursive resistance, the NBA has been able to constructitself as a non-violent movement of small peasants and adivasis confronting thedestructive development of local and national states. The NBA has gained muchrespectability in the national and international media and other ‘ reference publics’ ,through its use of ‘Gandhian idioms of protest, the palpable probity of its leadersand members, and its transparent functioning’ (Baviskar, 2001: 363). The power ofthe NBA’s discourse, supported by material resistance, has contributed to certainsuccesses of the movement:


The Andolan created the political space where the rights of adivasis (tribals)received special attention; its discussion of displacement brought to center-stageissues of control over ownership of land, forests, and water

(Baviskar, 2001: 363).In the process, the NBA has also raised political issues—such as the displacement

of people against their will in the name of national interest, and the absence ofconsultation with development-affected people about their impending fate. However,there are a range of complexities concerning movement structure, organisation andpower relations, that problematise the NBA’s claims to unity exemplified by theAndolan’s testimonies and slogans.

Ambiguities and the academic

Within every movement there is an entanglement of the powers of dominationand resistance—no movement has complete internal unity, despite public attemptsto speak with one voice. For example, within resistance practices, various ‘minordominations’ may occur, including the creation of internal hierarchies, the silencingof dissent, peer pressure and even violence. Moreover, various forces of hegemonyare often internalised, reproduced, echoed, and traced within social movement prac-tices. Social movements hence frequently suppress their own internal heterogeneitiesand subgroups in the interests of some broader strategy (Sharp, Routledge, Philo, &Paddison, 2000).

The various alliances that the NBA has forged with other adivasi and peasantorganisations within the three riparian states affected by the dam project have experi-enced their own problems of conflicting goals, priorities, and constituencies(Dwivedi, 1997, 1998). Moreover, the movement’s discourses of resistance have attimes empowered some threatened by displacement while excluding others who livein the valley—those who, while also threatened by displacement, prefer to acceptresettlement than an outright resistance against the dams (Dwivedi, 1999).

Communication flows regarding strategy and tactics—tend to be from the coregroup to the villages. The NBA has a charismatic leadership, which retains muchdecision-making power. In addition, while many women have been mobilised atvarious stages of the movement,31 and while there are women activists who arepowerful within the core group, it is often men who make the decisions within thevillages. Caste inequalities persist within the movement alongside genderinequalities. For example, in the Nimar plains where the struggle against the Mahesh-war dam has taken place, dalits have been refused entry into high-caste temples,despite the fact that all community members have participated in the NBA (Interview,Badwani, 2000). Moreover, adivasi identities within the NBA have tended to getstrategically essentialised and homogenised, in order to be contrasted with the

31 For example during the mobilisations against the Maheshwar dam since 1999.


destructive character of the development being undertaken in the Narmada valley(Baviskar, 1995), while certain internal contradictions within the movement havebeen suppressed in order to sharpen the distinction between the people of the Narm-ada valley and the ‘other’ of industrial development and globalisation (Dwivedi,1998).32 However, in order to increase its chances of success, a social movement:

must convert fluid identities into primordial and unitary categories; tribes, women,or peasants, all must appear to be internally undifferentiated and uniformlyopposed to the state. Where such unified representations cannot be created, resist-ance is more vulnerable to challenge and violent repression by the state

(Baviskar, 2001: 356).Hence the NBA’s public image has been unambiguous. Its constructed identity—

as a non-violent environmental peasant movement—has smoothed over complexitiesand nuances within everyday realities in the Narmada valley.

Articulations of collective identity in the form of social movement discourses suchas testimonials and slogans, can themselves be abstractions, effacing differences andinequalities within particular places, and within the movements themselves. Place isa heterogeneous social construct, a dynamic locus of community, which frequentlyinvolves a variety of exclusions (e.g. manifested in local displays of caste and genderinequality) as well as inclusions (e.g. manifested in communities’ collective resist-ance against displacement).33. Places are constructed and experienced as bothmaterial ecological artifacts and intricate networks of social relations, being the focusof the imaginary, of beliefs, desires and discursive activity, filled with symbolic andrepresentational meanings (Sharp et al., 2000). Attention to this is crucial when ana-lysing the discourses of resistance, for two reasons: first, it enables an increasedsensitivity to the lived and ambiguous character of space; and second, it informs usof the ambiguous character of social movements, where practices of domination areinvariably entangled with those of resistance.

It is important to acknowledge such entanglements, not least because of theoppressions that have taken place under the banner of ‘ resistance’ (Sharp et al.,2000). However, I believe that it is insufficient for academics to merely dissect amovement’s discourses and practices, stressing ambiguity and contradiction, in orderfor such insights to be published in academic journals. Terms such as ‘ambiguity’ ,and ‘contradiction’ are in some ways themselves slogans, constantly deployed byacademics as signifiers of their professional criticality. It may be argued that suchslogans and intellectual deliberations are of little use to the people of the Narmadavalley who are faced with economic and cultural erasure.

Indeed, several academics have conducted research on the NBA over the past 15years. Many have been critically supportive of the movement. The role of academics’

32 However, at satyagraha camps, adivasis and Hindus have sat and eaten together, which would havebeen considered unthinkable 15 years ago (Interview, Domkhedi, 2000).

33 For a discussion on these different notions of community see Young (1990).


relations with the NBA has caused much debate and criticism within the movement.Members of the NBA have at times interpreted academic criticality—e.g. concerninggender relations in the movement—as undermining the goals of the movement(Interviews, Domkhedi, 2000). In circumstances such as those that pertain in theNarmada valley, I think that it is important for academics to be critically withresisting others as well as for them, engaging in collaboration as well as criticismand analysis.

There are myriad avenues of affinity and collaboration between academics andactivists, which in turn raise a variety of issues of representational, ethical, and polit-ical practice (Routledge, 1996, 2001, 2002). This is because activism cannot simplybe bounded off from other aspects of everyday life: our lives are entwined with thelives of others—through the legacies of colonialism, through flows of capital andcommodities, through modern telecommunications etc.—which demand that academ-ics become politically sensitive to the needs and rights of distant strangers(Corbridge, 1993; Hooks, 1994).

Such demands imply an engagement that is critically collaborative in several sen-ses. First, it entails embodied collaboration with struggles in situ. Second, it entailslinking such struggles to broader networks of resistance through activism at ‘home’(within and without the academy). Third, it entails being constructively critical ofstruggles through sharing our research with social movements and through the conse-quent exchange of ideas. Fourth, it entails the forging of networks between academics(individually and collectively) and activists. Finally, it entails negotiating the worldsof both academia and activism through a relational ethics. A relational ethics isattentive to the social context of the research and the researchers situatedness withrespect to that context. It is enacted in a material, embodied way, for example throughrelations of friendship, solidarity, and empathy. However, such connections areinvariably enacted in an asymmetrical way, emerging as they do from the perform-ance of multiple lived worlds, whose interactions are forged under unequal relationsof power (Whatmore, 1997). A relational ethics thus requires that we are sensitiveto the contingency of things, and that our responsibility to others and to differenceis connected to the responsibility to act. However, as Slater (1997: 69) argues, sucha responsibility must take care to avoid unconditional support of social movements,and the ‘positive essentialisation of their ethical significance’ or superiority.

Such a responsibility, within the context of political struggle, implies thatresearchers take sides, albeit in a critical way. This raises certain problematic issuessuch as that of criticality versus censorship. For example, whether an academic’sprofessional (critical) responsibilities come into conflict with a social movement thats/he supports, undermining rather than supporting it? Clearly ethical questions canbe raised by the practice of self-censorship by academics, when writing about amovement whose goals they support, and by a movement wishing to censor thecriticality of academics with whom they collaborate. Writing about resistance forma-tions in scholarly journals needs to tread a fine line between support for a socialmovement and the professional and ethical requirements to be constructively criticalwhile also not providing help to the movement’s opponents. Moreover, being con-


structively critical of a movement may contribute to that movement’s sustainability.34

Attentive to these issues, and to the contingencies and contexts of political action,critical engagement, combined with an ethics of struggle, is required to ground aca-demic work in those places where resistance voices its challenges to erasure.

Acknowledgements

This research was made possible by a research grant from the Carnegie Trust (forresearch undertaken in 1999) and a small grant (SGS/00445/G) from the NuffieldFoundation for research undertaken in 2000 and 2001. I would like to thank AjayGandhi and Stuart Corbridge for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

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in India. Westport, CT: Praeger.Sivanandan, A. (1998). Globalism and the left. Race and Class, 40(2/3), 5–19.Swamy, D. S. (1994). The World Bank and globalisation of Indian economy. Delhi: Public Interest

Research Group.

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