ABSTRACT

CHATTOPADHYAY, SUTAPA., Ph.D, July, 2006 GEOGRAPHY

The Sardar Sarovar multipurpose river valley project (SSP) is being constructed on the Narmada

River, western . This project has resulted in the dislocation of millions of people, specifically tribals, from their homelands located across three adjacent riparian states, Madhya

Pradesh, and . The dislocation and resettlement of the tribal communities have disturbed their nature-culture relationships and subsistence mechanisms, and have virtually dismantled their previous lifestyles. The early phases of resettlement and rehabilitation were marred by policy-anomalies like the lack of state negotiation with the people, as well as peoples’ ignorance about the project and policies. At this stage, a few non governmental organizations

(NGOs) entered the scene, who made the villagers aware of their rights, and campaigned for better compensation packages. In this dissertation, I attempted to understand the discourses of gendered spaces, and the spatial power relations produced in the Narmada Valley by dislocation and resettlement, following the post-structural feminist and critical population geographies. I adopted a discourse analysis employing a combination of household surveys (questionnaires and narratives) and archival materials. I used narratives to understand the mechanisms linking the migrant’s resettlement experiences, and existing realities, and questionnaire surveys to explore the villagers’ present and past socio-economic conditions. The surveys covered villages that were already submerged, with their residents completely displaced, and villages that were partly or barely submerged, with their residents in the process of moving to the allocated villages. My research helped me gain important insights on discourse, space and gender in the Narmada

Valley, and contribute to the broader literature.

INVOLUNTARY MIGRATION AND THE MECHANISMS OF REHABILITATION: THE DISCOURSES OF DEVELOPMENT IN SARDAR SAROVAR, INDIA

A dissertation submission to the Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

by Sutapa Chattopadhyay July, 2006 Dissertation written by Sutapa Chattopadhyay B.A., University of Calcutta, India, 1996 M.Sc., University of Calcutta, India, 1998 MPS., International Institute for Population Sciences, , India, 1999 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2006

Approved by

______, Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Dr. James A. Tyner ______, Members, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Dr. Shawn Banasick ______Dr. Mandy Munro-Stasiuk ______Dr. Stanford Gregory ______Dr. Richard Feinberg Accepted by

______, Chair, Department of Geography Dr. Jay Lee ______, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Jerry Feezel

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This is probably the most appropriate ‘space’ to thank those who have contributed to this

PhD project, and to ‘narrate’ the hardships and delights of research. I thank Dr. Ali (Department

of Social Sciences, University of Texas, Tyler) without whose support and guidance I would not

have been pursuing my PhD in the Department of Geography, Kent State University. I thank the

department profusely for giving me the great opportunity and the right atmosphere to carry out

my research.

I thank Dr. Jim Tyner, my first advisor, for introducing me to different epistemological

roots and diverse methodologies, yet affording me the freedom to choose my own approach to

research. Whenever I felt frustrated, lost or became restive, Jim helped me stay on track. Dr.

Shawn Banasick, my second advisor, walked me over the various theories of development,

patiently answering my queries. I thank both Jim and Shawn for their seemingly endless

enthusiasm, which helped me pursue this research efficiently.

I thank Jyothis and Jeena for hosting me in and introducing me to the Center for

Social Sciences (CSS), Surat, from where my visit to the villages started. I am indebted to all the villagers of Golagambdi, Kundiucchakalam, Sanoli and Suryatalav. During my field survey,

Govind provided invaluable assistance. Without his help I could not have conceptualized or

understood the tribals’ everyday lifestyles and the discourses of space and power. Bhavin helped

me conduct the questionnaire surveys and accompanied me everyday to the villages from

Vadodara. I thank Dr. Iyengar (CSS, Director), Lakshman Bhai Tadvi (village head of

Golagambdi), Mr. Chibbar (Joint Commissionar, Sardar Sarovar Project Authority), Mr. A. J.

Shah, Assistant Commissioner (Sardar Sarovar Project Authority), Mr. Phillips (NGO activist)

iii and Librarians/Office Staffs of various universities and institutes. These people helped me at different stages of my work in various ways.

I thank Dr. Munro-Stasiuk of the geography department, who is also my committee member, for her constant support and concerns. I thank my other committee members, Dr.

Gregory and Dr. Feinberg, for their comments. I thank MaryLou, our secretary, for tolerating my endless queries and extending her help. My gratitude to Dr. Lee, Dr. Schmidlin, Dr. Sheridan, Dr.

Kaplan, Dr. Haley, Dr. Harvey, Dr. Bhardwaj, and Dr. Dymon for creating a stimulating atmosphere for research in the department.

I thank my friends Carrie, Steve, Stacey, Niti, , Mary, Jose, Leena, Kevin and Kim who made the department a lively place to dwell. Carrie introduced me to the burritos, downtown,

Towner’s wood and Trevor. I thank Rob for absorbing my copious discourses, conflicting ideas

and thoughts with enthusiasm. Rob’s comments and constructive criticisms on my early works

produced new ideas. I thank Kathyrine for her remarkable endurance in editing my dissertation,

with friendly gestures, small talks and funny stories.

I thank Dr. Pandit, Dr. P. P. Karan, Dr. Domosh and Dr. Konadu-Agyemang for their

suggestions, encouragements and appreciation for my research project.

For making the US my second home, I am truly grateful to my small family: Ashwini,

Meera di, Reshma, Dr. Dutt, Mashi (Dr. Hiron Dutt), Rumela and Arpita.

The weekend phone calls to my parents and parents-in-law kept me moving. Their soft

words, inspiration and support gave me the strength that made this work possible. I thank my

husband, Jojo, for his constant criticisms, which made me think. His tireless support, love and

affection were crucial in the final year of my dissertation. Finally, I thank all those who

contributed to my research whom I may have failed to mention here.

iv

PREFACE

In colonial India, the British clear-felled large acres of woodlands and acquired cheap raw materials and capital for building industries and infrastructure. Additionally, they appropriated tribal forest lands and farmlands transforming them into plantations, knowing little of the methods of sustaining forests and indigenous lifestyles. After 1947, the independent Indian government followed the colonial ideology in constructing large infrastructural projects, such as multipurpose river valley projects, which continued to disrupt the tribal livelihoods. For several years, environmentalists, social activists, and nature lovers have criticized environmentally destructive development keeping in view the close relationships of indigenous communities with nature.

When I started my research in western India, I was motivated by the belief that the

indigenous communities combine reverence for nature with sustainable use of resources.

Therefore, the advent of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) disturbing the tribal’s everyday lives in

their homelands and threatening them by the risks of displacement caused me to examine the

relocation experiences of tribal communities, and their protest movements opposing the

construction of SSP. I assumed that displacement due to the construction of SSP has produced

low living conditions, while totally unsettling household and community activities, marginalizing

the affected and effected populations. However, my expectation that I would encounter tribal

communities that lived in harmony with nature, worshipping it and using its resources

sustainably, turned out to be both true and false. My assumptions were, (1) the oustees1 are

1 The Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) defines an oustee, as a person who has been residing or cultivating land or related to the submerging villages with any occupation /trade, which was likely to be affected permanently or temporarily by submergence for approximately a year before the date of publication and notification of the Land Acquisition Act (Government of India, vol-II, 1978).

v powerless, and (2) that the state conditions their everyday life, and (3) that the action groups work selflessly to create better living conditions of the people. However, these assumptions crumbled into an untidy medley of contradictions.

Only with a clearer understanding of the relocation experiences of the people, politics of resistance, and people’s coping mechanisms in the newly constructed villages, can possible alternatives for rural development be proposed.

vi TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page ACKNOWLEDGMENT……………………………………………………….. iii

PREFACE………………………………………………………………………. v

LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………. x

LIST OF PLATES……………………………………………………………… xi

LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………… xii

CHAPTER I: THE SSP, MYSELF AND THE TRIBALS…………………... 1 MY BACKGROUND………………………………………………………... 3 SURVEY PARTICIPANTS…………………………………………………. 3 MY PILGRIMAGE BEGINS………………………………………………... 5 CRITICAL INQUIRY VS POSITIVISM…………………………………… 8 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THE SCOPE OF THE DISSERTATION… 13 RESEARCH QUESTIONS…………………………………………………. 18 MY EXPERIENCE AND MY POSITIONALITY…………………………. 19 OUTLINE OF THE DISSERTATION……………………………………… 22

CHAPTER II: SUBORDINIZATION OF THE ADIVASIS………………... 24 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………… 24 COLONIALIZATION TO POST COLONIALIZATION…………………... 25 The Tribals and their attachments with the Forests……………………… 25 Hunting/Gathering to Plundering………………………………………… 26 Fading Shifting Cultivation over Plough Agriculture……………………. 29 Downward mobility (of Adivasis) as a subservient group……………….. 32 SUMMARY…………………………………………………………………. 36

CHAPTER III: EVERYDAY LIVES OF THE TADVIS IN THE 37 NARMADA VALLEY………………………………………………………… INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………… 37 METHODS………………………………………………………………….. 39 THE PEOPLE – TADVIS…………………………………………………… 41 MORPHOLOGY OF THE VILLAGES: VADGAM (PAST VILLAGE) 45 AND GOLAGAMBDI (PRESENT VILLAGE)…………………………….. HOUSE TYPE/ PLACE OF DWELLING…………………………………... 49 SOCIO-CULTURAL CONDITIONS……………………………………….. 53 Family…………………………………………………………………….. 53 Marriage………………………………………………………………….. 54 Dressing patterns…………………………………………………………. 56 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS………………………………………………… 57 Cattle……………………………………………………………………… 57

vii Livelihoods………………………………………………………………... 59 Crops grown………………………………………………………………. 61 Forest produce…………………………………………………………….. 62 Forest products…………………………………………………………… 62 Household assets………………………………………………………….. 63 Consumption patterns…………………………………………………...... 63 CIVIC AMENITIES…………………………………………………………. 64 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………. 65

CHAPTER IV: NARRATING PLACE, SPACE AND THE EVERYDAY 67 OF THE ADIVASIS……………………………………………………………. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………. 67 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK…………………………………………….. 69 RESEARCH DESIGN……………………………………………………… 72 NARRATING THE EVERYDAY SPACES OF THE ADIVASIS IN THE 74 SSP…………………………………………………………………………… Lost Space…………………………………………………………………. 78 Rehabilitated Spaces……………………………………………………… 84 Contested Space…………………………………………………………… 87 Negotiated Spaces………………………………………………………… 93 Personal Space……………………………………………………………. 97 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………. 100

CHAPTER V: NEGOTIATING DEVELOPMENT AT THE INTERFACE 103 OF POWER AND RESISTANCE IN THE SARDAR SAROVAR…………. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………. 103 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK…………………………………………….. 104 THE MAKING OF MIGRANT OUSTEES………………………………….. 108 CREATION OF RISKS……………………………………………………… 112 EVOLUTION OF THE ………………. 115 Interface between NBA and The State…………………………………….. 118 Power or Resistance………………………………………………………. 121 ANDOLAN STRATEGIES………………………………………………….. 122 Mobilizing Hill Adivasis and Patridars…………………………………… 123 Putting Adivasis in the forefront…………………………………………... 124 Negotiating Development – at National Scale……………………………. 125 Globalizing Local Resistance……………………………………………... 128 ENTRY OF ARCH-VAHINI………………………………………………… 129 The World Bank and the Encroachers…………………………………….. 130 New R&R Policy, December 1987………………………………………... 133 1988 – The Rise Of Anti-Sardar Sarovar Movement……………………… 134 RESISTANCE FATIGUE – SHIFTING SIDES…………………………….. 135 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………. 136

CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION………………………………………………. 138 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………. 138 SUMMING UP THE DISCUSSIONS……………………………………….. 140 Adivasi vs The State……………………………………………………….. 140

viii Unsustainable Development………………………………………………. 141 Uneven Development……………………………………………………… 143 Attitudes of the tribals towards dislocation……………………………….. 146 The NBA and Adivasis…………………………………………………….. 148 SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL TURN ACROSS THE 149 RESETTLED ADIVASI COMMUNITIES………………………………….. ALTERNATIVES TO DEVELOPMENT…………………………………… 152 157 REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………… 171 APPENDIX – 1...... 179 GLOSSARY OF TRIBAL & WORDS………………………………. 181 GLOSSARY OF R & R WORDS……………………………………………... 182 FIGURES……………………………………………………………………….. 190 PLATES………………………………………………………………………… 193 TABLES…………………………………………………………………………

ix LIST OF FIGURES

Page 1. The Sardar Sarovar Project Area……………………………………... 182 2. Location map of Vadgam…………………………………………… 183 3. The villager’s searched occupation, married or wanted to resettle within 184 this radius…………………………………………………………….. 4. Types of houses in Golagambdi……………………………………… 185 5. Planned structure of Golagambdi Rehabilitation Village……………. 186 6. Populations by caste groups in Past Village………………………… 186 7. Populations by caste groups in Present Village……………………… 187 8. Types of crop grown in Past Village……………………………….... 187 9. Crops produced in Present village………………………………….... 188 10. Amount of land owned by villagers in Past Village…………………. 188 11. Comparison of occupational patterns in Past and Present Villages…. 189 12. Household Asset in Present village…………………………………. 189 13. Production of Spaces through Displacement and Rehabilitation……. 72 14. Creation of Migrant oustees, Power and Resistance through the 107 Discourses of Development……………………………………….

x LIST OF PLATES

Page 1. Hamlets, Submerging Village (MP) ...... …..190 2. Hamlets, Submerging Village (MP) ...... 190 3. Herds of Cattle, Submerging Village (MP) ...... …..191 4. Site for worship, Submerging Village (MP) ...... ……..191 5. Stairs to the Ghat (bank of the river), Submerging Village (MP)...... 191 6. The Holy Narmada (cremation grounds), Submerging Village (MP)...... 191 7. Concrete water storage for draught animals, Rehabilitated village (Gujarat) ...... 192 8. House Type – 1, Rehabilitated village (Gujarat) ...... ……..192

xi LIST OF TABLES

Page 1. State wise categories of land under submergence 193 2. Number of submerged villages and families in the three states of 193 India resulting from the construction of the SSP………………… 3. Land Holding Status prior to Displacement……………………… 193 4. The submerging villages were divided into three zones based on 194 their infrastructural facilities, market linkages and socio- economic conditions……………………………………………… 5. An account of the tribes in submerging villages, type of 195 submerging villages and year of resettlement……………………. 6. Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) (as in October 1992)…… 196 7. General Information on the number of houses and lands affected 197 by submergence in Vadgam, Gujarat…………………………….. 8. Household asset of the villagers at Vadgam…………………….. 197 9. Chart showing the broad profiles, problems, and attitudes of 198 various groups among the tribal villagers at Vadgam…………… 10. Area planned to be irrigated by Sardar Sarovar Project…………. 199 11. Cost of SSP………………………………………………………. 199 12. Distribution of Cost of SSP across the states……………………. 199 13. Energy planning to achieve self-reliance in water resources……. 200

xii Chapter 1: THE SSP, MYSELF AND THE TRIBALS

A multipurpose river valley project is being constructed over the , western

India. For the , Narmada is the river of bliss, born from the body of Shiva, so every stone1

on the bed of the river is a miniature shivlinga worthy of worship as Shiva (the god of destruction

and regeneration in the Hindu sacred triad). The people along the banks hold her to be more

scared than the Ganges. Local legends aver that Ganga herself should dip in the Narmada once a

year to cleanse her sins.

On the Narmada, approximately 3,135 minor and medium are constructed, apart

from the 30 large dams, out of which the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) is the largest. The SSP will

have dislocated people from 245 villages and submerge thousands of acres of lands and forests.

However, the project largely displaces tribal populations.

The Narmada Valley is the home for numerous indigenous groups called Adivasis. The

term Adivasi (used to denote some tribes in India) literally means inhabitants of the beginning as

an assertion of their identity (Nair 2003). The Constitution of India describes the tribes as

‘primitive’2, culturally distinctive, geographically isolated, shy, exists inward within the

community and reserved. The Adivasis are classified into Bhils, Vasavas; Ratwas, ,

1 At the bed of the Narmada, the stones, which look like male phallus, are worshipped as Shiva. The myth is proven as most of the stones are undergoing through the phase of fluvial erosion and transportation roughly shaping to a round- elongated form.

2 The word ‘primitive’ is not used in a derogatory sense, but to assert the tribals as a group, existed and preserved their unique socio-cultural traits from earlier periods of history. In addition to this, since the Constitution of India used this word to describe the tribals, I retained it to keep the meaning intact. Though the word is a highly contested term and considered negative in scholarly writings, one may read this use of the term in the Constitution as a rhetorical strategy of the state that prefigures an ideology, which supports a disparity of scale in power (for details on tribes of India, see, Beteille 1986, Singh 1992, Hardiman 1987 a & b, GOI 1961 a & b, Ghurye 1963).

1 Pavras, and Tadvis have a complex and diverse social character differing from one another

through their primary subsistence activities, socio-cultural and religious niches and intense

community networks. The Adivasi depended on diverse livelihood systems, such as hunting-

gathering, cultivating, cattle herding and fishing. Till the early 1930s, some of them practiced

slash and burn cultivation but currently, the Narmada valley is almost void of all forms of slash

and burn cultivation (Guha 1994). I will use the term Adivasi and tribals interchangeably, unless

I refer to a specific sub-classification.

The discussed populations are displaced from three adjacent riparian states, Gujarat,

Maharashtra and (MP) and relocated mostly in Gujarat (Fig.1). The government

bought lands from the host (original) villagers to accommodate the displaced oustees. So every

rehabilitated village have a host village and separate clusters for oustees from the three riparian

states. Hence, if the name of a host village is Gambodi then villages where the displacees are

relocated will be named as, Gambodi rehabilitated village of Gujarat, Gambodi rehabilitated

village of MP, and Gambodi rehabilitated village of Maharashtra. The host village is named as

Gambodi host village.

In the following sections, I will discuss my experiences in the Narmada Valley as a

researcher, the objectives of my research, literature review, research questions, methods, and brief

outline of the chapters of my dissertation. In the subsequent chapters, I have brought about the

relocation experiences of the tribals, the protest movements for shaping the Resettlement and

Rehabilitation policies (R&R), and the compensation package and the present living conditions in

the relocated sites (see the Appendix- 1 for various policies). The compensation package was

providing land compensation exclusively to those who could show legal documents. Hence, all

the villagers who stayed and accessed common lands/government lands for generations or those

who cultivated their lands but could not prove their ownership were not provided with any land

2 compensation. For several years, social activists and indigenous community leaders demanded the state governments to consider the rights of the locals with seriousness and identify their close linkages with nature and their homeland, which have brought about some changes in the compensation package. In the following section, I provide some background information about myself and my tribal informants.

MY BACKGROUND

I was born in Calcutta, now called Kolkata. Kolkata, located in the eastern part of India, is the capital of and one of the metropolitan cities of India. I was nurtured in a

Hindu Brahmin family. Brahmins are considered to be upper castes or class in India. There are four varnas or classes of people, which came from the body of the cosmic being, like the

Brahmins, class of priests came from the head, Kshatriyas, the warriors and kings, came from his arms and so on. The Vedas3 classified the people in the vedic period in four classes or caste

systems based on performed occupations.. Vedic people believed that people are born in varnas

depending on the activities one performed in previous lives. According to the Vedas, Brahmins,

the priestly class, should typically follow the religious rules and lead a ritualistic life. In 2000 BC,

the Hindu systems existed in this orderly fashion. In modern India, the occupations are no longer

defined by the caste systems. For example, my father owns a business.

I lived in cities all through my childhood and adulthood. Other than readings on the

tribals in academic institutions, I did not have any exposure to tribal villages until I started my

research on the affected tribal populations in the Narmada Valley.

SURVEY PARTICIPANTS

3 The word Veda comes from the Sanskrit word vid, which means to know. The Veda is a sacred language. The Vedas are collection of hymns, stories, and religious instructions in Sanskrit language that were recited for several generations. Sanskrit is in the same family as other Western Asia and European languages, belonging to the Indo European language family.

3

I visited villages in Bengal as a part of the social service curriculum in school. The villagers had mainly different occupational and income backgrounds from the urbanites. Their lifestyles were slow paced and simple, but they were very hard-workers. The household and community roles and activities were also different from cities. The villages, I studied for my research, were tribal villages; each tribe has a different socio-economic and cultural background, where even a similarly named tribe, practices different cultural rituals at different locales. This study does not attempt to generalize for all the tribal communities in India, but highlights the fact that distinct socio-economic and cultural backgrounds make one tribe different from another in western India. Tribals live in close-knit communities with varying understanding of their surroundings. Their cultural and religious practices are distinct and a unique set of household rules and activities are performed. All over India we have tribal societies that differ from each other in their socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

The state categorized submerging villages into three groups (remote, -site and rock- fill dyke villages) based on a particular village’s geographic characteristics. In the rehabilitated villages, I came across villagers from remote and dam-site submerging villages. These are the two categories that I surveyed. Prior to submergence, villagers from remote areas were completely sequestered from urban areas. Most of the remote villages were situated in the forested mountains. However, dam-site villagers were connected with towns, cities and the SSP construction area.

In small portions of the remote villages, tribals practiced hunting-gathering and wore very limited clothing. However, it is difficult to visit some existing remote villages as they are several miles inward with no transportation linkages. Living in these isolated areas, the tribals closely held to the forests for living. According to the remote villagers, the nearest health center

or hospital was 15 to 20 miles away and to reach these health centers, the villagers had to walk

4 for two to three days or more. While conducting surveys, I came across a group of Ratwas (10 to15 households) in Kundiucchakalam, who were dislocated from a remote village, Hapeswar. At present, all of them are sedentary cultivators growing commercial crops. The elderly people of their communities also prefer wearing very limited clothing. I observed during my surveys, they make toddy and extract oil from mahuda bark. Mahuda is a tree which was found in abundance in their previous village, now a rarity. These villagers were identified as uncivilized by the Bhils of

Kundiucchakalam. The Bhils had a feeling of superiority over the Ratwas. The Bhils used modern amenities like refrigerators, cooking ovens; preferred city jobs and educated their children.

Some submerging villages were well-connected with cities or towns. The villagers knew the differences in food habits, dressing patterns, and cultural practices among the city dwellers and these differences in consumption of material goods were gradually welcomed by the village youths (see Chapter III). Like the Bhils of Kundiuchakalam, the Tadvis of Golagambdi, were very receptive to the changes in consumption patterns. Golagambdi is the first village, I surveyed.

In the following section, I discuss my initial survey experiences in Golagambdi.

MY PILGRIMAGE BEGINS

I carried on my surveys in the rehabilitated villages of district of Gujarat,

western India. My travel to the rehabilitated villages began at 6 am everyday with a bus

trip from the Vadodara bus depot towards Chota Udaipur. It was always quite exacting

traveling in shanty buses that hurtled over the wretched roads. For the local people,

however, it was a great conveyance; the remote link connected the rehabilitated villages

with the city. For me, the several hours of bus journey were mind-numbing. My

knowledge of Gujarati (the language spoken in Gujarat) was too low for a semblance of

communication which accentuated my apprehension of being alienated from fellow

5 passengers. Though I dressed ordinarily in the salwar kameez, tied my hair in the most

traditional style, and wore a humble composure to suggest that I am one among them I

still could not escape the attention of the passengers. It was difficult to blend with the

crowd for reasons that were not entirely clear to me and I remained an outsider among

them.

After two hours, I reach Golagambdi, the nodal point, which served as an

intersection of roads running in four directions to major markets, towns, and cities. This

is the first village I surveyed. Golagambdi is a rehabilitated village of Vadgam. Vadgam

was a dam-site village4 one of the first villages submerged. Tea and pan shops had

mushroomed on all sides of the roads. The tea shops sold tea served with freshly fried

snacks. Having lived in those cities, where potable water was plentiful and easy to obtain,

I found myself hesitant to partake in eating the local foods. However, everyday I chose to

drink a small glass of tea, carefully overlooking its making, while observing the villagers’

spatial activities.

The lives of the villagers were going through a transition from subsistence to

commercial agriculture. Different types of transportation catered to the needs of villagers

of different age groups: villagers crowded the buses, coming home from haat (market), or

going to government offices in cities, or children going to school and so forth. Villagers

returning from markets and cities typically carried bags bulging with fresh vegetables,

tobacco, molasses and some clothes for children. After buses stopped for few minutes,

the ticket collector called out destinations, shoving the passengers in to the bus,

4 The submerging villages were classified into rock-fill dyke village, dam-site village and interior village depending on the geographic characteristics of these villages. See Appendix-1 for a detailed account on submerging villages.

6 aggressively, till it was filled to the brim. Frequently buses stopped beside shops blowing

a heave of dust in its wake.

The villages appeared well planned. The brick settlement structures were aligned

in rows of paved and unpaved roads, dividing them into clusters (see Fig. 5). I could not

relate them to the fading glimpse of the sparsely scattered mud houses in the villages of

Bengal, which I had often visited in my school days. This was reminiscent of Henri

Lefebvre’s built (material) spaces (Lefebvre 1991). Before submergence, villages were

neatly nestled in the forested mountains. The houses were different from one another

geographically and architecturally preserving a freshness of style. On the contrary, the

rehabilitated villages, failed to preserve the traditional socio-cultural originality of the

submerged villages. They looked like generic landscapes with various amenities such as,

schools, roads, community centers, spigots, water tanks and canals. However, these

amenities were not included in the initial R&R policies5. Rehabilitation limited the

tribals’ economic ability by reducing their access to natural resources. However, the

original R&R policies were modified, thanks to the prolonged agitation against the State

by the local communities and various NGOs of the Narmada Valley.

The desire to understand the mechanisms of involuntary migration6 and rehabilitation of the displaced people who have diverse socio-cultural and economic backgrounds prompted this study. I conducted surveys in four rehabilitated7 villages of Gujarat, during the summer of 2004,

using feminist-informed qualitative techniques for compiling documents, manuscripts, interviews,

5 See Appendix-1 for various policies associated with the SSP.

6 The terms ‘involuntary’ or ‘development induced’ migration refers to the forced moving of people. In the case of SSP river valley project, the state initiated people to move from their previous villages to relocated villages. From here on, I will refer to these people as migrants, or displacees, or oustees.

7 The word ‘rehabilitate’ is used in R&R discourse when villagers are resettled with civic amenities and compensatory benefits. The compensation package consists of, some cultivable land (different amounts are given in Gujarat, Maharashtra and MP), a house plot, school, community center, streets, electricity, water taps, and a health clinic in every two to three villages.

7 texts, discourses, utterances. The main objectives of the dissertation are to understand: how dislocation has shaped the gendered spatial practices, activities, and relations of the affected populations, and how the fear of displacement, lack of information on policies, loss of economic stability, and unevenness in the distribution of R&R package produced protest movements.

Therefore, I explored the adversities faced by the displacees, the spatial tactics used by them to obtain better living conditions and the present living conditions, activities, and changes in social

life in the rehabilitated villages. This study has allowed me to generate geographies worthy of

further investigation.

Theories as well as the methodologies that are applied, authenticated, and changed are

shaped by the ideology and knowledge of the researcher. I recognize that knowledge is socially

constructed, historically situated, and informed by conflicting values (Bhaviskar 1995). I am

therefore, compelled to acknowledge this research cannot be the search and discovery of a single

universal truth. Instead, my analysis has to be understood as a process that mediates across

different subjective views that are mutually conditioned – those of the researcher, those of the

people being studied, the government officials and NGOs. Specifically, I make explicit

connections between the researcher and the researched. This analysis continues as I express the

experiences of my field work in later chapters.

CRITICAL INQUIRY Vs POSITIVISM

Critical inquiry emerges out of an epistemology that discards positivism in favor of a

more detailed reflexive inquiry. The basis of Positivist science is the collection of data through

observation and measurement of things. Positivism assumes that the development of

generalizations and deduction of laws which follow from those observations and hypothesis

testing manifest universal truth. Positivism in its various guises continues to underpin much

8 research in human geography, particularly, research that involves quantification. Population geography, for long, focused on trends, flows, patterns of migration, downplaying the socio- cultural and political differences local communities preserved at individual or household levels.

However, critical inquiry, which involves the critical analysis of discourses of individuals, makes interpretive analysis of personal experiences and challenges providing a more meaningful knowledge. Qualitative methods can be viable for teasing the emotional and symbolic ties that bind people with their spaces. On a micro scale, if the villagers’ phases of negotiation with the state in collaboration with NGOs are studied the observations have the possibility of generating a faithful representation of the peoples’ ideology and their linkages with place.

Revealing this choice for critical inquiry as my methodology shows that, as a researcher,

I am required to adopt a more self-conscious attitude towards the objects of inquiry, recognizing the dialects of my relationship with them. Whereas, positivism assumes an unclouded gaze of a detached observer captures objective truth; that is, merely a belief and that has facilitated the domination of the learned outsider as expert authority. Truths understood as, contextual, can only be known through intimate engagement with the perspectives of those whose lives are the objects of inquiry (Mills 1997). Peoples’ versions of realities are apprehended, interpreted, and presented by the researcher who then has her own preoccupations and presumptions. Reality of the people studied includes a researcher. I am outside the object of inquiry but intrinsic to it (Bhaviskar

1995).

My critical stance pertains to three related issues: the nature of reality as that has been studied in discourses, the relationship between this reality and the researcher and the researcher’s ideological stance. Discussing these issues reveals the process, by which my research is done, showing that behind the presentation of a seamless, scholarly rendition lie an unruly experience

(Clifford 1983).

9 Unlike the positivist perspective, I believe that there is no unified tangible reality for all

to see. There are multiple realities, constructed by people in different ontological positions.

Inquiry into these multiple realities does not seek to discover a unified truth but is aimed at

enriching our understandings of divergent and socially-situated truths (Lincoln and Guba 1985).

If the world consists of many contested realities, all of them backed by different discourses,

which version do I privilege? On this account, I have mainly chosen to ignore the various

discourses the state uses to describe the conditions of the Adivasis. But I chose to favor the

discourses the Adivasis’ used to describe the state. This bottom up perspective is seen as a

corrective to the surfeit of accounts that uncritically accept the state’s representations of Adivasis.

While positivist scholars assume that inquiry can and ought to be value free, I work with

explicit recognition that research is inherently a process guided by values, values that manifest

themselves in the formulation of a research agenda, and in the choice of theory and methodology

of the inquirer. Belief in neutral and objective research while ignoring the unconscious biases of

the inquirer only obscures findings.

I reached the Center for Social Sciences (CSS, a University, Research

Institute)8 in Surat on the 8th of May 2004. At this point, the rehabilitated villages were

totally unknown to me. I stayed at the CSS with the objective to obtain background

information on the relocated villages, hearing the experiences of the institute’s

researchers who had conducted surveys in those rehabilitated villages, downplaying their

personal biases towards my village selection but following the trail of my theoretical and

methodological priorities. One day, from a dialogue with the chair of CSS, I heard the

names of Golagambdi and Ram bhai Tadvi, previously the village sarpanj (leader/ chief).

8 CSS conducted the monitoring and evaluations reports for the in the late 1980s to mid 1990s.

10 This village is well connected by transportation. I considered the village as my starting point of research on rehabilitated villages.

My assumption before going to the villages was that villagers might be thoroughly engaged in reconstructing their lives in the new locale. Besides this, the differentials created by the state dislocation efforts will be so prominent that the villagers might have developed bitterness towards the urbanites. I was taken aback thinking how the villagers will react to a female researcher. I assumed the villagers’ interpretations of me would be: a city dweller, an affluent U.S researcher who does not speak tribal languages – an outsider. Along with this, various unknown discourses might be constructed by them about me. Whatever their interpretations may be, my yearning to know their everyday life, to understand the mechanisms of dislocation, and to observe the government R&R procedure compelled me to visit the villagers.

The day I came to know about these two sources, Golagambdi and Ram Bhai

Tadvi, I started for Golagambdi. After a train and strenuous bus drive of five to six hours

I finally reached Golagambdi. The bus trundled off the bus stand, away from me. I stood on the paved road that rolled on to the unpaved dirt road towards the villages. The wind blows cool and dusty. The sun gets ready to set. I see the villages from the bus stop. They are very close to the transportation node.

I asked myself: where are those mud houses, trees, cattle? Are these villages or suburban regions? Because of growing up in an urban area, for a while, I thought if villagers have received brick structures neatly constructed in clusters, some cultivatable lands, and water supplies (as these were not only absent but remote in submerging villages) then has dislocation instilled a positive change - elevating their living

11 conditions? Carelessly, I overlooked traditional spaces were also disappearing with this

socio-economic change.

The first house of the village belongs to Ram Bhai Tadvi. He was not present at

the time I reached his house. His wife (Subadra bhen) and daughter greeted me. I

explained the reasons of my visit, my acquaintance with the chair of CSS, and that I will

stay in their house during the period of my survey. She gladly agrees to host me9. She has

hosted other researchers from CSS before. I talked with Subadra bhen, her daughter, and

daughters-in-law and amicably with the naughty kids running all around me. A cool

breeze blows, so we all sit outside on a khatiya (a locally woven bed with sturdy ropes,

which makes it strong). Ram bhai comes home at dusk. He is a tall well-built man.

Though quite old, arduous labor had kept him in good shape. So far, I had been talking

with the women of the house and familiarizing myself with them and vice versa. After

Ram bhai arrives, he asks about my research agendas. Stumbling and struggling to

formulate the theoretical arguments in my sad Hindi, I try to explain my intention. He

challenges my theoretical conceptions, not understanding my research agendas, with

great respect. I said that I understand whatever we learn through books is not sufficient to

address the dislocation trauma and resettlement risks faced by the villagers. So, I came to

stay with the villagers to garner information on of their lives, as shaped by development

and their struggle against the government in alliance with the NGOs in revamping the

policies. In addition, I will analyze whether these power struggles against the dam

emerged out of an interpretation of their culture, causing them to lose social grounds and

risk an unstable future. After exchanging some thoughts and arguing over various issues,

it seemed to me that Ram Bhai was fairly convinced of my research agendas.

9 Besides staying in Golagambdi, I also stayed in the nearest city Vadodara. This was because I collected research materials, conducted interviews with government officers and NGOs in between my surveys in the villages.

12 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THE SCOPE OF THE DISSERTATION

So far, studies have documented that projects causing large magnitude of displacement are usually justified by the planning authorities on the ground that they provide tangible economic benefits to a larger number of people (Goyal 1996). But large projects tend to play down the short-term and, often, the long-term consequences faced by the project-affected people

(Parasuraman 1996; Cernea 1990). Until recently, the resettlement programmes, in general, were limited to statutory monetary compensation for the land acquired for the project and, on occasions, development of a resettlement site (ADB 1998).

Studies (for example, Hakim 1996, Nayak 1995, Green 1990) show that displacement produces low living conditions and adversely affects the peoples’ livelihood, with insufficient resource to generate income in the rehabilitated colonies. Additionally, the growing deterioration in the economic and social life of the displaced leads to mental illness, alcoholism, prostitution and gambling (Good 1996, Ramaiah 1995, Hunter, et. al., 1993, 1982).

One of the widely followed models in R&R studies is the Relocation Theory advocated by Scudder and Colson (1982). Scudder and Colson’s (1982) relocation theory analyze the social consequences of relocation. The victims of development projects react in a similar way particularly when they cope with the changes in resettled sites. During the most stressful period of relocation, i.e., the first few years of adjustment, people tend to behave in a conservative risk- avoiding way, clinging to their previous practices. As the communities happen to re-establish themselves socially and economically, they become adaptive, taking risk and more open towards accepting social, cultural and economic practices of host communities. Thus, their prior cultural repertoire and pattern of community organization and leadership are integrated in the changed socio-cultural and economic milieu. The model was criticized by de Wet (1993) because Scudder and Colson (1982) discuss more about the similarities than the differences of reactions of

13 involuntarily relocated oustees. According to de Wet the approach does not cover the whole gamut of risks that the resettlers may undergo during relocation.

Much later, Michael Cernea (1997) developed the Risk Model, which establishes that displacement causes impoverishment. The model has been developed based on certain empirical evidences. Cernea emphasized on a set of eight recurrent risks that need to be monitored

‘carefully’ and ‘justly’. The risks are landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, marginalization,

morbidity, food insecurity, loss of access to common property assets and social disarticulation.

However the ‘Risk Impoverishment Analysis’ model provided the much-needed conceptual

framework to understand the risks of displaced populations. The model, besides being used as a

management tool for planning in most developing countries, is used as a tool for participatory

rural appraisal. The model was extensively considered by researchers, planners and bureaucrats

to develop an understanding of the anticipated and predictable risks. This initiated them to

develop an effective and appropriate R & R package for the displaced (Cernea and McDowell

2000, Fernandes and Chatterjee 1995, Thukral 1992, Cernea 1990).

Apart from these extensively produced discourses on development projects an

exhaustive literature is available on various issues of the Sardar Sarovar. Some of the major

contributions are those of Hakim (2000), Mehta and Srinivasan (2000), Cernea (1997, 1995,

1990), Das (1996), Bhaviskar (1995), Cernea and Guggenheim (1993), Scudder (1993), Morse

and Berger (1992), Fernandes and Ganguly-Thukral (1989), Alvares and Billorey (1988) and

CSE (1985).

The migration and population discourses in geography had, however, focused more so,

on quantification of population movements, like analyzing trends and patterns of internal and

international migration, reasons and factors for population movements, to name a few. Recent

works in critical population geography emphasizes on aspects, including quality of life, societal

14 change, familial contestations and migrants’ negotiations at diverse scales. Feminist scholars, in addition, most importantly, pointed the lack of emphasis on gender in migration literature. It is presumed that to carry on in-depth analysis on the migrants, qualitative-based research, particularly, in the form of narratives, offer unique ways of understanding the everyday

challenges of migrants. Therefore, my theoretical construct follows the poststructural feminist and critical population geographies to address the complex and dynamic readings of gender, space and discourse in the Narmada Valley (McLaren 2002, Smart 2002, White and Jackon 2000,

Gibson-Graham 2000, Yapa 1999, Barnes and Gregory 1997, Rabinow 1997, Weedon 1997,

Curry 1995, Tyner 1994, Foucault 1979, 1980).

For too long… researchers have examined migration from outside, gathering numeric

data through surveys or census tabulations and drawing inferences about individual

action

(Watkins 1988, 299)

A closer investigation of the mechanisms of resettlement and rehabilitation due to Sardar Sarovar,

was taken linking the migrants’ everyday experiences and discursive realities. I reconstructed

family narratives of displaced persons which entailed an understanding of: the spaces created by

dislocation and rehabilitation; and the importance, nuance, and multidimensionality of spatial

power relations. Further a discourse analysis was carried, following writings, in particular, of

Foucault, to recognize the discourses formed in the Narmada valley due to construction and

implementation of the project. My surveys were conducted when some villages were already

submerged and their residents completely displaced. Other villages were partly or barely

submerged and their residents were in the process of moving to the allocated villages.

Feminist scholars, in particular, have raised questions and concerns on the ethical

dimensions of conducting qualitative field surveys (Haraway 2003, Hill Collins 2003,

15 Visweswaran 2003, Jones 2003, Oakley 2003). Therefore, a combination of methodologies was employed including household surveys, collection of narratives, and archival materials.

Accordingly, through in-depth interviews and narratives, I indicate the personal experiences of displaced Adivasis (Chase 2003, Beverly 2003). The narratives describe the gender differences in household and agricultural division of labor, roles played, decision making and various daily activities performed. The gender differences are complex and modify the socio-political conditions impinging on the lives of the people. The narratives employed justify involuntary migration fomented and shaped the lives of the villagers. Though migration instills a change in the lifestyles of the migrants with an exposure to the urban living condition, the lives of the women remains unchanged. Since women as subjects of research were overlooked for years, feminist poststructuralist and critical population geographers, specifically focused on the gendered differences between migrants’ spatial activities, household roles, participation in communities, to name a few. Hence, my narratives were conducted to garner various gendered

spatial constructions in the migrants’ everyday spaces providing an understanding of the

villagers’ past experiences, present living conditions, hidden stories, and power relations in

private and public space.

The concept of discourse and discourse analysis has been highly challenged, contested

and critiqued. Various meaning has been added to the concepts and scholars with diverse

epistemological lens perceived and analyzed the concepts differently.

Discourse is verbal communication, talk, conversation, formal treatment of a subject in

speech or writing. I understand following Mills (1997), Discourse is not a disembodied collection

of statements, but groupings of utterances or sentences, statements which are enacted within a

social context, which are determined by that social context and which contribute to the way that

social context continues its existence. Discourses do not occur in isolation but in dialogue, in

16 relation to or more often in contrast and opposition to other utterances. But as Mills (1997) indicates there are many different definitions and understandings of discourses and consequently different methodologies fall under the term discourse analysis. In this dissertation, I was interested in looking at the gendered activities, roles and relations of households and communities following the government induced displacement and rehabilitation. Besides, being interested in the discourses produced in the migrants’ resettlement and everyday experiences; I was also interested in the discourses that legitimized the government programs, and the competing or resistance discourses that challenged the government’s decisions and policies.

Discourses, however, from a Foucauldian standpoint, are inseparable from the dualism of power and knowledge (Mills 2003, McLaren 2002, Smart 2002, Gee 1999). The leitmotif of Foucault’s work (Rabinow 1997, Dreyfus and Rabinow 1982, Foucault 1980, 1979) was to provide a critique of the way modern societies control and discipline their populations by sanctioning the knowledge claims and practices of sciences. Thus I will focus, throughout my dissertation, on the dynamics of migration and its effect on the lives of the migrants, informed by a Foucauldian discourse analysis (Gee 1999). I understand this analysis as all utterances having meanings and relevance with the real world.

A discourse analysis was employed to analyze government reports, and various academic and non-academic (NGOs) manuscripts, policies, narratives, interviews. Discourse analysis is a term used for a broad area of language study, containing a diversity of approaches with different epistemological roots, and very different methodologies. But, in general, discourse analysis can be defined as a 'set of methods and theories for investigating language in use and language in social contexts' (Wetherell et al. 2001). I have used discourse analysis as I was interested in understanding particular utterences, in a particular social situation and at a particular place (which are the few surveyed villages of the Narmada Valley).

17 A detailed discourse analysis follows in chapters IV and V analyzing discourses of space and power.My discourse analysis focuses on the discourses of the migrants and the state, and how either used their tactics or strategies to restructure power relations. The migrants are adding new meanings to the discourses of space as they live, negotiate, and contest their positions in their daily lives. In addition, different meanings of space and power are constructed by the NGOs and the state apparatuses. Therefore, this discourse analysis provides meaningful representations of discourses as studied by the researcher.

Hereby, I attempt to prompt researchers to recognize the need to apply different feminist methodologies to aid in understanding the displacees’ day-to-day challenges, enabling researchers to ask more and continue their search on migrants of diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. I uncover the migrants’ everyday life to promote more studies of this genre in the feminist and population geographies.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

My study addresses the following research questions:

• What are the migrants’ attitudes towards dislocation?

• What are the different spaces created in the new settings (rehabilitated sites) across the

different tribal groups? What are the interconnections, intersections and overlaps between

the gendered spaces and spaces of power in the lived spaces?

• How has dislocation affected the living conditions, gendered household roles, hierarchies,

activities, and practices?

• What are the tactics adopted by the women and men in the social protests to obtain better

R&R packages and policy? What are the interconnections and intersections in the power

18 gradients among the different gendered actors (the tribals, NGOs and the state

apparatus)?

• How are women and men coping with the exposure to civic facilities, market systems and

urban lifestyles in the new place?

MY EXPERINENCE AND MY POSITIONALITY

When I started my surveys, I had no idea about the rehabilitated villages and submerged villages other than the limited experiences on the villages during my preliminary field visit. I imagined the tribal villagers were still practicing conventional agriculture but, with utter dismay,

I found their lives and activities largely altered in the rehabilitated villages. At an individual level, they were still confused over the use of advanced agricultural tools, pesticides and fertilizers, changed crop patterns and often suffered from their unfocussed motley and assorted choices. I refer back to a dialogue with Bhajan Bhai10 who stated that he had a bad crop last year for wrongly using the fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation and in doing so he reviled the government for the predicament. Those who could cope with the changed structures and livelihood systems economically flourished, but some tribals were unable to efficiently use resources and faced over expenditure going into debt.

My presuppositions were challenged by the experience of fieldwork. The relationship between my ideological assumptions and how the villagers represent them ought to be different. I could not conduct surveys from afar. In order to understand the villagers’ reactions to dislocation and rehabilitation, I had to go to the village to speak with villagers and observe them directly. In my initial days of survey, I grappled to synchronize my preconceptions developed through the readings on migration with the recording other researchers’ realities with whatever I observed and

10 All the villagers are given pseudonyms to preserve privacy to the information provided by them.

19 heard from the tribals. Before conducting these surveys, I thought the people were in severe distress and at a losing end, which was not entirely true. Viewing the present villages, I underscore that the oppressed have potential to resist and claim for their lost rights. At a household scale, I also examined who made decisions, for whom and how much of it is accepted.

It was interesting, to find that the social construction of gendered labor was evident in the rehabilitated villages, more so, than in the submerged villages.

My interpretation of myself contrasted sharply with the interpretations the people with whom I lived had of me. In their universe, I was powerless and unskilled – my attempts at extracting oil from a tree bark (mahuda) was physically exhausting. I could not perform the task for longer than few minutes, whereas, the tribal women would do it for several hours without taking a break. My inability to perform household activities which were performed easily by the women would send the women into tintinnabulating laughter. But despite of my lack of skills, I could live with them and go away. They had no reciprocal power to enter my world of the university. The fundamental inequality was that the social arrangements of class determined my mobility and freedom over theirs. The exploitative intrusive aspect of fieldwork seems inescapable. Under such circumstances, my concern was how does the researcher instill equality into this relationship?

We only acknowledge ethical dilemmas of research but how do we resolve them? In this text, the following voices of the people are ultimately translated by the researcher. Finally, it is the author who prevails (Stacey 1988). But, the power of the researcher over the text can never be

absolute. All texts remain vulnerable to being disputed and discredited. We must remind ourselves that the scholarly text is simply one representation among many (Bhaviskar 1995). This text that I have created is far from being any definitive, representation of Adivasi people; they act as subjects of their own accord and speak for themselves, and they will go on doing so. They will

20 also be continually represented by others. While I am sensitive to the contradictions inherent in the researcher/researched relationship, I cannot allow my ethical dilemmas to immobilize me.

My position as being involved in the lives of the people in the valley, as someone who

would leave after a while to write critically about them, caused me discomfiture. In the limited

time frame, I could only reciprocate to the villagers by discussing some alternatives for rural

development. I participated in discussing the problems villagers were undergoing practicing

commercial agriculture, pesticides, fertilizers, and farm machineries or maintaining the civic

facilities or changing household relations and community networks. Some of these issues were

discussed at household and community levels. I have at various occasions made the villagers

aware that village level cooperation was essential for restoration of better living standards. During

the conduction of the surveys, I raised some issues and sought for explanation from the

government officials and NGOs regarding the malfunctioning of civic facilities, such as spigots,

mobile health vans, and schools. We also discussed problems faced by the villagers increasing

agricultural expenditure or crop failure. My aim was to bring the people, NGOs, and government

officials in alignment for the maintenance of various facilities and further promote effective ways

of rural development.

I had constantly discussed with the villagers various alternatives for improving their

living conditions and followed the villagers’ concerns with the government officials and local

NGOs. Most of the issues of rural development and individuals’ betterment were gleaned from

their perspectives and proposals. Then in discussing these concerns with the NGOs and

government officials, I helped to find solutions appropriate for individuals and communities, while taking into consideration the region’s physiographic conditions.

Monetary incentives were not offered to the participants because it might hinder many under-funded researchers who will conduct future surveys in these villages. Also, female

21 researchers might encounter attempts at theft and physical attack, since the villagers’ need money for reconstruction of their lost assets. Hence, I tried to respond to the villagers’ needs other than money. For example, I carried medicines for one village lady who had very bad rheumatic pains,

clothes for toddlers and children, books for school going children. Sometimes, I bought spices and toiletries for women which made them happy. I have, however, paid money to some woman- headed households or families who were not compensated or were compensated but living in very low economic conditions encountering crop failures and various reasons leading to income instability.

OUTLINE OF THE DISSERTATION

The study brings forth the inherent unevenness of development programs and their

implications for the tribal communities. In the following chapters, I argue that the utilitarian

principle of maximum happiness for maximum numbers lay at the foundation of development and

has caused the local communities to sacrifice their lives for the greater good. The R&R programs

have resulted in an uneven distribution of the compensation packages among the affected

villagers. As a result, the Narmada Valley is peppered with protests by the local people and

NGOs, demanding better living conditions and standards.

Chapter II provides a background of subordination of the tribals. In this context, I explore

how the changed socio-economic and cultural settings have socially constructed the tribals’

lifestyles.

Chapter III mainly analyzes the dissonance between the socio-economic and cultural

lifestyles in submerging and rehabilitated villages.

22 Chapter IV explores the socio-economic adjustments of the tribal communities4. I incorporate the stories of women and men, to understand the creation of gendered spaces and spaces of power in everyday (such as, contested space, personal space, public space, hidden space and negotiated space) (Mills 2003, Dwivedi 1999, Foucault 1997, 1982, 1979, Stewart 1995, Gill

1995, Lefebvre1991, Scott 1990, de Certeau 1988).

Chapter V analyzes the exercise of power by the state in dislocating the people, and the tactics adopted by the displaced villagers, supported by the NGOs, for receiving better compensation and civic amenities in the rehabilitated villages.

Finally, I conclude by raising some key questions toward the promotion of an enlightened and ethical approach to development in the region.

23 Chapter II: SUBORDINIZATION OF THE ADIVASIS

A. INTRODUCTION

The project for national development is not limited to the Indian state but embedded in all contemporary global structures and nation-states, which are expanding through a fast injection of capital. The Sardar Sarovar multipurpose river valley project is a colossal scheme to harness the

River Narmada to provide irrigation, power generation, and drinking water. But the flipside of this project is it dismantles the everyday life of hundreds of villages. The reservoir of the dam will submerge an area of the forested hills displacing Adivasis who completely subsist upon the local environment. Indigenous communities, who depended on natural resources, will lose their lands and forest resource base due to relocation. Relocation will not only devastate their material livelihoods but create a wider loss of cultural autonomy leaving them with nothing other than labor power.

The liberal democratic government has created uneven ends in the distribution and maintenance of resources, which led to the formation of larger trajectories of power struggles.

While the dam is a symbol of development, the resistance movement against the dam embodies cultural resistance and alternatives to development. Various action groups, such as Arch-Vahini,

Narmada Bacho Andolan (Save Narmada Movement), and several others represent the marginalized state of the Adivasis. These action groups have forced the riparian state governments (Gujarat, Maharashtra and MP) to modify R&R policies to induce positive changes for dislocated Adivasi populations. In this chapter, I provide the history of subordination of

Adivasis by Indian rulers, colonial settlers, wealthy farmers, and money lenders. The chapter

24 further details how changes in the Adivasis lifestyles were forced by the state apparatuses in the

post independence era.

The following section brings about the histories of colonialism and post colonial era

marking the transformations from hunting and gathering societies to commercial societies.

B. COLONIALIZATION TO POST COLONIALIZATION

B.1. The Tribals and their attachments with the Forests: The history of state forestry is

indeed a history of social conflict. The state management of forests has maintained a bitter and

continuous opposition in South Asia. The professional foresters argue that maintenance of forests

and crucial extraction of timber can be obtained only by sequestering the native dwellers and their

animals from the forests. But the indigenous communities, cattle grazers, fisher folks, bidi (local

cigarettes) makers, and wild berry or mahuda flower collectors depend on minor forest products

for the maintenance of their economy and daily household subsistence. Moreover, these modes of

resource use are not particular strategies for making use of nature – but are embedded in their

cultural traditions (Guha 1994, GOI 1961).

The strict colonial control over forest and post-colonial state forest management led to

the origin of social protest movements of the indigenous communities. The unprecedented

interventions in political control of the British promoted commercial forestry and battle over

establishing a different set of radical priorities which altered the ecological and cultural fabric of

Indian society by exposing their subjects to rapid industrialization and consumerization.

Moreover, the colonizers exhibited hostile attitudes to indigenous communities who wanted

protection of forests. The clash of cultural values fomented to reinforce that forests are

impediments to the expansion of agriculture and acceleration in building infrastructure (Weber,

1902). The 1878 Forest Act restricted the tribal communities, hunters, and gatherers from using

25 the forests. Unfortunately, for the tribals, collection and sale of forest products were critical for their existence. After the forest laws were enacted, life became extremely difficult for the forest tribes without resorting to unlawful means (NAI 1878).

B.2. Hunting/Gathering to Plundering: After the 1850s, commercial economy sharply undermined the ecological basis of subsistence agriculture, hunting and gathering. Adivasis were being increasingly excluded from the forests and their customary rights restricted. However, under the guise of environmental protection, the British justified the forest act, though, no policy of conservation was actually formulated to protect forests. Ironically, lands were leased to the contractors, who transformed the vast tracts of forests into barren lands for the eventual growth of commercial forests (Aurora 1972, 87). Indian teak was grown profusely and shipped for the royal navy during the Anglo-French war of the 19th century. Teak was also exported as a substitute for

oak, which was depleted in England and Ireland (Guha and Gadgil 1989, 145). The forest policy

of the post independence period shows an undeterred determination of the state in controlling the

growth of marketable species as industrial supplies.

The conditions of oppression and marginalization that prevailed in the colonial era

dynamically impact tribal lifestyles and environment (Arnold and Guha 1995, Crosby 1986).

During this time, the British transformed forests for the growth of commercial tree species, and

building infrastructure and industries, when most of the tribals practiced hunting-gathering or

shifting (jhum) cultivation and some were settled agriculturalists cultivating the fertile plains or

forests. However, the colonizers slyly stalled shifting cultivation and acquired the lands for

plantations. The hunter-gatherer communities were forced to move from the fertile forested areas

as they were less organized than the shifting cultivators (also called jhumaiyas). In general, such

instances of colonial oppression and marginalization of native settlers was widespread in the

26 entire subcontinent, but this work focuses on the conditions that persisted mostly in western India only.

For a long period of time, the shifting cultivators resisted the state forest laws.

Eventually, they were forced to join the state forest department, either to cultivate marketable species and provide insights on the indigenous plants or accept marginalization through exclusion from participation of development of the modern state. Most of the Adivasi Bhils insurgencies were formed through years of subordination from colonial rule and Indian bureaucrats. During the

British rule the plain dwellers were preferred over these indigenous communities as they took to the cultivation of commercial crops and lumbering of valuable forest species. The Adivasis were cornered by the British to the less plenteous lands, such as poorer hills, or agriculturally less prolific and inhospitable forests. The Adivasi Bhil protests acted as demonstration of discontent for their destitution and marginalization (see the next section for the Forest Policy of 1894).

Thereafter, the Bhils made rich plain dwellers their targets. Resistance was in the form of looting and plundering the wealthy non Adivasis in the plains. The possibilities and forms of Bhil resistance were contingent upon their relations with plain dwellers, their marginalization and conditions of power. The Adivasis drew upon their material and ideological resources like, bows and arrows, knowledge of hills, sheltered inlets, and opportune moments. But on the whole, hunter-gatherers were less organized to resist the forces of the state and modern economy compared to shifting cultivators, who were more strategic, united as a group and capable of militant resistance (Guha and Gadgil 1989). The following paragraph, provides a narrative of my experiences in submerging village in MP, discussing the existence of banditary, at present.

On a muggy morning in July 2004, the government field officer (Shekar) and I started our travel from the Sardar Sarovar Nigam (R&R office in Gujarat) to visit some submerging villages in MP. By late afternoon, we passed through a region of low barren hills of red, muddy soils

27 embedded with drier and coarser stones and pebbly paths. The roads were so rugged that it took several hours to progress more than a few miles. There were a few Bhil hamlets dispersed

approximately 15 to 20 miles apart. The country seemed wild and favorable as a refuge to marauding expeditioners (NAI 1845). At the time, I was thinking that these hillocks can be

hideouts for children playing hide and seek or serve as protective shelter for fugitives.

Coincidentally, the field officer accompanying me stated, “madam, these areas are known for

Adivasi bandits”. Upon hearing this, I started getting goose bumps which then tingled down my

spine. Without noticing my reactions, he continued,

They hide behind the rocky humps and attack every passing vehicle from all directions,

making clamorous sounds leaving absolutely no scope for the vehicles to escape. Then

they strike the passengers irrespective of sex on the softer parts of the body that will ooze

blood. According to them, they should not take anything without hard labor not even to

steal; hence they hit and pierce arrows then ask for the belongings (Shekhar, male

respondent, age 58, interviewed by author, 20th August 2004).

As I absorbed the severity of the situation, I gradually removed whatever small jewelry I wore as symbols of marriage, thinking, I can protect my ears and hand from getting hurt by preventing them from snatching the ornaments. He also mentioned that this is a special act performed by the

Adivasi Bhil agriculturalists during the times of abnormal monsoons. If they do not get any rain, the poor villagers come down to steal or else they will starve to death. In Colonial times, the

British once dealt differently with Adivasis during a famine.

In the turn of the 20th century, the British colonists tried to allay the Adivasi suffering.

Between 1899 and 1901, a devastating famine broke, to ease sufferings of the Adivasi the British

imported grains for poor households. Famine relief works started granting remission of revenue.

Incidents of looting became sporadic where most of the Adivasis secluded themselves. They

28 concentrated on trying to survive intact, holding closely to the hills to live. At present, all

Adivasis are depending mainly on agriculture and different livelihood mechanisms. For all practical purposes, hunter-gatherers are extinct on the Indian subcontinent, although small communities exist in few pockets of the Indian Ocean islands (Guha 1994). Most of the tribal hunter-gatherers are now practicing settled livelihood practices, such as cultivation, fishing, grazing or selling forest produce.

B.3. Fading Shifting Cultivation over Plough Agriculture: Influenced by agricultural revolution, the British deplored what they perceived the seeming waste of land and resources by shifting cultivation. According to the British, the methods of burning adopted by the shifting cultivators rarely allowed trees to attain a “marketable” girth, and “these erratic and wasteful clearings”, gave “unsettled habits to people and made all improvements of their moral and material well-being difficult if not impossible” (Cleghorn 1874). The British wanted to use the fertile hill tracts for plantation agriculture and grow commercially viable species, such as sal and teak. This was one reason for the formation of the state forestry law, which emphasized the production of tea, rubber, and coffee plantations (Cleghorn 1874) over shifting cultivation, which was seen as highly unsustainable. In areas where plantation agriculture could be practiced, for example, portions of Coorg and , shifting cultivation was banned. The Adivasis were pushed to the inaccessible and “less valuable areas” to practice shifting cultivation (NAI 1878,

30). But, as Elwin (1939,118) has pointed out tribals were under strict surveillance and increasing official pressure, which slowly weaned their habits of slash and burn cultivation to plough agriculture. This is similar to Foucault’s (1979) notion of discipline. The colonial rulers forcibly disciplined the tribal cultivators altering their cultural and economic practices, moves and ways of living. Elwin supports this argument,

29 At every turn the Forest Laws cut across his life, limiting, frustrating, destroying his

self-confidence… it is obvious that so great a number of offences would not occur

unless the forest regulations ran counter to the fundamental needs of the tribesmen…

A Forest Officer once said to me: “Our laws are of such kind that every villager

breaks one forest law every day of his life” (Elwin 1963, 115).

Laws were so rigorous and closely restrictive of tribals’ everyday life that anything these poor

tribals did was considered a violation of the law. The forest policy of 1894 reinforced the claim

that the State has supreme control over forests, through protection and production of the forests

constricting the use and access of the tribals. Simultaneously, the policy defined shifting

cultivation as causing large-scale destruction, specifically producing main threats to state forestry

(Anonymous 1952). The industrial orientation of the forest policy passed through three distinct

phases. The first phase was the ‘selection’ system, whereby the industrial sector was provided

with raw materials at a subsidized rate for harvest of the marketable species. But when methods

failed the growing industrial demands, the forests were clear felled for the growth of exotic

species, such as eucalyptus and Caribbean pine. This was the second phase adopted by the British

to colonize tribal forests. With the failure to promote the plantation of the exotic species, the state

provided subsidies to the private farmers to plant eucalyptus as an industrial raw material in the

third phase. In these circumstances, the hunter-gatherer communities’ choice was highly

truncated. Either they had to provide their knowledge of indigenous species (flora and fauna) to

the forest department or they faced the threat of eviction.

Undeterred by the efforts of the state, the shifting cultivators organized to resist the politics of forest policies and continued to follow the traditional rotations of shifting cultivation.

The forest department turned to the police to arrest the cultivators and release them on the promise that they would take to plough cultivation. The transparent unwillingness to give up the

30 traditional cultivation method of shifting cultivation was most apparent in the case of Baigas – who believed that they were born as ‘Kings of the jungle and the soil, linking nature and agricultural practices with their ancestry. But the Baiga tribals were unable to succeed at shifting cultivation due to ponderous prosecution and monetary fines enforced on them by the state to stop shifting cultivation (see Elwin 1939).

Over many years, the tension between shifting cultivation and the state had subverted broader questions on tribal rights. Unfortunately, a gulf continued between the policy documents crafted by the British and the implementation of the Constitutional after India’s independence.

The state forestry laws favored the state while marginalizing the rights of the tribals. Strangely, despite a century of state-control of forests, the tribals still presumed that the forests belonged to them (GOI 1961). For example, in different parts of India at different times, the slogans of the tribal protests voiced their cultural relationships with nature (‘Jangal Zamin Azad Hai’ - forests and lands are free gifts of nature). The protests succinctly expressed the opposition to state control and the commercial use of forests, they felt belonged to them. For example, in

Chotanagpur area, the tribals removed the teak saplings, which had replaced the traditional species. As Elwin (1939) have pertinently observed, shifting cultivation was not merely an economic system with certain ecological impacts; to its practitioners, it was a way of life, the core of thetribals’ mental and material culture.

In this section, the Adivasi dwellers were divorced from their means of production (of forests and lands) as practiced by the previous generations. They were forced to accept a subservient place under the new capitalistic production regime of modern India (Gadgil and Guha

31 1992). Not only the British but the wealthy farmers, moneylenders, and the Indian state were equal shareholders in the process of conditioning the Adivasi lifestyles1.

B.4. Downward mobility (of Adivasis) as a subservient group: The gradual eradication of

shifting cultivation was simultaneous with the establishment of non-Adivasis in Adivasi plains,

because the British wanted progressive utilization of land and forest resources through plough

cultivation. The Kanbi Patridar, a group of wealthy farmers from Gujarat occupied the Shahada

and Taldoda districts of MP producing opium and cotton as the British wanted efficacious

cultivation of these crops. The Adivasis were pushed off from their lands and made to serve as

bonded labors. In Gujarat, the lands were passed to the hands of the Patridar (Epstein 1988,2).

The Leva Patridar, who farmed near Jhalod district, MP were moneylenders and they obtained

ownership of lands as the tribals fell in to the debt trap. Acts of repeated exploitation, such as this,

forced the Adivasis move to the unfertile hill tracts where their holdings were unattractive and

marginal enough to remain uncoveted (Aurora 1972). Accordingly, the Vanias (businessmen or

moneylenders) were less interested in occupying the new sub-marginal Adivasis land holdings

but remained inclined on profitably exploiting the Adivasis by giving loans and honing their

profits in unequal terms of trade Aurora (1972, 181).

These activities raised some instances of strong resistance from the Bhils (Hardiman

1987b, 17). Scott (1990) mentions that the persistence of any kind of domination is harmful for

the society as it arouses resentful attitudes among the subordinate groups. The continuous

subjugation by the British, Indian rulers, wealthy farmers, and money lenders led to a series of

resistance movements and deep-seated hatred towards Patridar (plain dwellers). These

1 For studies on jhum cultivation see Pingle, Urmila., N.V. Rajareddy., and C. von Furer-Haimedorf. 1982. ‘Should Shifting Cultivation be Banned?’, Science Today, Bombay, March 1982; Furer-Haimedorf’s (1943) major ethnographic study of shifting cultivators is titled Hill Reddis, London; ‘Change south in Tripura Farming’, Times of India, 3rd March 1988; ‘Jhum as an Ecological Disaster’, Times of India, 15th November 1987; ‘Plan to Control Jhum Cultivation’, The Statesman, 20th September.

32 circumstances also initiated the Adivasi raid on the settled agriculturists of the plains and to steal from the travelers.

Although, production of grains by the tribals reduced in the sub-marginal areas, the overall trading of grains increased around the 1990s. Food grains were traded to the cities and towns in bullock carts until railway lines connected the interior villages. Hardiman quotes a

Deputy collector of that time, “the inhabitants of the Mahals (the area north-west of ,

MP) has begun to feel advantageous of the introduction of the railways to their very threshold …”

(sic) The quote is ironic for, says Hardiman (1987b, 19), “the benefit to the Bhil cultivators would have been minimal as they never received the market value of their crops. It was, rather, the grain dealers (money lenders) who were enriched by opening of new markets through the railway”.

Further exploitation of the marginal farmers in different parts of India was through taxation and land tenure systems, which combined produced radical colonialism (Wolf 1982,

247). The collection of excise duties was given out as contracts to the traders who advanced loans to the Bhils in exchange of their rights to the produce (Luard 1908 a & b). The Vanias who were intermediaries between the administrative officers and the Bhils, forced the Bhils to grow groundnut and sesame for cash returns, strengthening the Vanias’ ties with distant markets

(Aurora 1972, 88). The Bhils diminished to a subservient group losing their freedom for growing subsistence crops. The continued squeeze of the state’s revenue extractions and depletion of natural resources made survival more precarious for the Adivasis in the banks of Narmada and

Tapti Valley in western India.

After independence, the Indian state embarked on progressive ‘development’ projects and

industrialization with a populist ‘welfare’ component of anti-poverty programmes. The

constitution of India ‘promoted’ special care on the educational and economic conditions of the

weaker Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes and safeguarded them from all sorts of injustice

33 and forms of exploitation (GOI 1978, 4). In 1950s, the parts of neighboring Khargone and Dhar district, MP were denoted as a Schedule Tribe area and their populations (Bhilalas and Bhils) classified were Scheduled Tribes. Several welfare schemes, such as residential ashrams (schools) were opened and the integrated rural development programs (IRDP) were founded. Besides this, other government rural development programmes aided at particular times of distress, such as famines and floods.

However, tribal rights to forests were still unrecognized. Tribals continued to be alienated

from the genuine gains of power and prosperity. According to the report National Council of

Applied Economic Research (NCAER), the tribal areas are rich in mineral resources with

enormous potentiality to provide industrial raw materials. The state further highlighted that, as

agricultural lands are insufficient and cannot serve the needs of even half of the tribal

populations, industries and mining activities should be developed in these regions. Therefore,

NCAER declared that industries should be developed and localized in tribal areas to serve the

wider interest of the nation and the long-term interest of the tribals (NCAER 1963, vi).

In the wider interest of the nation, the state exercised its prerogative in claiming eminent

domain for acquiring lands for the development projects in justifying the need for greater good of

the people (see Singh 1986). In pursuing these policies rapid depletion of natural resources

occurred in the tribal areas, which violated the interests of the Adivasis. These projects were seen

as harbingers of national progress, which were justified and implemented, as they would bring

about tribal development (Cernea 1991 a & b).

Dam building peaked in the Narmada Valley. Upon completion, the SSP will displace

over 2 million people and 40, 000 acres of land and forests in the subcontinent (see Table 1 & 2).

Large dams were opposed in different parts of the country, but the politics of water-use by the

34 immediate riparian states subdued these hotly debated issues in this location (resettlement risks and impoverishment of tribal oustees) (Kalpraviska and Hindu College Nature Club 1985).

Various studies (Alvares and Billorey 1988, Tukral 1992, TISS 1993, Hakim 2000,

Nayak 2000) have generated discourses related to resettlement risks of dam-displaced oustees

highlighting loss of common property resources, jobs, livelihoods, home, and asset as some

resettlement risks (Cernea 1997) that cannot be fully compensated by the government relocation

efforts (Dwivedi 1999, Whitehead 1999, 2000; Cernea 1995). Hakim’s (2000) study significantly

points out the risk of losing food security. She mentions that the loss of edibles was one of the

major risks following resettlement encountered by the Vasavas. Most submerged interior villages

had large varieties of edible leaves, flowers, and fruits, which were gathered by the tribal

communities living in these forested villages collectively. All forest produce, except the mahuda tree was considered common property and children could collect whatever they wanted. Forests also provided some income, especially to women who sold and used cheekh (tree gum), string made from otari and bindi, and the leaves of the timbru and asitra tree for rolling bidi. Khakra

seeds and mahuda flowers were bartered for onions and rice. Mahuda barks were pressed to

extract delicious oil. Grazing lands were available in abundance. Hence, each household could

maintain large herds of cattle, which were considered indicators of wealth and security.

Now in the rehabilitated villages, the Vasavas secretly hunt small game despite of the fear being caught and ridiculed by the host communities. Fish is sorely missed and buying from the markets is prohibitively expensive. Although, many of the past subsistences can be fulfilled through market purchases, the need for cash then also increases. The displaced villagers now experiences reduction of cattle for lack of common grazing grounds and knowledge of local plants, in relocated sites, as well as to resettlement-related insecurities.

35

C. SUMMARY

In this chapter, I have provided some information on the Adivasi practices and activities in the pre-independence and the post-independence era. The needs of different rulers altered the traditional landscapes into commercial centers. The colonial settlers, Indian governments, and wealthy classes were involved in shaping the tribals everyday with little or no consideration to their socio-economic and cultural foundations. Further on, in chapter III, I represent specific differences in past and present living conditions of a tribe called the Tadvis.

36

Chapter III: EVERYDAY LIVES OF THE TADVIS IN THE NARMADA VALLEY

A. INTRODUCTION

Most of the Indian ruling nationalists wanted to independently govern the new nation-

state yet they duplicated western developmental practices through a rapid injection of

commodification, industrialization, and urbanization. They followed western strategies, thinking

it the best way to compensate for the losses incurred through colonial oppression (Kholi 1987,

73). In postcolonial India, large development projects, like the SSP, were implemented in the

name of national progress. However, the SSP had already submerged and will submerge

invaluable forests, wipe out wild life, spread water-borne diseases (through stagnant waters of the

reservoirs) affecting peoples’ lives (Guha 1994). Small sustainable projects, on the contrary,

could have been implemented, which would have conserved natural resources without disturbing

the population’s traditional practices. Though the government argues that the resettled villagers

are better off in rehabilitation sites compared to their lives in the jungles, the villagers have every

right to resist displacement and claims of injustice, loss of land, jobs, houses, assets, and other

resources. Always, the state re-working agendas should not blatantly justify the uneven

distribution of project benefits, as some people have to suffer for the greater good. Rather they

should consider the cases of millions of displaced with sensitivity (see Dwivedi 1999, Bhaviskar

1995, Ramanathan 1996, Dhagamwar, Thukral and Singh 1995).

37

In this chapter, I examine the living conditions and socio-cultural practices of the

‘Tadvis’ in their past and present villages1. Tadvis originally resided at Vadgam2, Gujarat.

Construction of the SSP dislocated them from Vadgam to several villages of Gujarat, one among them is Golagambdi (in the Daboi Taluka, ), where 80 households were relocated. Vadgam had 251 households with a total population of 1,514 (Das 1982). The majority of the population consisted of the Tadvis with very small proportions of Govals who were primarily cattle herders (see Fig. 6). The term Tadvi is derived from the word Tatvi where ‘Tat’

means riverbank. The Tadvis were originally Bhils. The name Tadvi was given to those Bhils, who migrated and settled along the banks of Narmada.

A reason of relocation of the Bhils to the banks of the Narmada lies in the histories of

colonial oppression. The dominance of commerce and colonial administration over the tribal

hinterlands made the tribal farmers economically worse off than they were before (see Chapter-

II). The British forced settled agriculture over shifting cultivation, enforced the state forestry

laws, and thereby gained control over all the commercially valuable forests and restricted the

selling of minor forest products and toddy (locally made alcohol) by the tribals. Added to this, the

state’s revenue exactions and the depletion of natural resources made survival even more

precarious for the Adivasis than usual. In most of western India, traditional local economies were

affected as the tribal lands were converted to commercial centers. Famine could not affect the rich business classes (wealthy farmers, traders, and moneylenders) in the commercial villages and towns, who hoarded large stocks of grains (Aurora 1972,77). Yet, the only historical evidence of destruction of forests and its consequences on the poorer Adivasis were found in the immediate

1 See Tables 4 & 5 for a detailed account on submerging villages.

2 I have conducted surveys with other tribes like Bhils and Ratwas but I limit myself with details of the Tadvis owing to the limitations of time. It will be cumbersome to narrate the living conditions of all the tribes of the surveyed villages. However, I have produced the narratives of the Bhils, Ratwas and Tadvis in all the chapters.

38

and enormous increase registered in the state’s income, mainly from land revenue, excise duties and forests3. When famine stalked the people of the land, the Bhils migrated to Gujarat, Nimar

(plains) in MP and the Tapti Valley. The Bhils took refuge in the banks of the river to avoid

calamity (Das 1982, Joshi 1983).

This chapter describes the geographical characteristics of the submerged villages and the

socio-cultural and economic practices of the villagers in Vadgam and Golagambdi. Besides

conducting surveys in Golagambdi I surveyed Kundiuuchakalam, Sanoli, and Suryatalav. For an

in-depth analysis on the tribals past and present living conditions and practices, I limit myself

only to Golagambdi. The following section specifies the methodology, which was followed to

conduct the surveys in the rehabilitated villages.

B. METHODS

Field surveys were carried out in four rehabilitated villages where people from the states

of Maharashtra, MP and Gujarat4 were relocated. I selected the first village (Golagambdi) with the assistance of an educational institution (CSS) (see Chapter-I). Thereafter, villages were selected following snowball-sampling techniques5 and the criteria based on the villagers’ ethnic background, their accessibility to transportation nodes, and provisions of civic amenities in the villages. I hired a tribal middle-aged man, Sunil and a male student of the South Gujarat

University, Bhavin, to conduct my surveys. My research consists of household surveys and narratives. The household surveys were conducted to examine the living conditions of the Tadvis, for which the entire village was enumerated, as the sizes of the villages were small. In total, I surveyed 365 households in four villages. Information was collected on the demographic

3For estimates on the extent of deforestation in colonial times in other regions of India, see Gadgil and Guha (1992).

39

characteristics, house-types, socio-economic characteristics, and infrastructural facilities. Bhavin helped complete my household surveys asking open-ended questions.

From the four villages 40 narratives were collected. The respondents were chosen

following snowball sampling procedure based on differences in income, class, sex, age across the

tribal groups. The villagers spoke in Hindi but sometimes code switched to explain in tribal

dialects of Gujarati. They often used single Gujarati words. When languages other than Hindi

were used, Sunil helped me understand the dialogues. In the initial days of my survey, I listened

to the villagers without writing anything as they had the fear that I would document their

grievances and expose them to the government officials. I reconstructed the conversation every

evening. Later on, I transcribed the tribal discourses. Through out my surveys, I did not use tape

recorders. I felt that the recorder would intimidate and lessen the content of the narratives. The

narratives described the villagers’ past and present living conditions, socio-cultural practices,

economic conditions and resettlement experiences.

Additionally, the government officials, NGOs, and submerging villagers of MP were also

interviewed, which provided important background information of the villagers’ previous

lifestyles, the R&R policies, and the mechanisms of R&R.

4 All the rehabilitated villages surveyed are located in the state of Gujarat. I am providing the names of rehabilitated villages along with the names of submerged or submerging villages and the respective states where the later were situated. The names of the four rehabilitated villages surveyed are Golagambdi (Vadgam, Gujarat), Sanoli (Dhumna, Antras, Madhya Pradesh), Kundiucchakalam (Katnera, Madhya Pradesh; Hapeswar, Gujarat) and Suryatalav (Sinduri, Maharashtra). I also selected one host village called Golagambdi Host Village in the Vadodara District of Gujarat.

5 Snowball sampling is a technique, widely used in social science research, for developing a research sample where existing study subjects recruit future subjects from among their acquaintances. Here, I chose a village and a villager through an academic institution. Then I moved on to another participant who is known to my initial participant. But I also followed my criteria for selecting the participant’s acquintances and villages.

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C. THE PEOPLE – TADVIS

Golagambdi mainly consisted of Tadvis (who are classified in two groups, Bhagats and non-Bhagats (ethnic groups) with a few Brahmins and Govals (caste groups) interspersed (see

Fig.7). The lifestyles of the Bhagats are a close match to the ways of living of Hindu Brahmins.

Bhagats practice strict vegetarianism, total abstinence from alcohol, cleanliness, and daily

worship. The hinduization of the Adivasis of this region started through the reform movements in

18th century. Educated Adivasis felt alcoholism, ignorance, disorganization were the main points

of weakness which led to exploitation. These educated men initiated Hindu practices in the

tribals’ daily lives. In the following paragraph, I illustrate, in short, the various ways in which

Adivasis were exploited.

In the 16th century, the non-tribal populations were concentrated in a few pockets as

minorities in the plains of Surat and districts, Gujarat. In 1719, when the Peshwas entered

Gujarat, they first established their rule at Songadh in , Gujarat. After the turn of the

18th century, the forest tracts were cleared and more cultivatable lands were available to the small

group of non-tribals. This group of migrant plain dwelling agriculturalists became the major land

owning group (Kanbi Patridars, Brahmins and Parsis6) (Bhaviskar 1995). The moneylenders

trapped the Adivasis as their lands had low land returns and forced them to borrow money for

sustenance. Batteries of foreign invasion and dominance of Hindu rulers invaded the tribal socio-

cultural and economic systems forcing them to accept the social change by restructuring and

reorganizing their ways of living. An intriguing example, provided by Desai (1979), regarding the

change in excise policy and its impacts on the Adivasis indicates,

6 The Kanbi Patridars are names given to the large land owners who settled in the banks of Narmada and Tapti valley. Parsis are an ethnic group and Brahmins are the uppermost Hindu caste group.

41

The Adivasis tapped their own trees for toddy and distilled liquor for themselves. But in

the beginning of the 20th century, the British administration and following them other

native states such as Baroda, Rajpipla, Vansda … introduced a new excise policy known

as the ‘Madras system’. According to this system, the government sold by auction the

right to sell liquor and toddy. The system was in vogue before prohibition was introduced

in Gujarat area. Everyone, except the government was prohibited from selling liquor and

toddy … the Adivasis lost their right to prepare their own liquor and toddy but not their

habits of drinking.

They had no money and they were not accustomed to handle money. They did

not know the exchange and money economy. They were given some money and drinks in

lieu of their labor. They even did not know how to count. The result was growing

indebtedness. And slowly began to lose their lands. They became either tenants or

laborers. The economy and polity exploited their habit of drinking (Desai 1979).

A fragmented, untaught tribal society was no match for the well-organized land-owning class.

The economic differentiation between these two classes over a period of time converted the latter to farm servants. The worst affected were the Dublas who were converted to bonded laborers.

Later with education, the new generation tribal youths became conscious of the reasons for tribal exploitation and launched reform movements. A brief history of the reform movements is mentioned in the following paragraphs.

All the leaders in the reform movement believed that the root cause of the tribal misery is traditional social life and drinking habits. So the reform movements at different parts of India involved the tribal societies in giving up traditional practices and accepting Hindu traditions as points of modernization to end tribal subjugation. In a village of western India, Dharia Bhai and his wife erected a temple with Hindu idols. His brother was entrusted for preaching Hindu

42

gospels and persuaded people to give up drinking toddy and eating meat while emphasizing bathing regularly and singing devotional songs. This shift in social practices was instrumental in uniting different tribal groups.

Later another wave of reform movement, popularly known as the Devi movement, gave a new dimension to the earlier template. It was believed that a supernatural power was roaming in the area, exhorting the people to stop drinking wine and toddy. While these attempts to reform the tribals’ way of life were made, the tyranny and oppression of the landowners, supported by the

British intensified. The non-tribals did not want the tribals to alter their ways of living and improve their social conditions, as the non-tribals wanted to perpetuate exploitation. The British government also wanted the continuation of drinking habits of tribals as revenue was earned from the tribals. Hence these religious movements alarmed all the dominant groups who reacted aggressively and continued to enforce drinking on the Adivasis. One report claimed that the government troopers held Adivasis forcibly and poured liquor or toddy into their mouths.

Because of fear of torture and harassment from the landowners (the Parsis and British), the tribals ignored the message of the Devi and relapsed into their old drinking habits (see Hardiman

1987b). At the same time the British forcibly stopped shifting cultivation as the most traditional mode means of cultivation (see Chapter-II), but when the reformers attempted to infuse among the tribals a way of living followed by Hindu Brahmins, the movement was strongly resisted by the British and Muslim rulers.

However, as the reform movements were making sporadic progress, the Adivasis were already split into two groups; one group who adopted Hindu practices, and the other group who continued to maintain traditional tribal culture. In this anti-prohibition movement, the British liquor shop owners and the traditional Adivasis who kept the contract of selling toddy were united (Desai 1979).

43

After the Devi movement ceased, the growth of a different set of socio-religious movements – Bhakti sects7 began. The first Bhakti sect to arrive was obtained from the ‘Kayam

Panth’, which was popularly known as ‘Sat Kaiwal’ founded by Saint Kuberswami, whose real

identity is shrouded in mystery. Legends say that he was sent to Earth by the supreme god, Sat

Kaiwal, to preach gospel. One more interesting example of Bhakti sect, popular in Gujarat, is the

Vallabhchari Swamnarayan and Ramanuj sects. Vallabh, too, established a new sect as he

believed that the other Bhakti sects were taking the people away from the strict observance of the

Hindu tradition. Vallabh was a firm believer in the omnipresent Brahma. He explained the

significance of chanting ‘Om’. After his death his son Ramuji, inherited the mantle in 1925 and

intensified the propagation of the sect amongst the Adivasis. A majority of tribal followers had

taken Guru mantra from Ramuji. The disciples had to take twenty-two promises. Three of the

promises were vital: abstaining from in sexual relations with any person other than one’s spouse,

from eating meat, from drinking toddy, and from smoking. Other promises were bath everyday,

maintain cleanliness, lead an honest and simple life, and offer puja (a daily worship). According to Ramuji these promises were required to purify human souls (see Singh 1983).

During this time, renditions of the vital change systematically permeated into the socio- cultural systems of the tribals. Those who transformed their lifestyles according to the Hindu cultures carried a feeling of superiority over the traditional Adivasis. The strict adherence to

Hindu practices made the former feel morally superior. They did not accept food in the houses of non-sect individuals and in some cases antagonistic relationships developed.

Other stories on the origin of the Bhagats and non-Bhagats were, in the first half of the

20th century. The Tadvis were influenced by the teachings of Saint Vishwanath and were

7 A sect or ‘sampradaya’ as it is known in Gujarat, represents a set of moral values to which a tribal chooses to conform. Thus to say that a person adheres to the ‘moksha marg sampradaya’ means that he or she follows the code of conduct laid down by the founder of the sampradaya, as well as the subsequent preaching’s of the monastic order. The strictness with which the code is followed depends on the individual as well as on the enthusiasm of the monks.

44

classified into two groups. The educated Bhagats opted for government jobs, which exposed them to urban lifestyles. While the non-Bhagats did not change their eating habits or any daily practices. Though this was not a caste division, the Bhagats held a feeling of superiority over the non-Bhagats. The reformed tribals were popularly known as Bhagats and the traditional tribals as non-Bhagats.

While conducting the surveys, I sensed the hierarchies of power in similar tribal groups, which is contoured by hinduization of tribals. Socio-cultural rituals also varied among the tribals of same ethnic backgrounds. I witnessed Sunil who is a Bhagat, point at his neighbor living opposite to his house and announced loudly “he is a Bhagat too but when he eats meat he hangs his sacred thread8 on a tree branch”. Sunil’s sarcasm seemed to allege that his neighbor is a fake

Bhagat as he does not maintain the higher quality of life required of Hindu practices. Many

disparaging jokes on Bhagats and non-Bhagats could be heard as I went on.

The following sections identify living conditions and standards, village morphology,

socio-cultural conditions, and economic conditions of past (Vadgam) and present village

(Golagambdi).

D. MORPHOLOGY OF THE VILLAGES: VADGAM (PAST VILLAGE) AND

GOLAGAMBDI (PRESENT VILLAGE)

Past Village: Vadgam has no recorded history of its own. It was a village mostly

inhabited by the Tadvis with 251 households and a total population of approximately 1,500

people. The general information about the size of the village, population and lands under

submergence are provided in Table 7.

8 Sacred threads are given to Hindus when they take religious initiation and avow to abide a pious way of life embedded with high spiritual and social values.

45

Vadgam was located in the Nandod taluka, Vadodara district of Gujarat. It is believed by

the villagers of old generation that the Tadvis migrated to Vadgam 200 years ago. There were two

completely different discourses about the migration of the Tadvis. The first explanation is purely

mythological9 while the second explanation is based on three consecutive famines in the early

19th century, and the people migrated to the banks of the Narmada to escape the famine. This change in geographical location led to the transformation of the peoples’ livelihood from forest- based economy to settled agricultural economy along the banks of the river.

The hilly parts of the village were divided into settlement clusters because frequent steep slopes and occasional monadnocks interrupted the region. The two broad settlement clusters10 were called Upla (upper) and Nichla (lower), which were further subdivided. Within these settlement clusters was further clustering due to nucleating of families11. All these settlement

clusters had dispersed dwellings. No defined community space at the cluster level had been

established by the villagers.

Present Village: Golagambdi is a planned village (Fig.5) where 80 households are

resettled from Vadgam. According to Ram Bhai12, the previous village head, many families from

Vadgam are resettled in different villages, as the government could not accommodate the whole

village at the same place. Ram Bhai states,

9According to the villagers of old generation, they were living in the Pawagadh hill ruled by King Patai. During a dance festival Goddess Durga joined those dancing women in disguise. The King being attracted by her beauty not knowing she was the Goddess proposed her to be his queen. The Goddess was enraged with anger, cursed his kingdom and left. This resulted in crop failure, death of human and cattle and war with the neighboring kingdom. So, the villagers migrated to the banks of river Narmada to escape the disaster (Das 1982).

10 Settlement clusters are called falias in local language.

11After marriage the family breaks down into nuclear families. These close relations stay together in nucleated families in the same settlement cluster.

12 All my respondents are given pseudo-names to maintain privacy of the information provided by them.

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From Vadgam approximately 80 families resettled in Golagambdi. First, Golagambdi was

shown to a group of five people consisting of the distinguished people of the village.

Then it was shown to all the families and children. After the people chose to shift in this

village, the surveyor distributed house plots and cultivatable lands. Vadgam had

approximately 251 households. About 165 households were rehabilitated in different

villages such as, Simaria, Malu, Dharampura, Kasundar, Krishnapura, Kaleria, Lunadra

and other places in and Daboi taluka of Vadodara District and in Naswadi,

Tilakwara, Rajpipla taluka of (Ram Bhai, male respondent, age 65,

Interviewed by author, 15th May 2004).

The Golagambdi rehabilitated village is divided into settlement clusters or small blocks of houses with roads passing in between every four or five houses. The village is connected with a main road leading to cities and towns. Buses and different kinds of public and private transportation are available throughout the day (Fig. 2).

Residential house plots of 502 square meters are given to all the oustees. The houses are made in such a manner that some space is saved to grow vegetables or food crops. Influential villagers, like village chiefs and large landowners of Vadgam, received cultivatable lands close to their houses. But the village common people received lands located three to five kilometers from their house plots.

The center of the village has a school, a playground, and a community center. At three

points of the village, there are water taps, and a tank from where villagers receive water for

household use and consumption. The village also has a grocery shop where necessities like

spices, oil, grains, packed snacks, soaps, detergents and other household necessities are available

on which the villagers are dependent. Though villagers did not think of developing a strong

reliance over these commodities in past villages, their dependence on markets for household

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consumption is a reason of worry among many villagers as they think they require a fixed income to meet growing expenditures. A few villagers work in government offices and cultivate their lands through agricultural laborers hired from neighboring villages. But most of the villagers practice only cultivation. Those families where farming is carried on a collective basis between members, at least one member seeks secondary employment in cities.

Although, access to civic facilities and connection to cities and markets is provided, the villagers complained about the increase in expenditure along with the increased income.

…outsiders keep telling us that the new land is better because we can have access to so

many goods and services. But they forget that we will need money to access these

facilities. If we do not get a good crop in one season, then it will be difficult to hire

tractors, power-driven pumps, and use seeds and fertilizers. I have heard that in the city,

one often has to pay for drinking water. I find it difficult to believe that our people will

ever have enough money to fulfill our wants to the same extent that we did in the hills

and forests (A women respondent, Golagambdi, age 52, interviewed by author May 23rd,

2004).

I encountered through narratives and personal observation that villagers expressed daily discomfort over various spatial and economic changes they were encountering. For instance, open spaces for defecation were declining, which made the villagers think of built sanitation.

Previously, cattle were the primary source of wealth. But due to relocation, no knowledge of local plants and lack of grazing lands, cattle died or reduced. Reduction of open spaces created a feeling of spatial limitation, specifically among the elderly villagers. The cultivation pattern changed from subsistence agriculture to commercial agriculture. The villagers were inclined to produce larger amounts of cash crops to attain income sufficiency. In past, they supplemented their diets with vegetables grown in riverbanks, minor forest products, and fish from the river.

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The new habitats required dependence on state currency rather than on the resources which used to surround them. At present, relocation from the forests, river basins and changes in crop cultivation largely changed their consumption patterns. Fish became a rarity as it was an unaffordable commodity. Many villagers (non-Bhagats) could not afford to maintain a diet consisting of milk, eggs, fish, and meat supplied from markets.

E. HOUSE TYPE/ PLACE OF DWELLING

Past Village: According to the elderly people of Golagambdi, in the early 1920s, Vadgam had one settlement cluster. The settlement cluster consisted of less than 30 houses, whereas in the

1980s, the number of settlements increased to 251 (Das 1982, Joshi 1983).

The dwellings at Vadgam were different from the Golagambdi rehabilitated villages in their structural and spatial details. In the past, the interiors of the houses in Vadgam were simple with less compartmentalization. For instance, the places for cooking and sleeping were similar with a demarcation for cattle in some cases. The houses were made of mud and thatched roofs

(called ‘Kachcha’ in the native language).

Extensive amounts of wood from the jungle were used to construct these houses. All the

houses were made of mud plastered bamboos. The roofs had country titles13 that were

made locally. The roof frames were made of logs. Earlier houses were simple with little

or no compartmentalization. Later on in the 1970s houses were being compartmentalized

according to the need and household activities (Bharat Bhai, male respondent, age 72,

Golagambdi village).

Based on the size of the house they were categorized into three major groups. The first category of house was small in size and did not have any space for cattle. The reason was either they did

13 These are called country tiles as they were locally made by the villagers.

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not own cattle or had very few domestic animals, which could be kept in open space. The layouts of houses were rectangular with a wall separating living and cooking spaces. Generally houses had storage spaces, constructed in the living areas. The storage spaces were raised platforms made of bamboo or sticks standing on four wooden posts to a height of eight to ten inches. This platform was used to store hay or fodder and some household necessities. Such storage spaces were common of all houses.

In the second type of house, a wall separated kitchen and cattle space. The people whose houses were in this category were primarily agriculturalists or forest laborers with a few having temporary jobs in other villages or towns.

The third type of house was rectangular and divided into two major spaces. The first half was called ‘otlo’ which had a partition in some cases. The second half was divided into cooking and sleeping areas. The cattle area was either in front of the ‘otlo’ or adjacent to it. The wall of the cattle shed was made of the same material as that of the dwelling. Sometimes the cattle were kept in open places bounded by twigs and woods collected from the forests. The frame of the house was made of mud-plastered wood (see Das 1982).

The villagers were dependent on wood for the construction of their houses, which were collected illegally from the jungle or by bribing the forest officers. During monsoons due to heavy rainfall many trees from forests were uprooted and floated downstream in the river

Narmada. The river Narmada was joined with a rivulet that flowed through Vadgam and villagers collected the logs from this rivulet. The logs were used for construction of new houses and for houses which needed repair. With the limited availability and restriction on the use of forest wood, sometimes the villagers waited for few years before they could build new houses or replace the wooden structures of existing houses.

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Present Village: The houses at Golagambdi have brick walls, tin or titled or concrete roofs, and dirt or concrete floors. All the houses have a separate kitchen, bedrooms and a living room. If a family consists of married sons, then, separate kitchen and bedroom arrangements are made. Most houses have separate cattle sheds in open space. The storage spaces are made in the living room of all the houses, on poles as a tier. Some porticos have sitting arrangements. This is the area for the guests, but close relatives and women are allowed inside the house.

The houses in Golagambdi can be grouped into three types. All the houses used a portion

of the house plot to cultivate vegetables or food crops for household consumption, which were

tended by female members of the households.

Under type one, houses have mosaic floors or cement floors with brick walls (Plate. 8).

The walls of few houses in this category are plastered. The roof has tin sheds. But in few cases,

the villagers use titles and hay to keep the inside cool in summer. A few houses have concrete

roofs. These types of houses have decorated doors made of wood or tin. Every room has doors.

This type of house belongs to the most affluent villagers. Some families who jointly cultivated

their lands using advanced farm machineries could afford separate houses like this. Though

houses were separately built, they wisely took house plots next to each other. Houses were

constructed without leaving any buffer in between them, thereby saving some area for growing

vegetables, storing grains and keeping cattle. Sometimes in the same house divisions were made,

where each son had a room and a kitchen exclusively for them, but storage spaces and living

rooms were commonly used. The main objective of jointly staying was to save some land of the

house plot to cultivate food crops and vegetables. Accordingly, the families seemed to live as

joint families, though they were highly nucleated inside.

Several houses in this category have their own water pipelines and a raised platform

outside the house for washing and cleaning. Few villagers maintained type one house, owned

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pumps and tractors, which they rented out. They also owned winnowers or grinders to grind grains for the rest of the village to make some money.

The type two houses have brick walls, dirt floors and tin shed with hay or tiles over it.

The houses are compartmentalized and all married couples have separate rooms and a kitchen.

The living room is generally big. Doors are not common in all rooms. But the house has a main door. These houses do not have a personal water supply.

The third type of house has dirt walls, dirt floors and tin roof. None of the rooms have doors or windows. The reason of this is that sometimes houses are made smaller and simpler with fewer rooms to save larger space for growing vegetables and food crops. These houses face the problem of becoming unbearably cold in winters and hot in summers, and if the tin roofs have holes, they become wet in monsoons.

The type two houses are more common than type one and three. From the structure of the houses we can infer the economic conditions of the households. Like, type one represents the affluent farmers, type three houses represent the poor classes. Some villagers, such as the women headed households or major sons14 -- those who do not receive land compensation or whose lands

are not functional, own type three houses.

None of the houses have any bathrooms or toilets. In the beginning, the villagers gave me

the impression that the government R&R package did not provide them with basic requirements

of sanitation. But in speaking with the government field officers and commissioner, I came to

know that the villagers preferred not to have built sanitation. Instead, they wanted to optimize the

extra land for cultivating food crops. Later on, the discussions with the villagers also laid this out.

Villagers preferred open areas for defecation in the submerging villages. This was because

14 The terms major son or eligible son are interchangeably used in R&R discourses. It represents all the adult males who were 18 years or older by 1984. All the adult sons were considered for 5 acres of compensatory land by the government. This is one of the changes made in the R&R policies later on (see Chapter-III).

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previous villages had plenteous lands in the surrounding areas and were sparely populated. But in the present villages, due to lack of open spaces and decline in existing spaces, the need for built sanitation came forward.

Over time, I discussed with the state and the Adivasis various local alternatives and

schemes that can be employed to elevate present socio-economic living conditions. For instance,

during my stay, a scheme was offered by the government to build sanitation. The village was spilt

into two groups, where one group gave allegiance to the previous leader and the others kept

amicable relations to the most affluent family of the village. Due to feuds between these two

groups, the plan of built sanitation put forward by the government remained obscured to most of

the villagers. Since Ram Bhai was the previous sarpang (chief)15, R&R officers consider him as

the reference person to discuss various schemes for the village development. Ram Bhai did not

bring this issue of sanitation to the entire village but only to his group. This contributed the

reasons of conflicts between the two groups. I felt villagers needed to discuss communally about

various rural development programs. The rural development schemes were overlooked due to

group conflicts and feuds (see Chapter – IV for village-level conflicts). The following sections

provide socio-cultural and economic conditions of past and present villages.

F. SOCIO-CULTURAL CONDITIONS

Socio-cultural conditions, such as, customs, norms, marriage, and family of the Tadvis at

Vadgam and Golagambdi are discussed in this section.

F.1. Family: Family is the smallest social unit in a village characterized by blood

relations and property. The branching of a family starts with age and marriage resulting in

15 Representatives for local government seats are elected through elections. Last year, Bharat bhai’s brother’s wife competed as the female candidate from Golagambdi rehabilitated village. Bharat Bhai was the elected leader of Vadgam before Ram Bhai. But another lady from Golagambdi host village won the elections. Hence the rehabilitated villages and host village meets some times in a month to discuss over various issues.

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division of property among sons and daughters. The eldest son or daughter of the family inherits agricultural lands from the father, which is further subdivided among younger sons and daughters. Prior to this division, the family remains a joint family.

Rehabilitation resulted in a gradual transformation in the lives of the villagers from subsistence agriculture to commercial agriculture. According to the R&R package, all eligible sons (also called major sons in R&R discourses and policies) who were 18 years of age by 1984 received five acres of land. Besides cultivatable land, a house plot (502 square meters), a pair of draught animal and Rs. 4,50016 for the construction of houses was allocated. In some cases,

members of the same family constructed different houses but mostly they lived in the same

houses saving some land for cultivating vegetables. Land was efficiently managed to grow cash

crops, while food crops were grown in house plot and in fringe areas of main cultivable lands.

Some families collectively cultivated lands to gain higher crop productivity.

F.2. Marriage

Past Village: In Vadgam, the villagers received marriage alliance within five to ten miles radius across 38 villages (in Nandod, Naswadi, Dediapada and Tilakwada taluka) (Fig. 3). The

Tadvis married strictly within their communities. Tadvis did not intermarry with Bhils and

Vasavas17. A bilateral gift exchange downplayed traditional dowry. The bride’s father gives money and ornaments, and pays for marriage expenditures. The groom’s family gives ornaments to the bride. So there was bilateral gift exchange between the bride’s and groom’s family. The influence of Hinduism was reflected on the vital presence of the priest.

16 The Indian currency is Rs or rupees. Approximately Rs.45 or 45 rupees is equal to a dollar.

17 In government records, the term Bhil is used as a general category to denote different Adivasi groups in the region, including Bhilalas and Vasavas. In the hills, however, those considered Bhils is a distinct Adivasi sub-group, different from other groups, such as Bhilalas and Vasavas.

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Present Village: In the initial days of my survey, the relocated villagers stated that dowry system is not prevalent in Tadvi marriages. They justified this argument, specifying the importance of female education. They also mentioned that gendered differentiation in household norms and activities do not apply to children. However, this rationalization did not convince me. I questioned my respondents repeatedly till the veracity of the argument was entirely gleaned. One day, I gathered some interesting information from the discussions with Chagan bhai about the marriage expenses for his daughter’s recent wedding. According to him, in the past, dowries were given in the form of cash but at present various necessities are given along with cash. Besides, dowries, there is also an exchange of gifts between the bride’s and groom’s families. However, the bride’s father is responsible for the major marriage expenditure, paying for the transportation of the groom’s family and relatives, and other related expenses encountered during the marriage process. The bride’s family pays the total marriage costs. Sometimes the bride’s father takes loans from rich farmers/money lenders or leases out his lands to meet these marriage expenditures.

Marriages are mostly arranged through relatives or friends staying in other villages. Chagan bhai of Golagambdi narrated,

The host village also comprises of Tadvis but their customs are different from us. The

Golagambdi host villagers have a custom of giving money, ornaments during marriage as

its compulsory. In my daughter’s marriage, I gave her furniture such as a bed, a wooden

table and a glass table (he indicated to the glass table in the living room), a sofa,

ornaments, a television, and a refrigerator. All these things were given as I wished and

not as demanded from the groom’s family. During marriages we take care of the invited

guests. I spent for the food and transportation of the groom’s family and relatives and all

the invitees from my village. The norm is that the bride’s father meets the entire marriage

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expenditures but we do it by our choice (Chagan Bhai, male respondent, age- 35,

Interview by author, 20th May 2004).

Chagan Bhai kept emphasizing that all the expenditures and gifts were given to the bride by choice and not demanded from the groom’s side. As I repeatedly discussed marriage customs in my later visits, once Chagan Bhai mentioned he made ‘huge expenditures’ to showcase his wealth and higher status for the wedding.

Currently, villagers are aware that daughters and sons should not be differentiated but treated with sameness. Though, I found gendered construction of activities and roles, the villagers’ narratives deliberately concealed that male/female biases prevail in the community.

Once, Chagan bhai mentioned with pride that daughters are trained to gain proficiency in household chores, field work, besides attending schools. Apparently, this training is given to daughters in order to make them competent with different gendered activities before marriage.

But parents are less exacting on young boys to learn farm activities. The dogma is that male members are mechanically skilled to work at farmlands with progression in age; hence, no training is required. But, if daughters are not trained, it is disgraceful and dishonorable for the families and especially hurts the father’s pride. In the following section, I bring about the changes in dressing patterns.

F.3.Dressing Patterns

Past Village: Villagers occasionally visited markets to sell minor forest products. This exposed them to different urban dressing patterns. The change in dress was gradual during the mid 1960s. Vadgam was a dam-site village, so many villagers worked as construction laborers.

They were exposed to the dress of the government officials and laborers who frequently visited the village during the construction of Sardar Sarovar. Those who worked at the dam site imitated

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these dressing patterns. The men wore pants and shirts and women wore sarees instead of the traditional dress kachota. The children below five years of age wore dresses. They also purchased synthetic fabrics and got their clothes stitched from cities.

Present Village: At Golagambdi, men wear shirts and pants and women wear sarees. The young girls wear dresses and the young boys wear pants and shirts. As mentioned in the previous section, this change in dressing pattern occurred in Vadgam through the villagers’ connection with markets, occupation in cities, and work at dam-sites.

G. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

This section provides the economic conditions detailing changes in occupation, access to forest produce, common property resources, household asset, and consumption patterns of the villagers.

G.1. Cattle

Past Village: The economic conditions of the tribal people were largely affected through

displacement. At Vadgam, villagers owned large herds of cattle (100 or more goats, 20 to 30

cows and buffalos and hens). Due to relocation and lack of grazing lands in the resettled sites,

villagers sold some of the domestic animals and some died. Previously men sold goats or hens if

they required money for household expenses or small expenditures. The women sold cow’s milk

for their minor household needs.

Present Village: The rehabilitated sites offer fewer opportunities to provide variety in

diet. The narratives suggest that their income from cattle reduced as a result of displacement.

According to Sunil,

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We had approximately 40 to 50 goats in Vadgam. But during displacement some of the

animals died. After change of place we could not detect, which plants were edible. The

goats consumed some poisonous plants and all of them died. Now we have one pair of

ox. We were compensated with a pair of ox or Rs.10, 000 that was the market value of

oxen at that time. Compensation package also included five acres of cultivatable land and

house plots. Since we received 10 acres of land in my father and grandfather’s name, we

received two pairs of ox. We sold one pair as we can plough the land collectively with a

pair of ox. Many people took money instead of the draught animals because some

animals were not healthy. The predicament was, when they wanted to purchase the

animal the market price was higher than what was offered by compensation (Sunil Bhai,

male respondent, age-28, Interviewed by author 27th May 2004).

Sudden relocation adversely impacted their access, control, and knowledge over natural resources, eating habits, and livelihood systems. Besides, changing social and economic conditions, their consumption patterns and level of exposure to cities and towns are changing.

Economic conditions in Golagambdi depended on the villagers’ efficiency in cultivation of food and cash crops and on maintaining a stable income to purchase field inputs for cultivation. Many villagers, whose conditions were better in Vadgam deteriorated, as they were unsuccessful in learning commercial farming methods. Cultivation was arduous for those who received infertile and uneven lands. Further, abnormal monsoons and repeated crop failures worsened the existing conditions (see chapter-IV). Difficulties in cultivating lands were also prevalent in Vadgam but availability of cattle, forests, river, and different livelihoods retained an average economic condition even during the non-cropping seasons.

The adversities of relocation were furthered by social conditioning and urban myths.

Everyday, I drank a cup of tea from a shop owned by a host villager of Golagambdi. Besides,

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watching people smoking bidi waiting under the giant tree for the bus, or discussing with fellow villagers some issues I absorbed the garrulous tittle-tattle between the tea seller and my research assistant, Bhavin. They often cracked jokes on resettled villagers for drinking tea without milk, instead saving the cow’s milk to earn some money. They ridiculed the resettlers as stingy for not even offering tea with milk to guests. Living in cities, counting daily caloric intake and fat content, I was happy to drink tea without milk. According to me, tea has a higher nutritional value without milk. But for the villagers tea with milk was a sign of prestige. They would often say,

“that’s how the urbanites drink tea”. Even though many urbanities did not customarily drink milk with tea the villagers believed they did, which affected how they understood their living conditions.

G.2. Livelihoods

The main occupation of Vadgam was agriculture. Other livelihoods included cutting and selling forest wood, collecting minor forest produce, fishing and cattle rearing. The occupational classifications of Vadgam and Golagambdi are shown in Fig. 11.

Past Village: In Vadgam, agriculture remained primarily rain-dependent as the people

had no mechanisms to irrigate agricultural fields. So, the agricultural fields were at the banks of

the river. Cropping patterns were divided in two cycles. Villagers either practiced mono cropping

or double cropping. The soil was gravelly so crops grown at Vadgam were coarse crops such as,

jowar and bajra, and pulses such as, urad and tuvar. The first cropping cycle lasted from 120 to

135 days during monsoons. The second cycle was the winter crop grown on better plots along the

riverbanks and valleys. The acreage dedicated to cotton and groundnut cultivation was low.

According to the farmers, growing cotton was dicey, as it required heavy investment with

uncertain returns. Only few wealthy farmers with large holdings cultivated cotton.

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Three major types of land were cultivated in the village. The first type of land was owned or inherited by the villager. The second type of land was government land cultivated by paying revenue. The third type was forestland under the jurisdiction of the forest department. Villagers had no ownership on these lands but cultivated them illegally and extensively. Cultivation of these lands was frequent and enabled by bribing the forest officers.

Present Village: Farming is different at Golagambdi, as everyone who was above 18 years of age (by 1984), during the time when compensated land was distributed, received five acres of cultivatable land. All the villagers practice agriculture. Some resettlers, who received primary education, obtained government jobs. These people hoped to better their lives by transitioning to a more urban lifestyle. However, the transition was a long time incoming. Sunil, for example, has a temporary job and he also cultivates his father’s and grandfather’s land. Sunil

Bhai and his younger brother were below 18 years of age when land compensation was given. He stated,

According to the promises made by the government, I should receive a permanent

government job but I did not receive any. I have secondary education, but I work in a

temporary job, as a home guard in a private organization. I work there for five days a

week but my salary is very low though the job is difficult and time consuming (Sunil

Bhai, male respondent, age-28, interviewed by author 2nd June 2004).

Since the state apparatus wanted people to move from the submerging villages, they promised government jobs to the villagers with primary education. Some villagers who were educated to the primary level received clerical jobs but many village youths who did their bachelors and masters in later years did not receive any jobs. Since, these policies were not made clear to the oustees, those who were educated developed expectations to receive government jobs though it was not laid out as a compensation benefit.

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G.3. Crops grown

Past Village: At Vadgam, the different food crops cultivated were jowar (Sorghum

bicolor), bajri (Pennisetum typhoides), gahum (wheat), makhai (maize), dangar (inferior rice,

rice) and cash crops like kapas (cotton) and makfali (groundnut). The two pulses commonly

grown were tuvar (Arhar) and urad (Phaseolus mungo). Different types of vegetables were also

grown to supplement their diet. Food crops were mostly grown for consumption and very little

was left as surplus. Very few villagers grew cotton and groundnut as cash crops (see Fig. 8).

Present Village: Similar crops are grown at Golagambdi but they produce substantial amounts of marketable surplus. The stems of cotton, wheat, jowar and bajri are used as firewood, or to make fences around the houses or to make roofs of houses. But villagers cultivate more cotton and groundnuts to earn cash. Tuvar, rice, wheat, bajri and jowar is grown for daily consumption but always some marketable surplus is hoarded. Vegetables and food crops that are cultivated in house plots are entirely used for household consumption (see earlier sections) (See

Fig. 9).

A year before my surveys the villagers had experienced crop failure due to heavy rainfall and fungal disease. Since all of them grew coarser and dry crops, less water was required for cultivation. Therefore, heavy downpours damaged the crops. According to one villager in

Golagambdi,

In last year’s rain tuvar and then jowar was spoiled. The crop productivity was largely

affected by rain and disease. As these crops need rain while sowing, too heavy rain can

spoil the crop as it grows. I used fertilizers and pesticides but did not have the proper

know-how, therefore, it made no difference in the crop productivity.

Between the major crops we cultivate vegetables. We also grow small trees and

dry plants. The branches of these trees are used as cooking fuel, making fences and

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thatching roofs (Kuber bhai, male respondent, age-37, interviewed by author, 14th May

2004).

In Golagambdi, few cultivators own tractors, winnowers, and water pumps. The rest of the villagers hire these machineries from them. The villagers are still learning the usage of fertilizers, pesticides and high yielding varieties of seeds. Though the villagers are well connected with markets and cities and benefit from high agricultural returns, they are restive by the increasing expenditures. The usual inclination is whenever they face a crisis they blame the government and displacement as the cause of their suffering.

G.4. Forest Produce

Past Village: At Vadgam, the villagers grew different kinds of vegetables like divela, arinda, badri, bhinda (Abelmoschus esculentus), bunti (Echinochloa crus), chowli (Vigna unguiculata), kodra (Paspalum scrobiculatum), dhudi (water goard) in the forest rim areas and riverbanks.

G.5. Forest Products

Past Village: Forest products were of various types of leaves like timbru ka pan, asitra, gundar, kanka pan, sag ka pan and achidraka pan used for making plates, roof and homeopathic stimulants. The villagers rolled one type of leaf to make local cigarettes called bidi. Some leaves were chewed like betel leaf. Different kinds of woods like bamboo and mahuda were grown for making house walls, fences, and frames. They pressed mahuda bark for oil. Other forest products were honey and grass. Previously, the villagers earned Rs. 10 to 15 everyday from forest produce.

The importance of forests, the villagers’ access to the forest, and their income from forest produce, totally waned with displacement.

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G.6. Household assets

Past Village: At Vadgam, people did not have any furniture other than beds, tables and chairs, and necessary utensils. Clocks/watches, bicycles and radios were not common among villagers. Since the transportation facility was not frequent, people used bicycles for traveling to nearby places. Out of 251 households, only 24 households had radios, 19 households had bicycles, 49 households had watches and clocks, and 35 households had cupboards (see Table 8).

Present Village: Most of the people at Golagambdi have some furniture and cooking utensils. Bicycles are common among villagers. The general practice is to carry small portable radios to the cultivatable fields to listen them at leisure. Radios were also common at Vadgam.

Dependence and usage of household amenities increased at Golagambdi compared to Vadgam

(See Fig. 12). At Golagambdi villagers have beds, tables, utensils, clocks, and pictures of Hindu gods. They have electricity but all houses have only a few bulbs and tube lights to save on electric consumption. Watches and clocks are found in all houses. Furniture like beds, cupboards, tables and chairs have become common, yet very few villagers have refrigerators.

G.7. Consumption patterns

Past Village: In Vadgam, all villagers had large herds of goats and hens. They consumed meat from the raised animals. Villagers purchased ground wheat from shops. The dependence on readymade flour also reflects their exposure to cities. Apart from these minor alterations they largely remained dependent on the forests and the river. They supplemented their diets with various vegetables and plants grown in the forests’ peripheral areas and riverbanks. Fish from river, meat and milk from cattle enriched their diets.

Present Village: In Golagambdi, the number of cattle has declined. Non-Bhagats have to purchase meat and fish from markets, hence consumption of these items are rare. Most of the village consumes tea, sugar, cooking oil, and spices, such as turmeric and chilly powder for

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preparing food. At Golagambdi, this dependence on readymade food and spices increased the steady linkages with markets and cities.

H. CIVIC AMENITIES

Present Village: The transportation facilities are better at Golagambdi than at Vadgam.

Vadgam did not have any motorable roads. A road to the dam site, which connected to the

village, was of dirt. At Golagambdi, buses ran to cities, towns, and markets (Sankheda, Borili,

Daboi, Bhaderpur and Vadodra) at regular intervals, from morning till evening. The whole village has streetlights. Water pumps are placed at three points within the village. The village has a

school, a playground, and a community center. Some villages have primary health centers for

health check-ups. Mobile vans visit the village twice a week for health check-up. According to a villager in Golagambdi,

The mobile vans do not provide proper check-ups so we go to city hospitals but it is time

consuming. Hence, I prefer going to the private hospitals but we have to spend some

money on the doctor’s fees and medicine. All together, we need to pay Rs.100 or more

based on the aliment. In case we go to the nearest city (Vadodra), the expenditure is

higher and a whole day is spent in visiting the doctor and traveling to the city. If we go to

the towns ( and Bhaderpur) the transportation cost is Rs.10 other than the doctor’s

fees. Moreover, we spent half a day going to towns for doctors (A village lady, age-65,

Interview by author, 27th June 2004).

64

I. CONCLUSION Vadgam had more open spaces where houses were sparsely distributed from one another and they had forests to provide variety in the food consumed. The Tadvis of Vadgam were gradually exposed to the challenges of urban lifestyles as a dam-site village. The dam-site villages exposed the Tadvis to the adverse affects of the dam and compensation packages through the government officials and action groups, namely dependence on commercial products.

Changes in their preferences and living conditions were taking place in a subtle manner.

They started using spices and cooking oil for making food, stitching dresses in towns, desired for primary and higher education, aspired for government jobs and learnt new techniques for increasing crop productivity. Vadgam was also a site of negotiation as resistance against the SSP spread claiming for the right to live, a right to livelihood and to justice. Villagers participated in series of resistance movements against government for better R&R policy in collaboration with the NGOs.

Golagambdi looks like a planned and generic landscape (Fig. 5) from an outsider’s perspective. As I lived in cities, I felt the government had provided the villages with better civic facilities than what they had before relocation. But, gradually, as I collected information about the peoples’ perspectives and scrutinized the amenities, I came to understand problems that the villagers face various on an everyday basis. The nature-culture linkages, which a native village boasted of, had faded.

Many of the changes in lifestyles look beneficial or mucous. However, the new amenities

seem to create problems where there were none before. For example, civic amenities are provided

but not maintained nor are the villagers trained to care for them. For example, in many villages,

the drinking water pumps are unusable. The village women have to walk for three to five

kilometers to fetch drinking water from neighboring villages. Some school buildings are

constructed but they have very few teachers to manage large sections of students. Other schools

65

have closed down for shortage of students or irregularity in attendance. Mobile health vans are visiting twice a week but once R&R is complete they will be discontinued. Plus, even though the

mobile health vans are available, people prefer the more expensive city hospitals, due to the van’s

inefficiency in providing proper health care. In many cases, lands are given but they are infertile.

Within the initial 10 years of displacement, villagers have so many more problems. It is difficult

to assert how conditions will be over several decades.

Consequently, the present Tadvi generation no longer retains their socio-cultural

uniqueness of the traditional Tadvi communities. To understand their ways of living,

consumption patterns, cultural backgrounds, we have to delve into various discourses and

manuscripts, but also hear from the elders to capture a glimpse of their socio-cultural originality

and economic challenges. The present generation of Tadvis adapt mainstream urban culture, a

rapid erosion of the previous socio-cultural elements occurs.

66 Chapter IV: NARRATING PLACE, SPACE AND THE EVERYDAY OF THE ADIVASIS

A. INTRODUCTION

‘Space’ has no meanings apart from its practices; it is a system generating and structuring individual activities and performances (Low and Lawrence-Zuniga 2003: 10; Bourdieu 1977:

214). Space is increasingly ubiquitous in terms of critical thinking. I view the Narmada Valley as a particular geographic landscape, which is undergoing a spatial change. Owing to involuntary dislocation, the meanings of the tribals’ previous space has altered. At present, the Adivasis seek meanings for the newly constructed spaces that foment during dislocation and resettlement. Using narratives and existing discourses on the SSP, I explore the adversities faced by the displacees due to dislocation and spatial tactics used by them in obtaining better living conditions in the rehabilitated villages. On the whole, I comprehend how situatedness in the rehabilitated villages create geographies that are worthy of further investigation. Finally, the spaces are socially constructed and interpreted through spatial practices as invoked by the gendered spatial actors at different levels brings forward a clearer understanding of space.

In the last decade, studies on development-induced displacement with diverse points of focus and approaches have generated conclusive evidence about the adverse impacts on the affected communities. However, the development discourses have left out the intricate readings on gender and its linkages with the spatial re-constructions. Population geographies came late in considering the voices of women and men on migration; they instead focused on the reasons, trends, and patterns of migration (Graham and Boyle 2001, McKendrick 1999, Findlay and

Graham 1991). For several years, population geography more or less overlooked the critical theoretical or methodological developments.

67 Similar analogies are drawn to advancements in migration scholarship (Halfacree 1995,

Halfacree and Boyle 1993). However, since late 1980s, the poststructuralist and feminist geographers have defined and analyzed the complex readings of spaces, spatial power relations, changing spatial practices and re-constructions (Domosh 1997, 1998, Tyner 2004, Blunt and

Wills 2000, Mills 2003, Mc Dowell 1999, 1993 a & b, Massey 1994, Mohanty 1991).

Undoubtedly, population geography needs a wider engagement with other disciplines to broaden its focus on space associated with the changing socio-economic and cultural conditions of migrants at different scales (Boyle 2002, Graham 1999, McKendrick 1999).

This chapter draws from new population geographies, development and feminist- informed migration scholarship to understand the spaces created by dislocation and resettlement at the socio-temporal landscape of Narmada. The study aims to bring forth the inherent unevenness of development programs and their implications for the tribal communities. The

Narmada Valley is the site of numerous social protest movements that generate spaces of negotiation. By focusing on negotiated spaces, I emphasize the exercise of power by the state in dislocation and implementation of the SSP. Furthermore, I analyze the negotiated spaces as tactics adopted by the displacees and NGOs demanding better by compensation destabilizing the project (Alvares and Billorey1988). In addition, through personal space (hidden space) and rehabilitated space (public space), I bring to the fore gendered relations and practices as shaped in households and the community. Therefore, while exploring these socio-economic and cultural adjustments of the tribal communities in the rehabilitated villages, I incorporated the stories of women and men to understand the gendered spaces, contested space, rehabilitated space, and negotiated space (Mills 2003, Dwivedi 1999, Foucault 1997, 1982, 1979, Stewart 1995, Gill

1995, Lefebvre1991, Scott 1990, de Certeau 1988) (see Fig. 13). Finally, I examine how the rise of urban lifestyle has gradually altered the Adivasis socio-economic and cultural settings.

68 Hereby, I prompt researchers to recognize the need to apply a feminist methodology to understand the displacees’ day-to-day challenges. This methodology enables researchers to ask more questions and continue their research on migrants of diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. The following sections of the paper provide a conceptual framework, research design, and spaces as analyzed observing the migrants’ daily lives as way to contribute to this genre of population geographies.

B. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The conceptual framework of this research is formulated following the discourses of development and critical population geographies.

Development is a dynamic mechanism creating and re-creating new points of action, dividing spaces by the equations of power which economically constructs polar opposites by imposing the dominant culture over the subordinate with contending ideologies (Peet and

Hartwick 1999, Sach 1992: 1,Parajuli 1991). Development interventions are not always uniformly distributed in particular localities…” (Moore 2000: 655, Escobar and Alvarez 1992, Sach 1992).

In the post independence India, development-structured political relations transformed local spaces into material landscapes (Gandhi 2003, Gupta 1998, Brass 1994, Gadgil and Guha 1992,

Ludden 1992, Parajuli 1991). Large-scale development projects have produced discontent and crisis for survival and identity for the affected (Escobar 1995). Ostentatious spending on grand development projects were often justified as the inevitable costs for the greater common good, which produces uneven and unsustainable development (Guha 1994).

Population geography needs a broader focus that interweaves the discourses of

development, feminist, and post-structural geographies for conceptualizing the mechanisms of

dislocation on affected populations in diverse socio-economic and cultural settings. The voices of

69 the female migrants remain latent in the rubric of traditional migration theories, which not consider women exclusively as a subject of research explaining the affects of migration on households (Hondagneu-Sotelo 1994, Tyner, 1994, Chant 1992, Radcliffe 1992, Wolf 1992,

Trager 1988, Westwood and Bachu 1988). Furthermore, the West has socially constructed third world women as subservient/docile bodies or illiterate farm workers, often overlooking their positions ‘specific’ to their historical backgrounds (Mohanty 1991, 51-80). Hence, studies on gendered migration need to focus on specific ways to address the particular local contexts, constituted within the historically specific social, economic, and political relations of women.

Even after, a re-orientation in population research occurred, it was felt, as Graham and

Boyle (2001) asserted, that the mainstream population geographers remain methodologically

conservative, less attentive to social theory (Findlay and Graham 1991). Since the 1990s, constant

efforts have been made to redefine and divert the focus of population geography from a

traditional positivist approach to newer analytical approaches of human geographies (Silvey

2004, Ni Laiore 2003, Graham and Boyle 2001, Ogden 2000, Graham 1999, Halfacree 1995,

Halfacree and Boyle 1993, Watkins 1988). Recent studies in population geographies are

emphasizing the migrants’ household and community spaces, sexuality and labor, gendered

activities, transnationalism, diasporas, socially constructed space, and so forth (Raghuram and

Khofman 2004, Tyner 2004, 1994, Silvey 2004, Laiore 2003, Boyle 2002, Lawson 2000, 1998,

Tyner and Kulke 2000, White and Jackson 1995, Chant 1992, Radcliff 1992). My study attempts

to embrace these new theorizations and analytical priorities to understand the everyday spatial

constructions of project-affected oustees in the Narmada valley (Silvey and Lawson 1999, 128-

129).

My narrative approach addresses the socio-economic and cultural changes undergone by

the Adivasi women and men, due to the alteration of landscapes. My reliance on narratives

70 gleaned largely by walking around the villages with my tribal field assistant, talking with passers- by (the village youth or elderly villagers, women and girls), suggest a promising avenue to

capture a deeper understanding of the migrants’ lived space. The conceptual framework,

constructed with my field experiences, narratives, and discourses, displays the formation of the

Adivasis lived spaces.

In this schematic representation of the conceptual framework (Fig. 13), the affected

people domain is classified into women and men, different caste and ethnic groups, and by

occupations. There are overlaps across these classifications. For example, the gendered migrants

can be Brahmins or tribals and cultivators by occupation. The government domain outlines the

lack of negotiation with people, policy discrepancies, and strategies adopted by the government

officials to obscure the realities of submergence to implement rehabilitation. However, in the

action groups and peoples’ domain, I show this lack of information on dislocation and

rehabilitation as producing fear of lost income, stability, and fixed occupation, thereby, which

creates uncertainties (often viewed as risk) for the future. The risks affected people differently,

owing to the existing differentials in occupation, income and caste/ethnic backgrounds offering

multiple meanings (Dwivedi 1999, Ramanathan 1996). At this time, the NGOs collaborated with

the people of submerging villages1 demanding better living conditions.

1 In the discourses on SSP, the term submerging village is interchangeably used for the villages submerged and will be submerged (with a complete dislocation of the people).

71 Government Domain Spaces of dominance R&R Policy, Dislocation &Rehabilitation Lack of information Policy Discrepancies, Ad-hocisms & Implementation failures, Affected People Risks, Crisis, Uncertainties, Fear Men and women Caste & Ethnic Groups - for losing assets, economic stability Preferences, Desires, Interests socio-cultural settings - for R&R Cultivators, Landless labors, Encroachers, Grazers, Other Livelihoods

Demands Demands Marginalization People & Action Groups Domain Resistance movements

Influence of market Changes in Lifestyles, occupation, competitiveness influence of market & occupation, Contested Spaces, Hidden spaces, Lost Gendered Spaces, Spaces of Tactics Spaces, Negotiated Spaces Personal Spaces

Rehabilitated Spaces

Fig. 13 - Production of Spaces through Displacement and Rehabilitation

C. RESEARCH DESIGN

In summer 2004, I conducted my surveys for four months in four rehabilitated villages in the Vadodara District of Gujarat. The first village is chosen with the help of an academic institution2. The rest of the villages were chosen by snowball sampling technique. The criteria of selection was the riparian states from where they were dislocated, their accessibility from the transportation nodes, and the composition of tribal populations. Some submerging villages were aggressive in resistance movements led by influential local leaders and large landowning families. These villages, when rehabilitated, received better accessibility to markets and cities.

Similarly, some villagers were active in resistance and they were allocated better cultivatable lands at convenient locations from their house plots. Although, this outcome cannot be

2 I acknowledge the assistance of the Center for Social Sciences2 (CSS) for introducing me with the Golagambdi rehabilitated village. This institution conducted the monitoring and evaluations report on behalf of the Government of Gujarat.

72 generalized with all rehabilitated villagers, if shows the distribution of compensation benefits also depended on the resettlers’ ability to demand for them.

I selected one host village to comprehend the differential in civic amenities in the

rehabilitated village and the host village. The factors that led to the provision of amenities in

rehabilitated villages have been the involvement of action groups projecting a bundle of

resettlement risks politicked against the government. Resistance in the Narmada valley projected

the government’s inability to rehabilitate, produced mounting unpopularity in the management of

SSP. Resistance movements forced the government to bring changes in R&R policies. But host

villages lacked the basic amenities like schools, paved roads, community drinking water taps and

playgrounds. Many host villagers did not own lands and worked as laborers for resettled villagers.

The differentials in civic amenities often produced petty conflicts between host and resettled

villagers. In addition to this, I found differences in socio-cultural customs among the Tadvis of

host and resettled villagers.

I also visited some submerging villages in MP to visualize the geographical landscape

and livelihood systems as away to capture some socio-cultural and economic dimensions. This

information cannot exactly provide the similar experiences and challenges faced by the

rehabilitated villages I studied. Nevertheless, it gave me some background of the landscapes

(rough terrain), the river, the forests, and the livelihoods of sparsely settled hamlets which helped

me relate to the narratives collected from the rehabilitated villagers while I traveled.

Altogether, I collected 40 narratives from rehabilitated villages spread across all age

groups, sexes, and ethnic backgrounds. The initial research participant in Golagambdi was

contacted through an academic institution (CSS). Additional participants were selected using,

again, snowball sampling procedures. The participants spoke in Hindi but in between they used

tribal words. My tribal field assistant helped me in understanding these words or phrases. Over

73 time, I wrote the narratives as they spoke but the initial days of my survey and sometimes when we walked around the villages, I did not immediately write the narratives. I instead, transcribed these narratives later each day as closely as I could recall them. These narratives used in this section of the text are not direct quotes.

The chosen sample reflects the geographical, economic, and cultural diversity across the tribal groups. The visits included an extensive field-based qualitative survey to understand a wide range of issues including: previous histories of peoples’ tactics in obtaining compensation; established and changing socio-cultural conditions; shaping of gendered activities; usage of civic facilities; time-space constraints in accessing civic facilities; diversities in the mediation strategies of activist groups; and the government strategies in confronting resistance and managing rehabilitation.

Consequently, discussions with government officials, NGOs and submerging villagers were carried out. These discussions broadened my perspective for understanding goals: of the government to prove the SSP a success, of the action groups’ dissonance, and of the villagers differential status and views on displacement and rehabilitation from the construction (in late

1960s), implementation (with subsequent re-setting at different time periods), and destabilization of the SSP (protests and substantial changes in R&R policy).

D. NARRATING THE EVERYDAY SPACES OF THE ADIVASIS IN THE SSP

Space has no meanings apart from practice (Bourdieu 1977, 214).

Until the 1970s, human and physical geographers were indifferent towards problematizing space. Space was understood as absolute, claimed to be analyzed through

Euclidean geometry. Space was viewed as a neutral container where objects and events were static. Therefore, nothing related to space was dynamic (Shields 1997, Curry 1995). Largely,

74 positivist thinkers enforced absolute or empirico-physical space, suggesting that space had to be conceived outside the daily human activities and roles performed in households and communities.

Thereafter, positivist spatial geographers tried to describe space on the basis of spatial quantitative analysis, i.e., building models using spatial statistics. As a result, this idea of space received substantial criticism as reducing the ‘world to a spaceless abstraction’ ... to ‘very limited utility’ (Crang and Thrift 2000a: 2). These criticisms suggested that we should look beyond an absolute space, which could only be a surface of measurement. Relative space, which justifies the complex human relations, roles, everyday practices as played out at micro and macro scale across diverse communities, became increasingly acknowledged.

This shift in perspectives for understanding human spatial activities and practices was consistent in disciplines outside geography, including Anthropology, Sociology, History,

Philosophy, and English. These theoretical orientations were useful in understanding village and tribal societies by including descriptions of nature-cultural linkages (Low and Lawrence-Zuniga

2003: 1-2). New urban sociologists joined with geographers in documenting the role of urbanization in capitalistic societies, criticizing the production of class inequalities in urban landscapes (Castell 1983, Harvey 1989). Economic geographers (Storper 1997) and the scholars who concentrated on local scale (Massey 1994) conceptualized the importance of space in understanding spatial divisions of labor in capitalistic systems, while inter-linkages between division of labor and geopolitical strategies were analyzed in a global scale by political scientists

(Corboridge 2000, Corboridge and Harris 2000).

Interestingly, in the late 19th century, Corboridge (2000) questioned how tribal (local) empowerment and poverty were negotiated in modern India. His arguments developed around

‘mastering space’ and points to the centralized rule of Hindu nationalisms, which continued to be at odds with the demands and aspirations of lower caste groups, thereby sparking social protests

75 (Corboridge 2000, Corboridge and Harris 2000). The contributions of bell hooks (1990) in looking at resistance produced in feminized spaces where patriarchal norms are established, is thought provoking. She defines home for black women as a ‘subversive’ and ‘feminist space’. hook’s (1990) re-conceptualization of home begins with her childhood journeys to unfamiliar white neighborhoods. Her experience narrated the different forms of white supremacy (hooks

1990: 41). The authorial voice of hooks (1990) fails to demonstrate similar analogies on

household spaces of different cultures and communities, however, other critical geographies drew

on Spivak’s (1988) contributions to highlight ethnocentricity of hegemonic knowledge. Spivak

pointed out that historical and structural conditions of political representations do not confirm the

existence of subalterns and their interests (Spivak 1988). In the case of the SSP, the project

affected tribals (PAPs) were not heard until they voiced against the state with NGOs extensively at local, national, and global scales.

Massey defined space as ‘constituted through social relations and material social practices (Massey 1994, 254). While Ed Soja (1985) and Shields (1991, 3) argued that space is not limited to the legends, rituals, and histories of the human spatial practices but also underscores the physical constructions of space. The notion of treating space as a social production was advocated by Henri Lefebvre (1991) in his spatial practices, representations of space, and spaces of representation. Spatial practices are flows and movements that can be perceived in the realms of everyday. His representations of space are images, films, documents, manuscripts, texts that serve to represent and reproduce space. Hence urban representations such as city plans or maps can be recognized as social productions of the urban planners, engineers, or architects who view the city the way the city functions. Third, Lefebvre’s spaces of representation are the lived spaces, which are perceived or represented i.e., these are the everyday spatial manifestations. Lefebvre’s lived spaces were imbued with ideological and political content,

76 proclaiming the power of people to produce their own space and create new forms of life. The collective analysis of the three spaces give ‘a complete’ description of space.

In putting together this chapter, I outline five thematic categories of spaces (lost, rehabilitated, contested, personal and negotiated space), following my field experiences, the

Adivasis’ present spatial activities and past histories. I conceptualize space as generated in individuals’ daily activities, roles and interpretations (Stewart 1995). These spaces are not

definitive or mutually exclusive but are situated with considerable overlap in the way social problems, spatial activities and everyday is conceptualized and theorized. These categories may be re-defined and re-theorized in scholarly works. For example, lost space can be defined as

scared spaces, if we exclusively describe or make a different section on the tribal previous rituals

surrounding nature, river, and ancestral grounds and so on.

My study is specific to some tribal communities in India who have been exposed to marginalization and erosion of their socio-cultural backgrounds due to the construction of a development project. Here, I am restricting my research at a local scale describing local problems faced by some indigenous tribal minorities. Therefore, the perception of scholars who are viewing space at a different scale by focusing on different communities or material landscapes might put together insights and conceptualizations of space specific to their areas of research: they may view space differently, may generate different categories of spaces, or may re-define or emphasize on ‘lost’, ‘contested’ or ‘negotiated’ spaces with different meanings. My analytical classifications of space, however, are complementary to the already existing theorizations of space. As these interests to understand space is necessary for understanding the world in which we exist, already abundant research is generated on development projects and studies specific to

Sardar Sarovar. But, if a detailed historical analysis is followed from the discourses and lived

77 narratives on Sardar Sarovar, new spatial categories can be produced. This can be seen as the scope for future research on space in the valley.

D.1. Lost Space: The submerged villages are present in the resettlers’ imagination and memories as emotional and lost spaces. My readings on the affected villagers urged me to listen to the voices of the locals to realize their attachment with space. Their attachments with space suggest they are inseparable from place, asserting their connections with the submerged lands.

Rightly, Rodman proposes the local landscape as a broad perspective, which exists in an

individuals’ experience and suggests “how different actors construct, contest and ground

experience in place” (Rodman 1992: 652; Low and Lawrence-zuniga 2003: 216). In this study, I

bring in the past experiences from narratives and existing discourses on submerging villages to

display the villagers’ connections with place.

The adverse impacts of the SSP spread across the reservoir zone, the command area, and downstream of the dam. The Narmada river basin inhabits 22 million people, 80 percent of them live in rural areas dependent on agriculture. The project dislocates people from 245 villages in or across three states (Table 2). The submergence area can be divided into two distinct socio- ecological settings upstream and downstream. The Adivasi groups consists mainly of Bhilalas,

Vasavas, Bhils, Tadvis and Powras, who inhabit villages in the lower hills of the river basin

(upstream the dam). The affected villages of Gujarat and Maharashtra totally consist of Adivasis but in MP only 65 villages have Adivasis populations. Sparse population, subsistence livelihoods, marked the Adivasi villages. These villagers depended heavily on rain fed agriculture, livestock, and forests (see Table 1). The incidence of landlessness was rare, as almost every family own some revenue land or cultivated encroached forestland (see Table 3)3. However, marketable

3 Table – 3 shows high incidence of landlessness in MP. The table is prepared by the government of Gujarat and the Gujarat officials. The officials considered all those who used common lands (forests, river banks, grazing area) as

78 surplus from cultivation was rare in submerging villages unlike resettled villages. So, I raised the following questions to Sunil, my research assistant:

Q. Was life in submerging villages better than here?

A. Submerging villages are our places of habitat, though it does not exist any more. Land

was plentiful in those villages. Though our villages disappeared, we take pleasure in

remembering them even today.

Q. Are you happy with the given amenities and lands in rehabilitated villages?

A. We received various civic amenities like lands, houses, canal water, electricity, roads,

schools and community centers as the government made some changes in the policies.

But, several agricultural facilities lead to increased expenditure. Interestingly, though, we

lived here for ten years yet, we cannot believe these are our villages but continue to

grieve over the absence of submerging villages.

Q. In these villages, you have access to farm machineries. Do they not help in increasing

crop productivity?

A. Yes, it does. But what we fear is, if some years we do not get good crop then we will

fall in the debt trap. We need a higher income to cultivate the farms using tractors,

pumps, high yielding seeds, fertilizers, and so on. Our reliability on these processes and

techniques is increasing and that’s what we worry about.

landless villagers or encroachers. The construction of the word ‘encroacher’ or ‘thieves’ were deliberate usages of the state apparatuses to restrict these people from receiving land compensation.

79 Q. What were the activities other than agriculture in submerging villages?

A. We had plenty of grazing lands; cattle were the sources of income and security.

Whenever, we needed money we sold them. They also supplemented our diets. Besides,

we had variety of fruits, tubers, nuts, and vegetables from the forests. We obtained fish

from the river. The previous villages sustained a surrey of livelihoods and supplied food

for an assorted diet. We were happy there - no risks, nothing to worry about. Life was

simple and satisfactory. Here we are constantly worried over earning more money.

Q. Do you miss the river?

A. Narmada was worshipped the way we worshipped and valued nature. We thought it a

bad omen when we first heard about the dam. We vociferously opposed for years to stop

the construction of the SSP. In spite of the strong opposition, the dam was built. We

certainly miss the river because it was so closely linked with our cultural activities.

Q. What were benefits of the Narmada?

We grew vegetables in the riverbank. Fish was obtained from the river as it was a main

source of food for the non-Bhagats. Many peoples’ livelihoods were closely dependent

on the river. Along with this we had rituals for propitiation of almost every natural

phenomenon, with some rituals surrounding the river (Sunil Bhai, male respondent, age

28, Golagambdi May 19th 2004)4.

My narratives are the closet possible translation of what the villagers’ narrated in Hindi. I wrote as the discussions went on. Some times they used tribal words, which are demonstrated with

English meanings in the manuscript. As to the classification of submerging villages, the upstream

4 For details, see Bhaviskar (1995) for nature-culture relationships.

80 were the affected areas that consisted of 120 villages. The villages were densely populated due to high land fertility. These areas were called the bread basket of central India. In the last 20 years, this region has undergone dramatic agrarian transformation through pump irrigation and state subsidies. Besides growing wheat, cotton, soyabean, and chillis, various fruit crops of longer

gestation periods, such as bananas, sugarcane, and papayas were also grown. The large land

owing classes unsustainably practiced agriculture using a wide array of advanced farm

techniques. Also, to keep production solvent, most of the landowners were indebted to the

moneylenders. However, small and marginal farmers could not undertake the risk of cultivating

expensive crops. Therefore, the system proved to be largely skewed in favor of large farmers. The

big landowning castes are Kanbi Patridars and Jats owning 10 to 40 hectares of land. The middle

peasantry owning four to 10 hectares involves the Patridars, Rajput, Ahirs, Yadavs, and Bhilalas.

The remaining 50 percent of the population was the landless laborers (Adivasis and )

(Dwivedi 1999).

Vadgam was one of the few villages dislocated in 1982 (see Das 1982). People were moved from Vadgam to Golagambdi and to 10 other villages. I conducted my surveys at

Golagambdi (see Chapter-III). At Vadgam, the villagers had different livelihood patterns. Some were subsistence farmers cultivating their own land or common land; besides depending on the natural resources (rivers, forests, grasslands) for various reasons, like collecting and selling minor forest products and grazing cattle in the common grasslands. Villagers also worked as laborers within 10 miles radius from Vadgam in the Garudeswar belt. The heterogeneity in opinions over accepting compensation, rehabilitated sites, and dislocation owed to the difference in occupational patterns and income statuses. Based on the land holdings and economic conditions, the villagers can be divided into four groups:

81 1. Large landowners: owned five to 15 acres of land or more5

2. Marginal landowners: owned two to five acres of land

3. Common Landowners: cultivated common lands6.

4. Landless laborers7

The cash compensation given by the government was strictly in accordance to the amount

of land owned legally. Hence, no compensation was offered for those who cultivated common

lands. Therefore, many villagers were treated as landless laborers according to the Land

Acquisition Act (LAA) of 1894 (GOI 1984) (NWDT, 1978)8. However, over time, substantial changes were made in the R&R policy. At present, all affected villagers are provided with five acres of land, house plots and other amenities. Before the changes were made in the R&R policy, the groups who owned a larger acreage of land and cultivated less or no common lands were primarily interested in higher cash compensations for purchasing land of their choice. Most of the villagers of submerging villages wanted to relocate within 10 miles radius from their submerging villages. Owing to close dependence between lands and culture and because their relatives lived in the nearby villages, the villagers did not wish to relocate far from Vadgam.

Previously, women were responsible for collecting forest produce, fuel wood, and fodder.

They were worried over how their needs would be met after displacement. The breakdown of village, social units, and ties with relatives in neighboring villages affected their close-knit social

5 Majority of the farmers were in this category. The overall land quality was not good so crop productivity was low. Sometimes, they grew two crops in the monsoons, while cultivated nothing in winter.

6 No compensation was offered to villagers who cultivated government barren and forest lands. Since most of the marginal farmers and landless laborers used the government land and forest for sustenance, the Land Acquisition Act (LAA), converted them to landlessness by not providing land compensation.

7 They worked as casual agricultural labors and depended on minor forest products and collected wood on contract basis in winters. Most of the poor or middle class peasants worked as laborers outside the villages.

8 The LAA is a statutory statement of the state’s power of eminent domain, which vests the state ultimate control over land within its territory. The act justifies land acquisition for public purpose and denies the owner’s right to exercise choice as to whether he/she is willing to move or remain in his/her land (see Appendix-1).

82 systems severely (Dhagamwar, Thukral and Singh 1995). I heard Bharat Bhai’s wife sorrowfully lament on not being able to see her brothers and parents after getting displaced in

Kundiucchakalam, Gujarat. Their submerging village is in Katnera, MP located hundreds of miles away. Many of the women had worries of never seeing their daughters who were married in the villages that would not be submerged. Also, the displaced women and landless laborers were seldom entitled to compensation. The policy for oustees from Maharashtra had clearly stated that oustees will not be considered as separate families and entitled to land (GOM 1989). But this policy appeared to have changed in Maharashtra, though, discrepancies remain.

Afraid of marginalization, villagers, who had extensively cultivated forests and barren

lands had been selling woods and minor forest products from the forests or both, insisted that the

government should recognize the common land (kharaba9) as legal and duly compensate them for

losing it. People from this group also depended on available secondary activities in the dam site

and wanted to resettle in the nearby region.

Landless villagers, who had no land to lose and were not likely to receive any land

compensation (according to the previous rehabilitation package), were concerned about house

compensation and the probability of temporary employment in the rehabilitated sites.

The discourses mentioned in the earlier sections confirm the variations in peoples’

attitudes and fear towards the implications of displacement. Some villagers viewed resettlement

as a risk. Puzzling situations were created, as the state apparatuses did not bother to explain the

negative impacts of dislocation, conditions, and prospects of rehabilitated sites and the R&R

package. The government officials not only ignored the resettlers’ cultural dependence on nature,

but also did not have complete records of the land holding oustees. The government lacked a

9 The common forestland, which was cultivated extensively by the villagers, is called kharaba. They did not own these lands legally. According to the R&R policies the villagers could not get compensated for these lands but gradually the policy was modified after prolonged resistance from the people and the NGOs and all the project-affected villagers were compensated with five acres of land irrespective of the amount of land they cultivated in their old villages.

83 clear understanding of the total magnitude of displaced population and submerging lands.

Demands from villagers included the right to information on the extent and schedule of submergence, land availability, and assertion of rights for those who wanted to settle in their own states. Major uncertainties prevailed on the loss of jobs and livelihoods. Landless villagers such as shop owners, fisher folks, artisans, dairy farmers were at risk of impoverishment and all

affected villagers were at risk of socio-cultural disarticulation10. These situations tempered

existing feuds and conflicts between villagers, kinship groups (Joshi 1983) and within

households.

D.2. Rehabilitated Spaces: Although many villagers are dislocated, displacement risks

are far too high to be fully mitigated by rehabilitation. Scale and intensity of dislocation canceled

out the possibility of suitably rehabilitating the people. Not understanding the risks of relocation

(on-time losses of land, job, home, asset, resources and socio-cultural foundations) while being

dislocated, though the villagers viewed and experienced rehabilitated sites differently. One

common problem confirmed by all villagers across the surveyed villages was built sanitation.

Previously, villagers used open spaces for defecation and never felt the need of any built

sanitation facility. However, absence of forests and common grounds forced them to secretly use

large stretches of land owned by the Patels (big landlords). After they were prevented from using

these lands, and the decline in bushes and shrubs, due to construction of houses and

infrastructure, the need for built sanitation became evident.

10 Michael Cernea (1990) uses the term socio-cultural disarticulation to denote the socio-cultural and economic losses incurred by the affected people through dislocation and resettlement. Cernea was one of the pioneers in stating that oustees should be provided with adequate compensation for lost goods, health care, housing, and humanitarian assistance. He also argued that displaced families should not be permanently fragmented, new economic opportunities may be provided, community infrastructure may be upgraded and movable property may be relocated to the new sites (World Bank 1994, Cernea 1994, Cernea 1993, Cernea 1990).

84 When we were resettled in these villages ten years back and constructed our houses, we

did not feel the need for bathrooms and toilets. Instead we used the house space for

various purposes, such as cattle shed or growing vegetables, or storing crops and fire

woods. But now we feel that sanitation facilities are required because open spaces are

diminishing by the growth of villages and communication networks (Sunil Bhai Tadvi11,

male respondent, age 28, Golagambdi village interviewed by author May 16th, 2004).

As a city dweller, I consider sanitation facilities essential to maintain health and hygiene but the villagers experienced built spaces as constricting their space. in the aforementioned narrative a tribal villager shared his views on built sanitation.

The migrants involuntarily resettled without having the scope of knowledge for considering various adversities in the new locale. Development projects, like the SSP, shaped and structured resettlers’ sense of place, livelihood mechanisms, community relations and quality of life. In a rehabilitated village, Kundiucchakalam, the villagers reported that they were not left with many choices or means to develop a sense of the rehabilitated sites before dislocation, and the fear of losing stable income persuaded them to accept the compensation provided by the state prematurely.

The rehabilitated sites are created in a planned manner. The previous villages had vast

stretches of grazing lands, fishing grounds and forests. Thus we feel as if we are bounded

in strict boundaries. Our movements are confined and choices reduced and regulated. We

feel misinformed about rehabilitated sites (Village Group, Kundiucchakalam, Interviewed

by author, June 20th 2004).

11The names of all my respondents are changed with pseudo names to maintain confidentiality to the information provided by them.

85 Ram Bhai Tadvi (previous head of Golagambdi village), narrated their past histories, protest movements, and resettlement experiences. According to him, the government’s R&R policies

were not constructed considering the interests of the affected people. He thought this way because

though policy changes were made, all villagers were not totally aware of the details or if aware

were not satisfied with the changes. Some villagers received better lands, proper accessibility to

roads or schools or clinics over others. He pointed out that the villager’s ability to claim

compensation played an important role in obtaining compensation.

We never thought that the river could be dammed. When we heard about the SSP, we

thought it would not be possible to restrict the flow of such a mighty river. But as we

came to know about the construction of dam, we felt miserable and unsecured thinking

about the adversities it will have on our lives. We were not informed about the policies,

compensation and after-affects of dislocation. So we protested against the R&R policy

and compensation package with the local NGOs. Though some of us obtained a fair deal,

we still feel betrayed and depressed for losing the social/cultural grounds, ancestral

hearths and common spaces (Ram Bhai Tadvi, male respondent, age 65, Golagambdi

village, Interview with author, May 29th 2004).

In witnessing how peoples’ spatial movements, decisions and choices were shaped by the R&R policies, I observed that the sets of strategies, which are associated with interests and motives of the state in constructing the lives of the Adivasis (Mills, 2003), regulated and restrained movements and activities of the villagers in the newly built space (rehabilitated sites). The following narrative depicts this understanding,

Previously, we supplemented our diets with a wide variety of vegetables grown in the

banks of the river, fish from the river and different forest produces. In the new sites, the

pressure of cultivating cash crop to earn substantial income for increased expenditure, we

86 can only cultivate fewer varieties of food crops and vegetables. Our daily dietary intakes

have changed. In the times of abnormal monsoon, we either have to search for secondary

employment or curtail our consumption requirements (Madan Bhai, male respondent,

Sanoli village, age 38, Interviewed with author, 4th July 2004).

If they were unable to produce enough to earn a substantial profit and store surplus food crops adequately for a year, then they would have to curtail consumption, perhaps drastically reducing their nutritional intake. The only solution to keep agriculture solvent was by borrowing money for buying more seed, fertilizer, pesticide and hiring pumps and tractors. In previous villages, the villagers depended on the forest resources and diverse livelihoods, so at times of crop failure they were able to depend on other means for sustenance. But in rehabilitation sites, they had to depend solely on a commodified version of agriculture.

The Adivasis tried to overcome unfavorable circumstances by controlling and contesting

space and resources. The resettlers cultivated cash crops to meet the growing expenditures by

usage of tractors, pumps, high yielding seeds and fertilizers. The competitiveness in diversifying

crop production, attaining marketable surplus, and speculating market returns created spaces of

hostility and contestation among those who succeeded in obtaining higher agricultural returns to

those who failed. The following section discusses contested spaces. There are overlaps between

contested and rehabilitated spaces.

D.3. Contested Space: In the rehabilitated villages, villagers are inclined to cultivate

cotton, groundnut, jowar, wheat, maize and selling substantial amounts of cash crops. In order to

increase crop productivity, the tribals encounter an increased expenditure using modern farm

techniques, electricity, and pumps. Some villagers, who cultivate their lands collectively among

other family members, are profiting over individual farmers and women headed households. This

87 profit created income differentials as an addition to the already existing class and caste divisions that were carried over from past villages.

I define contested spaces as spaces where conflict is produced in the form of

confrontation or hidden animosity. The villagers are engaged in feuds and animosity due to their

differential control and access to resources that were disturbed through compensation benefits

after resettlement. Some village feuds are created as some villagers efficiently cultivated their

lands, obtaining higher productivity over others. These feuds were jealousy driven due to the

inequities of land fertility and individual villager’s efficiency in crop production.

In 1989, Gujarat government substantially revised the compensation package for landless

laborers providing two hectares of land to all oustees, irrespective of their land holding statuses.

In 1992, Maharashtra indirectly included the encroachers12 by providing one hectare of land for

major sons, adult unmarried daughters and project-affected landless laborers. But MP compelled

its people to move to Gujarat by offering substandard and inadequate compensation benefits. In a

1989 mission report, a cynical remark of World Bank consultant (Thayer Scudder) stated that

Gujarat policies were ‘admirable’ and ‘excellent’ but ‘innumerable’ and ‘unacceptable

implementation inadequacies particularly with regard to Gujarat’s efforts in preparing

resettlement sites for MP oustees (Scudder 1989). All the rehabilitated villages I surveyed are

located in Gujarat. Surveyed rehabilitated villages consist of Maharashtra, MP and Gujarat

oustees with different ethnic backgrounds. I came across the problem of unusable and infertile

lands in the rehabilitated villages of Maharashtra and MP. But some resourceful farmers from MP

could still manage to find better lands in Gujarat. For example, from the village of Katnera (MP),

12 Encroachers are villagers who cultivated forest land or common lands for generations with or without legal ownership to the cultivated land. They were considered as illegal cultivators if the following conditions were not satisfied. Different states involved in the SSP had different ways of considering the encroachers suitable for land compensation. They had to show proofs of cultivating their lands prior to 1978 for Maharashtra and by 1987 in case of MP.

88 39 land-owning households accepted compensatory lands in Kundiucchakalam, Gujarat. Some displaced villagers from Katnera, MP were fortunate to receive better lands, while some returned to Katnera as the cost of living in the rehabilitated sites were higher than accepting monetary compensation and finding an alternative in MP.

As I was walking around the Kundiucchalakam village, a villager called me, requesting

to have his grievance represented in my writings. His brother has returned to Katnera. Katnera is

in the list of submerging villages but not yet submerged13. He tells me,

I had 10 acres in MP but in Gujarat my brothers and I collectively own 15 acres of land. I

cultivated the land for two years but the land gets badly water-logged during chaumasa

(monsoons), which led to crop failures. This is because some parts of the land are in the

low-lying areas. Last year, I invested Rs.2000 on seeds, Rs.1000 on fertilizers, in addition

to hiring a tractor. We were drowning in MP during floods, but in Gujarat one gets

drowned immediately with the advent of monsoons. If the land quality was good, I had

no reasons to send my brothers back to MP. I am trying to cultivate these lands in Gujarat

while my brothers are cultivating our lands in MP. Some people have received better

quality land in Gujarat. They are lucky (Villager, male respondent, age 45,

Kundiucchakalam, Interviewed, June 30th 2004).

Though substantial changes were made in the policies, the lands were unevenly distributed14.

Targeted by the state to influence community opinion on resettlement the large land owning groups received better lands and appropriate benefits to offset the risks of resettlement. Among

13 Katnera was one of the submerging villages in MP which I visited during my surveys.

14According to the NWDTA, all displaced villagers should receive five acres (two hectares) of cultivatable land. The villagers were shown three villages out of which, they had to select a village. But the predicament of this selection was no experimentation of soil fertility was possible, before choosing the village. So, some villagers were still dissatisfied on the allotted cultivatable lands as some lands were undulating (uneven) or infertile or easily waterlogged during monsoons. In addition, some villagers obtained less than five acres of land as portions of their lands were unusable.

89 marginal or common land cultivators or landless labors, the situation has been rather mixed, where distribution of better resources (quality land, irrigation facilities, concrete houses, and water supply) were uneven (Dwivedi 1999: 67).

We should get five acres (two hectares) of arable lands if we have legal land titles. When

I was shown the land before displacement, I could not understand whether or not it was

fertile. I have been cultivating the land for 12 years but portions of this land are unusable

as a non motorable road passed through one side of the land and weeds grow on some

portion of the land. I am cultivating only three acres of land with the other two acres

remaining unusable15. For a decade, I have been asking the government to change this

plot but until now I have not heard from them. I get frustrated and feel desolate when I

see other villagers have received fertile lands. I suffer from a feeling of being betrayed by

the government. This feeling affects my relation with my family and sequesters me from

the community (Vikram Bhai, male respondent, age 43, Golagambdi village, Interview

with author, 4th January 2004).

I found some villagers in similar conditions like Vikram Bhai in all the rehabilitated villages I surveyed. Some woman-headed households were worse affected. Women tended to suffer more because women who sometimes lost land use-rights with marriage or husband’s death

(Dhagamwar, Thukral and Singh 1995) in their indigenous villages. In the relocated villages, allocation of land to the land owning women was not even considered by the government. The reason is for this is unknown but my assumption is that women voices were not publicly acknowledged by the SSP. As a large public entity (SSP), perhaps the state apparatuses

15 It seems self-evident that this portion of land though minimal still subtracts from farmable land, if only, a few square feet. During my surveys, I have seen Vikram Bhai’s land; he looked dejected while narrating his grievance. A road passes from one side of this land, for which, small fractions of the land were taken away by the road and next to the road. Hence, the continuous stretch of five acres was lost.

90 understood and saw this as an opportunity to reduce their responsibility to compensate. According to Subhadra Bhen at Kundiucchakalam,

It is five years since we have been displaced, and I am struggling to get the right to the

land I inherited after my husband’s death. Until now, I have not heard from the

government on being compensated. My sons were duly compensated. But I am still

hoping to receive my land compensation (Subhadra Bhen, Kundiucchakalam, female

respondent, age 57, Interview with author, 24th June 2004).

Nobody spoke on behalf of this lady, not even her sons. Those women who received land

were unable to market their produce and speculate market gains. Various reasons pushed

them to considerable debt peonage. I found, some women often left with meager

resources to feed and care for children.

There were some levels of dissatisfaction over the quality of compensated lands. This inequality in compensation package created spaces of hostility and animosity between those who received better lands to those who did not. These discussions on contested spaces reveal views and actions at local level on displacement related risks as diverse and conflicting on certain matters.

Golagambdi village now has two groups. One group owes allegiance to the previous village chief and the other takes side of the most affluent family. During various social events villages take loan from rich farmers, so more than half of the village supports the rich farmers. Along with this, the villagers reliance on tractors and pumps also makes them depend on those farmers who own them. Very few cultivators had tractors and pumps and the entire village rented it. There were incidences of rape attempts, feuds, boycotting of cultural events like marriages, between these groups.

Ram Bhai was the chief of the Golagambdi village before dislocation. But in the present site, people do not obey him since few people improved their economic conditions. Thus, there

91 were several stories constructed within the village against Ram Bhai’s animosity with the affluent villagers. Exploring the strange phenomenon, I questioned to myself the reason of his deteriorating image among the villagers in Golagambdi. However, since these were political issues that dealt with the use of power, I did not delve in them (as an outsider) as it could spark misunderstandings among villagers. Chagan Bhai secretively mentioned that Ram Bhai’s people tried to rape his daughter in the past to degrade Chagan Bhai’s prestigious position at the village.

My daughter was picked up by Ram Bhai’s son and their group to prevent her from

getting married and affecting the family fame. They did not do anything to her as few

village folks rescued her. The group had an intension of raping her. In spite of the

disaster, I could get her married. The village community compelled this group to pay a

heavy compensation. The village looks united from outside but the inter-village stories

suggest that it is broken into groups. There are lots of conflicts within the villagers.

Previously, we thought all the resettled people are having a strong sense of unity. But

now after everyone has a minimum five acres of land and obtained adequate economic

conditions and entitlements, there are more rivalry on the living standards of every

households. There are conflicts between the villagers based on the production of crops,

assets, and education of children as status symbols (Chagan Bhai, male respondent, age-

39, Interview by author, 20th May 2004).

According to the people, in the past village, their life was simple, they lived in close harmony

apart from minor debates and fights. If their conditions are seen with empathy owing to the

trauma of losing jobs, lands, home, risk of resettlement and pain undergone through the process

of relocation, then the assumption that some people have to suffer to bear the cost for greater

good is not convincing and should be discarded (Iyengar 2001, Parasuraman 1988, World Bank

1994). Involuntary movement of the villagers befell as a catastrophe to these people, which

92 altered their household activities and roles, community relations, and livelihood mechanisms. The following section brings forth the resistance movements, which were central to negotiate for compensation in the Narmada Valley.

D.4. Negotiated Spaces: The time of dislocation with negative and positive outcomes through R&R policies were never laid in front of the people (see Chapter-V). The affected people were confused due to lack of awareness of the state resettlement agendas. There was a difference of opinion between the agendas of the state and the anti-dam action group. The affected were caught between the interests of the state and NGOs (Dwivedi, 1999: 62). The NBA (Narmada

Bachao Andolan – Save Narmada Movement)16 took a no dam stand when the SSP was already under construction and some villages were resettled, instead of considering the alternatives for making the lives of the oustees better in resettled sites. The NBA campaigned nationally and globally projecting unsustainability of the SSP demanding those resettled to return back to their former places. Eventually, the oustees realized that they were being used as pawns by the NBA.

In a narrative collected by Gill the NBA ideology is revealed by the affected oustees.

16 Roughly around 1980s, the NGOs collaborated with the people trying to understand the dislocation risks some displaced people have undergone and the people in the list of being displaced will undergo. The 2 prominently working NGOs were NBA and Arch Vahini. Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) or Save Narmada Movement is fighting for the democratic right of the affected people. It is a leading NGO in the Narmada Valley and they worked with the people in resisting the state rehabilitation efforts. The NBA initially demanded for a change in the R&R policy, for making the lives of the people better. Initially Adivasis were not interested in the NBA struggle but, the alliance was gradually formed and people felt the NBA was intending to help them overcome the dislocation losses. The NBA non-violent struggle against the riparian state governments demanded for the peoples’ rights projecting the dislocation risks. The NBA is also known for demanding substantial change in the R&R policy. But at a later stage, the state of Gujarat modified the policies, Maharasthra partially changed the policy and MP brought in no change instead of pursuing for revamping the policies, NBA took a no dam stand projecting the SSP as environmentally unsustainable. At this time, the SSP was under construction and the NBA struggle proved the construction of the project a planned disaster. However, during this time, many tribals left the NBA side as they came to know about the policy changes and that those displaced received lands and other benefits in rehabilitated villages. But the NBA did not want the people to accept relocation as that may bring an end to NBA’s existence in the valley. Besides this, NBA (see Chapter – V for details) is criticized for: overlooking the class and caste conflicts between Adivasis (also called Nimadi) and rich land holders (Patridars or Nimari); though the NBA was largely funded by the rich land owners, they showcased the Adivasis to project the tribals livelihoods and nature-culture linkage being affected by the dam; the NBA reduced their reactions to the policy discrepancies and unevenness in compensation distribution faced by already displaced villagers (see Dwivedi 1999, Bhaviskar 1995, Gill 1995, Patel 1995, Patkar 1995, NBA 1991)

93 We have realized that we are expected to fight against the dam… we are being

deliberately encouraged to remain like this so that our photographs can convince the

world to halt the dam. We don’t care if the dam is built or not. We want a good deal for

our children. We have fought for the activists for years, but have got nothing in return.

We are with you17 only if we get everything that is listed in the resettlement policy as

our right. Until you give us what is rightfully ours, not even one person from this

village will move (male respondent, Quoted in Gill 1995: 253-4).

The people accepted relocation as they realized they had no alternatives. However, they also

negotiated for better living conditions before dislocation.

We were told that we will be displaced in 1990. It is 1996 now and we are still here. In

these six years the World Bank was thrown out, our problem was known all over the

country and the cases are being heard in the Supreme Court. It is because of this struggle,

some people have received quality land as compensation and we expect a better

compensation deal (male respondent, Interviewed by Dwivedi, 29th February 1996).

Frustration and anxiety was palpable among the affected waiting to be displaced for six years.

Perhaps they did not want to remain in a transitory phase in submerging villages, since they knew they have to resettle some where else.

The NBA constantly pressured the villagers to reject the rehabilitation package and return to the previous submerging village. The Andolan projected to the villagers that after the dam is

constructed all the amenities provided will be taken away by the state apparatus. Although, this

was not true of the State, the villagers were convinced of this false idea.

17 By ‘you’ the villagers meant the Government.

94 Medha Behn (the leader of NBA) had come to us here at the resettlement site. Her

purpose was to convince us to go back to our villages in the valley. She said, ‘when you

come there, we will ensure that you get a formal welcome in Chhoti Kasravat’. If we

decide to go back, we will be welcomed and even garlanded by the activists (Villager,

male respondent, interviewed by Dwivedi, 20th March 1996).

According to the villagers, they refused to return to the previous village if they were not given a

better rehabilitation package for sustaining their future generations. The NBA had hidden motives working against state apparatus in which the migrants were showcased to resist against the SSP

(see Chapter V).

During my pilot survey in December 2003, I visited some rehabilitated villages with the

NBA and then the government. The rehabilitated villagers shown by the NBA complained about

of lack of civic amenities. A narrative collected from a village (where the NBA was prominently

working) voiced the unevenness of compensation,

The government did not meet the compensation and benefits it promised. Our sons of

workable age have to migrate to the cities to sustain the families. We did not get fertile

cultivable lands. We have to pay for the electricity and the power driven water pumps to

get irrigation. We are not connected very well with the cities by roads and transportation

networks. We had many problems in the previous villages but the cultivatable lands were

fertile and sufficient for producing food for our families. But now we do not even have

proper food security for our families (Motia Bhai, male respondent, age 39, Suryatalav,

interviewed by author, 4th December 2003).

A contrasting picture was obtained from the sites I visited with the government officials. As villagers took me around the village, I observed different civic amenities and planned spaces provided a positive feeling towards the benefits of relocation. The villagers provided some

95 insights on how the village was planned with primary schools, playgrounds, health centers and accessibility to the transportation networks to cities and markets. The houses had separate cattle sheds, kitchen, rooms and efficiently used land to grow vegetables or store food grains in an open area around the house space.

A similar observation to my survey can be provided from Dwivedi’s study on the SSP where he stated the narrative of a villager who left the side of the NGO and accepted rehabilitation (Dwivedi, 1999: 68).

For the last three years, I have left the NBA. I have no relationship with the local NBA

leaders in the village and they blame me for splitting the village on this issue. I joined the

rallies in Bombay and Delhi with the NBA. In the early days of the movement, we raised

the issues of information and participation, and the destruction of our ancient homes. But

it became clear that the government will go ahead with the project. The dam is a reality.

Realizing this, people will begin to move. I moved here when I saw that people in

Suryaguda who had settled here for two years had gotten excellent land and was happy.

The fact that we were cheated by the NBA is a different story (male respondent,

Interviewed by Dwivedi, 15th March 1996).

In the mid 1980s, the tribals gradually enlisted with the help of NGOs purely to obtain better

living conditions in the rehabilitated villages. The tribals were not worried over issues of

unsustainability of the large projects like SSP but about their living conditions in rehabilitated

villages. The NBA was strategic in bringing the traditional foes, the hill Adivasis (Nimadi) and

rich agriculturalists (Nimari or Patridars), in alliance to fight for the SSP. The NBA’s power was

demonstrated in the valley through rallies, protest slogans, marches, fastings, and also forming

96 drowning squads18. Although, the NBA aimed at changing the R&R policy, towards mid 1990s

when substantial policies were being made, NBA voiced against the unsustainability of the SSP

ignoring their demands on better living conditions for oustees in rehabilitated villages. Overtime,

many tribals and villagers left the movement and resettled if all the benefits mentioned in the

R&R policy were given. Even when the people were involved in the protest movements, they

were tactically negotiating with the NGOs and bargaining with state over compensation. They

carried out demonstrations and non-violent struggles in ways which forced the state to accept

changes in compensation. Some people left the movement, due to resistance fatigue and partly

from fear of losing the compensation benefits that were incorporated in the policies.

Consequently, the villagers comprehended that the dam will be built and some day they would

have to relocate, so living as temporary settlers in their submerging village was not a desire. The

main goal of the tribals was to attain self-sufficiency in the new locale and attain more benefits

bargaining with the government. While the NBA knew their (own) existence in the valley would

fade if people were rehabilitated. Hence, the NBA skirmished against the state finding new

avenues of resistance and wanted the already resettled villagers to return to their previous

homelands. Though the ideology of NBA and the many tribals did not match in the later stage,

they were both powerful in demanding their interests from the government in collaboration or by

themselves.

D.5. Personal Space: In this section, I recount the stories collected from the Adivasi

women. Personal space is a collection of the oustee women’s day-to-day activities, experiences

and hidden desires. Although the household is considered as the women’s space, I argue that this

space is not entirely controlled by the women. Feminist researchers have emphasized that the

18 Some villagers wanted to sacrifice their lives by getting drowned with the rising water discharged from Sardar Sarovar.

97 male members controlled the fluid and complex inter-household dynamics shaping the gender divisions of labor, relations and roles (Floro, 1991; Bruce, 1989; Hart, 1992; Wolf, 1992).

Kofman and Raghuram contributed widely to the areas of South Asian skilled women migrants and their strategies to organize the inside and outside spaces (Kofman and Raghuram 2004). In

Wolf (1992), we find stories of rural Javanese factory girls, their everyday experiences and

household strategies.

The stories heard in my field surveys captured women’s hidden dissatisfaction and

remonstration on the behavior of their spouses, mothers-in-law, and other family members. This can be related to Scott’s hidden transcript (1990: xii), which critiques power constructed by the muted as they feel empowered in the absence of the authoritative figure.

I do all household works like cleaning the house, cooking, looking after the children and

their education, cultivating the small plot of land adjacent to the house, cleaning the cattle

shed and the cattle, feeding the cattle, fetching water and sometimes work at the main

agricultural field. I still hear from my husband that I do not do any work and stay idle at

home. Though, I am more educated than my husband my decisions are not considered at

home or when there is a crop failure (Ratna Bhen, female respondent, age 23,

Golabambdi village, interviewed by author 29th May 2004).

She revealed her stories when her husband and children were not at home. Her mother-in-law

stays in a separate house near her house. It seemed she waited for someone unknown to the

village to divulge her hidden sorrows. One day, she explained how her mother-in-law reacted to

her illness.

When I was pregnant, I often suffered from some health problems. Although my husband

wanted me to undergo a health check-up, my mother-in-law showed disbelief towards my

sickness. She thought I always pretended about health problems as an excuse to overlook

98 household duties (Ratna Bhen, female respondent, age 23, Golagambdi village,

interviewed by author 29th May 2004).

As the hidden everyday life opened up through women’s voices, I could understand how young

girls were getting socially disciplined and domesticated from childhood for gender specific

household and agricultural works (Amott & Matthaei, 1991; Glenn, 1992; Jackson & Penrose,

1993). An adolescent girl mentioned her interests to attain higher education over getting married.

But her parents allayed her desires.

I am a third major Sociology student. I wish to study more and do not desire to get

married now. Though my parents have never compelled me to marry, my father is sick

and my maternal uncles contribute towards our family expenses. If they propose for my

marriage, my parents will not disagree. We are obligated to them. My decision has no

value. I will continue my education with sincerity as long as I can (Mangla, female

respondent, age 19, Golagambdi Host village, interviewed by author 29th July 2004).

The decisions of the elderly people or the male members manipulated women’s lives. It was interesting to observe how women reconstructed their lives in response to the decisions and social constructions of their family and community. The gender differences were prominent in the rural set-up where every woman was conditioned within the social and household dynamics. But they still tried to maintain their identity as women (Tyner 2004, McDowell 1999, Moss and Dyck

1996, Hondagneu-Sotello 1994 Radcliffe 1992,Wolf 1992).

Another lady from Kundiucchakalam narrated a different story. When I visited this family, one elderly lady showed me the different rooms and explained the activities/family histories related with the household spaces. While showing me the house she showed a picture of a deity, while mentioning that her youngest daughter-in-law has been unable to give birth for

99 several years. According to her, the worship of this particular deity blessed her daughter-in-law with a male child. However, her daughter-in-law had a different story to narrate,

My mother-in-law worshiped the Mother Goddess specifically because I was not getting

a child. Most of the times, I heard I have some health problems and was unable to give

birth. I also had a low status among the other women at home and in the community. The

family experimented different medicines, changed faith on deities, performed different

religious practices, applied and experimented various treatments of herbs. After ten years

of trial and error, I could give birth to a child. There was surely some medical reason but

my mother-in-law and the elderly women of the community strongly believed the birth of

the child was possible by the blessings of the Mother Goddess (Parvati Bhen, female

respondent, age 32, Kundiucchakalam, interviewed by author 27th July 2004).

As a female researcher, I had every opportunity to sit with women and men of all age groups in

their houses, patios and agricultural fields, carefully observing their everyday activities and

hearing the household debates. I attempted to comprehend the gendered roles and politics within

households. Other times, I conducted surveys at any time of the day, in absence of men.

Sometimes, I visited the households in the afternoons purposively to hear from the women and

young girls. My experiences are lived and embodied as the surveys were carried. The narratives

helped me conceptualize the everyday discursive realties of the migrant women and men.

E. CONCLUSION

The submerged villages are no longer spaces of habitation; they exist in the migrants’

memories. Under lost spaces, the differential opinions of the oustees on displacement are

100 emphasized. The rehabilitated spaces are the displacees19’ lived spaces. The personal spaces bring out the stories of the tribal women’s day-to-day experiences, activities, and inter-household power relations. In addition, these spaces map women’s emotions, desires and sorrows. The unevenness in the distribution of compensation, risks of displacement and inadequate knowledge on policies, inefficiency in crop production, have created spaces of contestation and negotiation

(for details see chapter-V).

In the rehabilitated villages, young girls were groomed from childhood with efficiency in farm and household duties such as, cleaning and washing besides, attending schools. The urban character of space, occupation, and labor where girls are educated opting equal occupational positions as their male counterparts was not widespread in the submerging villages. But for the migrant villagers, occupation in casual jobs or government jobs in the cities and increased accessibility to cities through transportation networks permeates an urban character across the tribal societies.

Changes are also seen in various socio-cultural spheres, like dressing patterns, food habits, reliance on readymade spices, and demands for packed food. Dislocation to areas well connected with cities has brought about the change in socio-economic lifestyles, consumption patterns, and preferences. Though dislocation has forcibly uprooted the villagers disturbing their everyday life, I argue that the locals can also tactically claim their lost assets and rights through protests and negotiations with the state (see chapter-V). Further in the rehabilitated spaces, alternatives to development can be adapted in collaboration with the NGOs and state apparatuses making the lives of the Adivasi oustees better (see Chapter-VI).

19 See the preface for oustees. The words displacees and oustees are used interchangeably, meaning those who are permanently or temporarily resettled from their lands which were affected by submergence. It also refers to those, whose livelihoods are going to be affected by submergence, they may be already displaced or still living in submerging villages and will be displaced later. Hence, both the terms are used in R&R discourses for those dislocated or will be dislocated.

101 It is interesting to visualize the social construction of spaces in everyday lives. Encapsulating the narratives and existing discourses on dislocation, protest movements and rehabilitation in the

Narmada Valley, I have analyzed the creation of gendered spaces and usage of spatial tactics that are worthy of investigation. My experiences are based on observing and hearing the discussions in the migrants’ daily activities and performances of different roles. I made every attempt to project the lived experiences and spaces of the migrants as narrated. I perceived and observed the villagers through the prolonged discussions and made efforts in picturing them in their past and present spaces, and private and public spaces.

102 Chapter V: NEGOTIATING DEVELOPMENT AT THE INTERFACE OF POWER AND

RESISTANCE IN THE SARDAR SAROVAR

A. INTRODUCTION

The shocking figures of destruction caused by hydro power projects could not halt the nation’s determination to further build such projects1. So far, the government has spent

prodigious amounts on the construction of the SSP, which alone costs more than the entire

amount spent on irrigation projects since independence (Baviskar 1995). In chapters II, III and

IV, I provided some information on the Adivasi subordination by Indian rulers, ,

bureaucrats, and money lenders. In this chapter, I elaborate on the creation of the involuntary

migrants through discipline and institutional control of the state. Gradually the Adivasis have

been pushed from fertile plains to infertile and inhospitable forested areas in the mountains,

which altered the Adivasi lifestyles in two ways; First, by cloistering in the forests where their

close dependence on nature had delineated them from the outside world; second, by much

imparted hostility by the rich farmers of the plains (known as Nimari or Nimaria cultivators). The

Adivasis lived very close to subsistence and were content in the forests (Arnold and Guha 1995,

Gadgil and Guha 1992, Guha 1994). The advent of Sardar Sarovar Project disturbed their placid lifestyles. Having no choice other than dislocation, the threat of losing lands, jobs, cultural foundations, the Adivasis fought against the state in collaboration with local NGOs.

1Although, the constructions of gigantic projects benefit big farmers on the plains, they destabilize the lives of the people living on the banks of the river at subsistence levels whose livelihoods are directly or indirectly reliant on the river. Large multipurpose river valley projects, such as SSP caused roughly 65 percent of development-induced displacement. Statistics show that the construction of 300 large dams displaced 4 million people world-wide and 20 million people in India (World Bank, 1994; Dwivedi, 1999).

103 In this chapter, I explain the production of docile migrants, risks, and uncertainties of displacement in conjunction with the frontiers of power and resistance. I relate the mechanisms of involuntary dislocation making inter-linkages from the resettlers’ views on dislocation, their hidden discourses and tactics, contending strategies of action groups, and government officials.

The following section elaborates the conceptual framework.

B. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The conceptual framework draws from development discourses and discourses on power and resistance as defined by Foucault (1979, 1980, 1982, 1997), de Certeau (1988) and Scott

(1990). Customarily, development is seen as a unidirectional social and environmental evolution, irreversible progress, and affirmation of the centralized nation-state’s authority producing and conditioning the recipients of development (Gupta 1998, Escobar 1995, Ludden 1992).

The other side of this argument is that if original spatial structures are altered, at some point, the affected people will flounder against the bureaucratic morass of policies and disciplines2 instituted by the state which is precisely, what happens in the large dam projects, like the SSP; the projection of benefits and the poorly stated statistics of project anomalies, dismantled the lives of the oustees. Hence, the construction of the SSP is one of the most controversial projects among development projects in independent India, offering a complex history of debates and discourses.

Indeed, the British colonial apparatus significantly shaped the post-independence Indian

development regime. The Indian nationalists, who shaped the development of the state after

independence (1947) continued the colonialist’s idea of modernity. The only exception as

2 This argument follows the similar analogy as provided in de Certeau’s ‘The Practice of Everyday Life’ (1988, 91- 110).

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Gandhi’s village-republic ideology. In post-independence era, the Indian agrarian and environmental history closely followed the lines of the colonial apparatus, afflicting social and natural landscapes (Agarwal and Sivaramakrishnan 2000, Arnold and Guha 1995, Gadgil and

Guha 1992). The most prominent of these were the Green Revolution beginning in the 1950s, involving the intensification of Indian agriculture through high yielding seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and mechanization (Anderson et al. 1982, Gupta 1998). Such interventions have been more recently criticized for disrupting social relations causing environmental degradation, and deepening political stratification (Shiva 1998).

Additionally, various contemporary critical population geographies represent wide theoretical and methodological priorities while analyzing social construction of relations and complex spatial connections between the gendered spatial actors3 (Smart 2002, Tyner 2004, 1994,

Hondagneu-Sotello 1994, Chant, et.al 1992, Floro 1991, Mohanty 1991, Flobre 1988). Drawing from Foucault, I conceptualize the use of power4 by various institutions, the effects of power in

everyday life of the people, and the enactment of power in different circumstances (Foucault,

1979; 1980). Observing everyday life and participating in debates, I grasp that the state has

conditioned the Adivasi lifestyles over time and space by regulating their practices and by disciplining their rights (Tyner, 2004). Along these lines, contemporary geographers (Silvey

2004, Tyner 2004, 1994,Gibson-Graham 2000, Lawson 2000, Yapa 1999, McDowell1999) have

3 In case of the Sardar Sarovar, the actors are the state, donor agencies, national and international interlocutors and oustees.

4 From a Foucaultian analysis of power, I deduce ‘power’ is not possessed rather it is a strategy, something one performs or does in some situations. Power needs to be constantly performed. The functioning of power is understood through the everyday spatial activities, practices, family/community roles and relations. The fluidity of power does not have boundaries it is flowing everywhere across all spatial actors in the society. Hence, power does not have a fixed direction and fixed actors. As power is not always consciously planned and enacted but applied in our everyday lives. Power is a set of relations and it is constantly performed consciously or unconsciously. By saying this, I am not negating that power does not consciously flow between the oppressor and oppressed but power does more than that in subtle ways. The flow of power is not unidirectional, it is messy and it is often difficult to see a systematic flow as power is enmeshed in our lives as we perform our daily activities, as we live in the family, and as we work in the society.

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proposed that discipline5 is practiced and enforced in society through the functioning of power by

different institutions (the state in the case of the SSP).

This conceptual framework (Fig. 14) divides into three levels, (1) the government

domain, (2) the affected peoples’ domain (pre- and post-rehabilitation) and (3) the action groups’

domain. The government domain links with the locals with the potential to provide better

rehabilitation and implementation of appropriate R&R policy. Paradoxically, unevenness in

compensation packages and ad hoc implementation of the R&R policies create marginalization.

These anomalies have peppered the Narmada Valley with power struggles between the people

and the government.

The third domain, action groups, can be classified into two subgroups, anti-dam and pro-

dam which produced diverse objectives. The anti-dam group protested to stall the construction of

the project as environmentally non-viable, creating a stage of non-negotiation and non-

cooperation with the state. The pro-dam group demanded better living conditions in the

rehabilitation sites and at a later stage engaged with the government for policy change, creating a

stage of negotiation and cooperation without necessarily halting construction.

5 Coming from a Foucaultian background I understand discipline as a set of strategies enacted by the institutions over the people’s behavior, activities, practices, daily lives and so on (See Fouucault’s Discipline and Punish, 1977).

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GOVERNMENT DOMAIN Adhoc-ism, unevenness in land compensation

AFFECTED PEOPLE – PREVIOUS LANDHOLDING STATUS

MARGINALIZATION Large land holding Encroachers/ Landless Labors/ Stage I & II –Low status/village leaders Share Croppers Post-displacement monetary compensation, trauma, hostility, implementation failures Exceptions animosity, frustration, alcoholism Efficiently managed Subordination/Feudalism Less affluent, poorly resources – affluent managed resources

AFFECTED PEOPLE – AFTER REHABILITATION

Strategies & Tactics Infra-politics/ hidden transcripts Creation of Resistance Movements Cooperation

Negotiate for lost ACTION GROUP DOMAIN rights, resources

Anti-Dam Infra- Pro-Dam Better Rehabilitation politics No- Dam Stand

Better QOL

Non-Violence to Non-Cooperation/ Violence

Fig. 14: Creation of Migrant oustees, Power and Resistance through the Discourses of Development

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C. THE MAKING OF MIGRANT OUSTEES

After two decades, since the foundation stone of the SSP6 was laid, the only message conveyed to the people was the dam would be built and the people would ‘have to’ rehabilitate to different villages. The findings of a 1986 study conducted by an action research group called

MARG operating in 26 Adivasi villages in MP revealed:

In none of the 26 villages, had the government of MP given any notices under section

four or section six of the land acquisition act (1894). Only in some villages and that too to

a few farmers, notices under section nine of the act were issued. Even these were not read

out or explained and so generally people remained ignorant about their rights. In most

villages, the initial information about the dam came from Central Water Commission’s

personnel, who marked the reservoir level. Information also came from varied sources

including wandering sadhus (sanyasis). In no cases have the district authorities in MP

informed the villagers about the dam. In only nine or ten villages (state) government

officials have held meetings to inform villagers about their displacement (MARG 1986,

1-2).

As the land acquisition notices were distributed among the landowners, entitlements were not clear if they existed at all. The administrative setup for R&R was in a miserable condition. The administration firmly believed that, like all major irrigation schemes in Gujarat and elsewhere in

India, the tribals of the SSP would have to move, accepting whatever was offered by the government. There was a great degree of indifference and casualness among the top echelons of the state: A minister-in-charge of the SSP stated that the government does not have to move a finger to resettle the tribal communities as they will leave their homes like “rats from holes when the water level rises” (Patel 1995). The elected representatives of the affected people did not help

6 See chapter-I for SSP. In the early 1960s, the foundation stone of SSP was laid by Pandit Nehru, the first prime minister of India.

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to negotiate with the government official in-charge. However, the people had allies and were able to place demands on the SSP authorities in 1986 - 1987 as a reaction against the threats on their wellbeing. As to land, forest, common property, and job losses, the people wanted to know who would be affected by submergence and to what degree. As to rights and enlightenment per the compensation schemes, the people wanted to know who would be eligible, for what, when, and

for how long. According to Sana bhai,

Now we know the legal tactics and the market-driven norms. But during the time of

displacement, we felt helpless for not knowing the mechanisms of dislocation and

resettlement. We did not have answers to so many of our questions: affects and effects of

displacement, eligibility of compensation, location of resettled sites to name a few. The

fear of displacement made us panic-stricken. We were worried over future uncertainties

(Sana Bhai, male respondent, age 38, Suryatalav, Interviewed by author, June 19th 2004).

Migrants were subjected to the disciplinary control of power in different ways (McDowell, 1999).

Not until the surveyors started pitching the boundary stones of the reservoir did the affected people know about the project and the future inundation of their lands and homes. At a later stage, the villagers were told about displacement but not about the implications. The government’s inarticulation in uprooting the people is one form of imposing discipline. I understand discipline as a strategy, a technique of power and a form of power practiced by the state or other dominant institutions of the society (like, national and international voluntary organizations) to control the behavior and movements of the weak (Foucault, 1982: 212). Further, the effect of power on the migrants constructs their discourses, gesticulations, and movements

(Foucault 1980:98).

My interest in discourses of power in the upcoming sections focuses on the following: the discourses of the state apparatuses that legitimizes the government goal to construct the project

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and simultaneously R&R efforts and the competing or resistance discourses of the people and the

NGOs that challenges the government’s decisions and policies. My theoretical position has been informed by post-structural feminism and critical population discourses. There are many theories framed on the discourse of power but in particular, my research follows Foucault’s views on power as a way to understand the discourses produced in the Narmada Valley during construction, implementation and destabilization of the project. my conception of power is that it

transforms. For instance, common interest and consciousnesses of the affected people with the

NGOs in the Narmada Valley formed a highly instrumental and non-violent conflict with the

government. Non-violence is a prominent tactic which was adopted by the people when the state

interests and goals were not clearly articulated. At the later stage of SSP, peoples’ movements

asserted power forcing the state to clarify the policies and make substantial changes. So, as

interests are clarified, resistance was increasingly replaced by lesser forms of resistance

understood as social negotiation (see the later section-G to follow tactics used by Arch-Vahini) .

Social negotiation, then, is an exercise of power, a subtle form of resistance by the people and

NGOs (Cresswell 1996) buttressed against the overt power of the state. The resistance of tribal

groups against the state apparatus displays the art of discourse as a tactic or strategy of power.

The following incident illustrates the strength of discourse. In the middle of the day, when most men were away in the fields, on the pretext of holding a meeting, government officials assembled all village women in one house posting guards outside the house preventing the women from leaving the house. One woman was let out for some reason and she spied the surveyors measuring the level of submergence in their villages. The other women, once informed, ran to snatch the tapes from the surveyors. At this, the police forced them back with their lathis

(sticks). A stamped followed trampling a young girl. Several women were beaten and bruised.

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However, the villagers succeeded in preventing the survey from being compiled that day

(Bhaviskar 1995: 111-113).

Mill’s (1997) understands the state’s strategy to discipline it’s subjects through disciplinary pressures in which actions of the dominant places the subservient within a set of procedures that are enacted on the subservient, aiming to discipline them. According to Mills,

“discipline consists of a concern with control which is internalized by each individual: it consists of a certain time-keeping, self-control over one’s posture and bodily functions, concentration, sublimation of immediate desires and emotions – all of these elements are the effects of disciplinary pressure” (Mills 1997, 43). In Sardar Sarovar, the state’s R&R efforts are reshaping the migrants’ lives by forcibly dislocating them and providing little or no information about their future. The above incident is one small example of discipline enforced. Discipline is only one discourse of power strategically used by the government.

The same village woman mentions in another narrative that she came to know about a village that got submerged due to rains and the dam. She worries about the impact for villagers when the entire village will be under water. She further worries, with a sigh, that after the village gets completely submerged, the people might climb up the hills and watch their village being engulfed deep in the reservoir (Bhaviskar 1995).So the specter of submergence, of having to rebuild lives, loomed large.

Another discourse of power used by the state can be gleaned following the phases of resettlement and it’s impact in creating villagers’ income instability. In the late 1870s to early

1890s, a group of villagers were displaced with very little monetary compensation. The second batch of villagers displaced were also given monetary compensation, but more than the first group. In a few years, the villagers spent the money on provisions and household expenditures and maintenance of houses. They were left without any stable income source and could not

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establish any kind of stability beyond the first few years that the state money provided for them.

Most of them converted to landless laborers. The previous R&R policy, did not provide

cultivatable lands to those who could not show land titles or to those who encroached on

government lands or to those who cultivated or used common lands. Instead, the state apparatus repeatedly addressed the encroachers as thieves (Patel, 1995), the most overt form of discourses of power. In using defamatory labels the state exercises a seeming innocuous dominance that lasts for generations.

The lack of land titles favored the government’s power as well. Even legitimate landowners were deprived of land entitlement if their names were not on government records.

The R&R policy was deeply repressive and it kept out a majority of tribal families from having a stable source of income. The recipients of progress were marginalized by the institutionalized power relations. The migrants were socially stigmatized and deprived from their right to life with dignity. Resistance to the SSP (where the subordinate segments of the society questioned the legitimacy of resource distribution) was a way to project a radical critique to the process and means in which projects were justified as developmental (GOI, 1994; World Bank, 1994).

D. CREATION OF RISKS

By 1987, the Gujarat government substantially revised the compensation package for landless laborers, making them eligible for two hectares of irrigated land and other infrastructural facilities. As with landed households, adult major sons were treated as separate families. The

Maharashtra government modified the policy five years later, in 1992, recognizing land compensation of one hectare for adult sons, unmarried daughters, and project affected people, indirectly including encroachers. MP government showed reluctance to adopt policy

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modifications. Instead, they asked for a reduction in the dam height, to reduce the displacement cost (see Chapter-IV).

The dam height was a major bone of contention between the states of Gujarat and MP.

Although, the height of the dam was considered non-negotiable as it was outlined by NWDT, the conflict between the two states continued to spilling over into almost every aspect requiring interstate co-ordination, where resettlement was only one issue(see Shah 1994 and FMG 1994 for overview of contention over dam height). MP tried to compel its people to move to Gujarat by offering sub-standard compensation and the Gujarat government wavered from its policy obligation of 1987 to resettle all the MP oustees (see Scudder 1989, 23, GOI 2000, 1994 and

Parasuraman 1996 for detailed R&R state policies).

The 1989 report by the resettlement consultant (Scudder) for the WB, while describing

the Gujarat government policies particularly with regard to Gujarat’s efforts in preparing

resettlement sites for MP oustees (Scudder 1989), noted problems in procedures of locating land

of quality and quantity; inadequate infrastructure amenities; high child mortality rates in

resettlement sites; and the lack of those bureaucratic gestures of goodwill that foster a positive

response among the people to the policy changes (Scudder 1989, 22). Instead, the Gujarat

government preferred to use force and violence to quash forms of protest (see Srinivasan 1993,

1994). In 1992, the independent review mission (IRM) was set up by the WB to look into

resettlement and environmental aspects of the SSP resulting in the suggestion of remedial

measures. The IRM noted serious policy deficiencies, planning and implementation failures, and

non-availability of data. For these policy deficiencies, the Bank step back from the project until

these problems were addressed (see Appa 1992, FMG 1994).

From this background of policy formation, inter-state disputes, and withdrawal of the

WB, I analyze the production of risks, uncertainties, negotiations, and contestation. Initially, it

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was difficult for me to hit upon the finer connections in power relations intricately locked in the valley. For instance, in the initial stages of resettlement, less monetary compensations was offered leading to marginalization through negligence of the oustees’ future. During the second stage of resettlement, monetary compensation was higher than before. This created animosity between the group who received less to the group received more compensation (Das 1982). In both the phases, some villages were displaced for construction of a township, roads, and a helipad for the Prime

Minister’s visit to the valley (Ramanathan 1996). Observing the resettlement outcomes, the majority of potential project affected people from the future submerging villages dreaded the displacement risks and uncertainties. The Adivasis developed a deep-seated revulsion to all developmental interventions of the country which disturbed their lifestyles. With the assistance of several NGOs, the people learnt the legal tricks and the shortcomings of the policy. Though house compensation was offered to all oustees, land compensation was only provided if the affected could prove legal land holding status. Thereafter, those, who could not prove the cultivatable land as theirs or those who cultivated common lands, faced a threat of impoverishment. Finally, after years of protests, land compensation was given to all villagers and major sons displaced. But unevenness in the distribution of the compensation continued.

Specifically, the village leaders and those who held influential positions in submerging

villages received house plots at opportune locations with various amenities, such as cultivatable

lands, spigots, roads, schools, and clinics. But marginal farmers, encroachers, or landless laborers

faced problems in obtaining cultivatable lands and access to amenities. The problems were of

different kinds, like lands were infertile, portions of lands unusable, uneven lands and lands

getting water logged during monsoons. In addition, some women headed households and major

sons did not receive land compensation (mentioned in Chapters III and IV).

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These placements were the direct reasons of conflicts and unhealthy communal relations

among the villagers. The situations further enervated depression of household relations. Non replacement of existing lands with better lands evolved into frustration, leading to alcoholism and fatigue. I deliberately asked the affected people, whom they blame for their low economic conditions. Their answers repeatedly held the government responsible for their deteriorated social and economic status.

Whenever, I questioned the NGOs regarding this issue, their response aimed to highlight the dis-equilibrium created through dislocation. But discussions on the problems and gains of

rehabilitation with the state apparatus, I always found them painting a rosy picture of

rehabilitation gains. These two different institutions of power framed their discourses according

to their interests and motives. Providing me with two different understandings of the same space.

Discourses constructed by action groups and government highlighted complex and opposing sets

of practices that circulated around their aims, objectives, and justifications on or against the SSP,

defending the statements that projected their incompetency (Mills 1997).

The fluid boundaries of discourses were constantly changing and contesting new

discourses (Gee, 1999: 21-23). For instance, in the following sections on the NBA strategies we

witness that the NGO shifted from the demands for better rehabilitation to a no-dam stand. Their

agendas clearly display that they want the struggles to move on in the valley as their existence

centered on resistance.

E. EVOLUTION OF THE NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN

The Narmada Bachao Andolan or NBA started in 1978 in Nimar, as the Nimar Bachao

Andolan (Movement to Save Nimar which was renamed as Movement to Save Narmada). Soon

after, the Water Disputes Tribunal Award formulated its guidelines. Arjun Singh, the leader of

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Congress (I), mobilized the people of Nimar to claim their lost assets due to displacement for the

SSP and formed the Narmada Bachao Andolan to win the elections. In that year, Janata Party came to power at the center and in MP. He was supported by the wealthy merchants and the people of Nimar, and won the elections in 1979, promptly duping the movement (Baviskar 1995) by only fulfilling his official duties and ignoring the movements continued efforts.

In 19857, , a social scientist at the Tata Institute for Social Sciences,

Mumbai, made a second attempt to organize and mobilize the people against the large scale

displacement. Initially, however, her re-organized Andolan did not challenge the overall validity

of the SSP. Instead, she organized with the people to demand for adequate rehabilitation because

the government conceived of the principles of the rehabilitation policy as most liberal with the

assistance of few other involuntary and educational organizations (ARCH-Vahini, Rajpipla Social

Service Society and Center for Social Studies in Gujarat) (CSE 1985, 106-9). The policy,

however, suffered from discrepancies and was not implemented uniformly among all the people

in the submergence zone.

My field experience in the rehabilitated village of Maharashtra, Suryatalav (Daboi

Taluka) justifies the argument of the NGOs on inadequacy in distribution of rehabilitation

benefits. This village is situated far from the main road, quite inaccessible and faces problems of

adequate drinking water and leveled fertile cultivatable lands. The hand pumps and the main tank

do not work and drinking water is saline and non-potable. The villagers, therefore, walk a few

miles to the nearby town or village to fetch water for drinking and household purposes. Also, the

7 During this time the environmentalists outside the valley expressed disquiet about the Narmada Valley Projects (see press reports Kalpravish and Hindu College Nature Club 1985). As a result: first, the commitment of the World Bank and bilateral aid agencies to fund the project was withdrawn (Goldsmith and Hilyard 1984); and second, anti dam demands were endorsed and clearance to the construction of the projects were not sanctioned by the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forest for insufficiently knowing the impacts of the Sardar Sarovar. The Ministry was overruled by the Prime Minister of India (Rajiv Gandhi) who sanctioned the construction of the dam though the expenditure and impact on people, environment, and resources were scarcely known (Baviskar 1995).

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village gets instantly water logged in the monsoons. When I questioned the government officer in-charge of rehabilitation in this area, he mentioned, “rehabilitation was 100 percent complete and the villagers falsified their problems”. Since I scrutinized all the civic amenities during the span of my surveys, I was certain that the officer was not ashamed of lying but was doing so as a routine bureaucratic procedure.

As mentioned earlier in this section, the people of the plains (Nimar)8 had participated in

the congress party-led Nimar Bachao Andolan during the 1970s unlike the hill (Nimadi)9

Adivasis, who were marginally interested in electoral politics. After the leader won elections, he conveniently dumped the Andolan. The villagers were doubtful whether Medha Patkar was trustworthy or another power broker who would sell them out like the Congress Party politicians did a decade ago. Once they had verified her intentions (not clear how), they accepted her

(Bhaviskar 1995). The villagers were moved by Patkar’s selflessness. She brought about a changed ideology of collective consciousness – the need to fight for lost right. A villager defines her:

She is a woman, yet she has so much rage within her, so much magnetism. If the people

of Gujarat [those who oppose the dam] could hear her – there is such truth in what she

says that they would be compelled to agree. Medhajiji has given her life for the valley

(Bhaviskar 1995).

Clearly, the narrative demonstrates that some villagers were inspired and motivated by Medha

Patkar’s tactics of struggle. They were probably convinced that she can only bring justice and claim for their lost rights. The narrative also points out that some displaces wished to dislocate without participating in the resistance movements. The narrative highlights how villagers were so

8The people of the plains are called Nimari as Nimar means plains. Nimaris and Patridars are interchangeably used for the plain dwellers and cultivators.

9 Nimad means hills. Nimadi is used to address the hill Adivasis.

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fearful of the displacement risks and uncertainties that they trusted the NGOs for negotiating with the state apparatuses. The affected people trusted the NBA so much that the NBA could further

condition the villagers to fulfill their goals (see the Section-F on Andolan Strategies).

Attachment to the land and the river, together with the transformation brought about by

Patkar created a cadre of dedicated activities in the valley. The villagers had joined the drowning

squad (where a group of devoted villagers wanted to submerge themselves with the rising water).

The Andolan enabled women, traditionally cloistered, to come out of their homes and take to the

streets, demonstrating in front of project authority’s offices, raising slogans, challenging the

police, and taunting bureaucrats and politicians. This revolutionary change was brought about by

Medha Patkar (Bhaviskar 1995).

Alliance was an unknown possibility prior to the SSP conflict. The NGOs unifying

Patridars and hill Adivasis as a strategy not only empowered the NGOs but also the once

fragmented tribals. Medha Patkar was skillful in bringing the hill Adivasis and Patridars together

in the struggle for SSP. Though hill Adivasis and Patridars had socio-economic differences, their

goals were similar during this time, as they were losing their livelihood systems due to

submergence. The NBA helped the people in knowing the policy loopholes and this helped the

people get more organized and skillful to claim their lost land and assets. Although the alliance

of the people was an NBA strategy, learning legal tactics of struggle benefited the people. The

NBA worked as a resource. Potentiality of public demonstration, variegated ways of

confrontation (Scott 1990, Gramsci 1991), and hill Adivasis and Patridars unification might not

have become evident if a major conflict, such as this had not occurred in the valley.

E.1 Interface between NBA and the State: The discourse of power has been

conceptualized by critical population geographers, as something, which can be used and

subverted. People resisted the state’s resettlement efforts and collectively reacted against the

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strategies of the state. Power can be exercised by everyone in subtle ways (Cresswell, 2000).

Resistance is a form of power which is employed by the migrants. In this context, resistance is an art of exercising free will. Working with the adversities of the SSP, Adivasis exercise their freewill against the state apparatuses (to receive resettlement benefits) and eventually against the

NBA after the identification of the NBA motives as continuing skirmishing against the state for survival.

The NBA gradually changed their position from better rehabilitation to a total rejection of the construction of the SSP voicing ‘Koi nahin hatenga! Baandh nahin banenga!’ (No one will move! the dam will not be built!). A meeting was arranged by Medha Patkar and leaders of NBA with the WB executive directors from donor countries and their staff. The NBA leaders elaborated extensively on the realities of the environmental and resettlement problems pertaining to the project. The Andolan called for a comprehensive review of the project and the impact of the embankments on the river bed. They also opposed the clear-felling of trees, which disturbed the environmental equilibrium and led to biodiversity changes. After the meeting ended, an executive director said, “When I hear what NGOs say about this project and then what the WB

Operations staff say, it sounds as if they are talking about two different projects”. The statement underlines that the information the WB executive director was receiving from the project-affected people was increasingly in variance with the information they were receiving from the WB operation’s staff. This was the reason the executive directors ultimately felt the need of an

Independent Review of the project (Udall 1995).

The Andolan consisted of representatives from all over the country and was supported by international NGOs (such as Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Policy Institute and

National Wildlife Federation). The latter urged the United States Congress for requesting the WB to stop funding the SSP. Besides this, the Independent Review of the WB submitted by Morse

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and Berger in 1992 was highly critical of the SSP. All these factors forced the Bank to withdraw from the project. Similar persistent efforts by the Friends of the Earth in Japan convinced the

Japanese government to suspend funding the SSP on environmental grounds (Udall 1995, 201-

230).

The Andolan exhibited strength in the Narmada Valley through demonstrations, chanting slogans, and non-violent satyagraha (fasting). In February 1989, about 8,000 people gathered at the dam-site to protest against the construction of the SSP. Many among them were beaten and arrested. The NBA non-violently demanded for an end to all projects, which devastated the environment and destroyed peoples’ livelihoods. Its defiant message to politicians and planners was that “people are no longer prepared to watch in mute desperation, as project after destructive project is heaped on them in the name of development and progress” (NBA, Delhi 1990:4).

For a week, the local people of the Narmada Valley marched in a procession singing and

chanting slogans. The parade was stopped at the interstate border in Gujarat and MP by a massive police blockade. Unable to proceed towards the dam-site 2,000 people camped at the Gujarat border for a month in the cold of winter. After three weeks, they terminated the struggle to a more adamant non-cooperation movement against the state stating ‘Hamaara gaon mein hamaara raj’

(Self rule in our villages) (Baviskar 1995). The NBA followed tactics similar to the Gandhian

nonviolent resistance against colonial rule.

The NBA shifted its focus of struggle to Manibeli (in Maharashtra), where the rising dam

wall could result in submergence of houses and lands if water level rose in monsoons. NBA

asserted that people will prefer to die than leave their villages. They formed a sampriti dal (a

band of people who would drown themselves - the drowning squad). The police attempted to

evict the people forcefully, but the threat to jal samarpan (drowning) created serious press

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coverage and forced the governments to undertake a comprehensive review (Patkar 1995, 157-

178).

E. 2. Power or Resistance: Resistance movements can be conceived as liquids that flow through the cracks and crevices of power. Power maneuvers them through “guileful ruses of interests and desires” (de Certeau 1988). Involuntary dislocation disturbed the tribal peoples’ tryst with nature placing affected people in the trap of uneven development. But dislocation contributed to invisible suppression of government from the people. According to de Certeau

(1988) these resistance movements are ‘tactics’ that are played by villagers with the help of the

NGOs as the ‘art of the weak’, which attempts to destabilize the acts of oppression.

A reading through the series of movements in the Narmada Valley reveals the various tactics adopted by the Andolan to gain national and global significance. Their show of power through processions, fasting, chanting of songs and slogans, and drowning squads (and so forth) attracted wide coverage in the press and forced the government to negotiate. The Andolan tactically placed women at the forefront of the demonstrations opposing the dam.

To counter tactics of the locals and activists, strategies were employed by the state to

control and manipulate the lives of the people. Strategies are specific type of knowledge that

impacts the lives of people who are subjected to its power (de Certeau 1988). The government

officials had little concern towards the women activists and subjected them to brutal assault,

ripping off their clothes in public and dragging them along by their hair. In one incident, one

pregnant lady was repeatedly struck on her stomach with a rifle butt (PUCL 1990). Besides,

suppressing the peaceful demonstrations and non-violent acts of the NBA, the government

officials tried to breakdown the movement by threatening the villagers and bribing the local tribal

leaders. The collector of Jhabua, who was the head of the district administrative service,

mentioned to the villagers that the combined might of the state (‘lathi (stick), bullet and pen’) will

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be used to evict the people from their lands. Scott’s (1990) public transcript is the dominant’s

hidden behavior. The dominant strategically shape and manipulate the lives of the people to fulfill

their goal or interest through the use of policy and documentation. The state, further, suppresses

the confidence of the people. The people who were active against the project were harassed and

their works were hampered. Once, the people were forced to take off their clothes and spend

nights in a cold cell without food. They were constantly tracked by the police, tortured, and

humiliated (Bhaviskar 1995; Patkar 1995, 157-178).

The most violent confrontation between the state and those opposing the dam occurred in

January 1993 in Anjanvara, MP when the police fired several rounds of ammunition, beat up

women and children, vandalized homes and arrested around 30 activists who were then beaten,

tortured, and humiliated while in police custody (Bhaviskar 1995). Other incidence earmarked in

the history of resistance in Sardar Sarovar was when the police fatally shot a tribal woman, in the

Taloda forest area of Maharashtra, during an apparent attempt by authorities to remove people

living on those lands (Udall 1995).

In the above sections, I displayed the tactics of the people against the state and the

strategic usage of power by the state governments to suppress the peoples’ resistance. Following,

are the strategies of NBA in battling against the state for the construction of SSP.

F. ANDOLAN STRATEGIES

Large development projects, resource intensive industrialization, and urbanization are

glorified for bringing progress to a nation and as symbols of modernity. Large development

projects, such as SSP, were highly criticized as environmentally unviable and detrimental for

tribal societies. Paradoxically, while the dam is symbolized as environmentally unsustainable,

agriculture in Nimar should also be addressed the same. Nimaris practiced cultivation using farm

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machineries, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and energy-intensive irrigation – the precise model of agriculture that was decried by environmentalists as the epitome of unsustainability. Thus Nimar was not an entirely successful embodiment of the Andolan’s general critique of development.

The violent response of government to the Andolan reveals the true character of the state as non democratic and perhaps, elitist and authoritarian. The call for the Andolan for Hamaare gaon mein hamaara raj (Our rule in our villages) repudiates the legitimacy of the state and asserts in its stead the alternative of village self-government. The slogan, ‘Our rule in our villages, calls for non-cooperation with the state, the Gandhian method of passive resistance against exploitative authority. Jan Andolan (peoples’ movement), or decentralized and non-violent collective action,

is posited as a political alternative to dominant political system.

F.1. Mobilizing Hill Adivasis and Patridars – ultra-politics: Initially, the hill Adivasis

were markedly absent from the protests. Even though, they were mostly facing loss of livelihood

and community systems. A few Adivasi landowning families participated in Andolan

demonstrations, when pressed by their Patridar counterparts (affluent farmers of the plains, who

also lent money to the Adivasis and were also responsible for pushing the Adivasis to the infertile hilly tracts). For villagers, who were active in the movements, the key issue was the loss of their land.

The issue of land united two disparate constituencies: hill Adivasis and Patridars

(Nimaris)10. Class conflict was subdued in the alliance between the Adivasis of the hills and their traditional foes, the Patridars. The cause of displacement by the dam was more important and hence energies were concentrated on co-operation towards fighting against the project. This

10 Patridars and Nimaris are interchangeably used. Patridars migrated from Gujarat and settled down in the banks of Narmada and Tapti valley (parts of MP). In chapter II, I have narrated that the Patridars settled in fertile river banks pushing the Adivasis to the hills. These settled Patridars are also called Nimaris which means plain dwellers. Adivasis raided the rich Nimaris in lean seasons when they could hardly grow crops.

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alliance had been remarkably successful, with no overt hostility or tension between hill Adivasis and Patridars. In part, the mediating presence of activists in Maharashtra and MP was trusted by the hill Adivasis for their demonstrated partisanship and harmonious worksmanship. Overarching unity was also created by Medha Patkar in uniting the Hill Adivasis and Nimaris by pragmatically working together in the Andolan. Several Nimari activists were highly regarded by the Adivasis.

Many Patridars spoke Bhilali (language spoken by the Bhils) because of their experience in dealing with Adivasi laborers. Despite taboos about untouchability and food, Adivasis and

Patridars lived together amicably during the month-long Sangarsh Yatra (march). During the yatra many disparaging jokes were made about how the Adivasi could walk forever, but the soft

Patridars would not survive a march to the dam site. It’s a critique of power spoken in front of the dominant, similar to Scott’s public transcript (1990). The SSP is a unique spatial ground where inter-connections between power gradients are maintained, obliterated, and reconstructed.

Despite of the cooperation between the Patridars and the Adivasis in the Andolan, conflicts of class interests cannot be denied. One example is pay. Patridars aver that, if they paid minimum wages to the Adivasis, their agricultural operations would be unviable because their profits would go to wages. Patridars knew the hill Adivasis living in infertile hill tracts needed to work in their lands regardless. A couple of years ago, a Sub-Divisional Magistrate, vigorously enforced minimum wage regulations by prosecuting violators. His efforts were anathema to

Patridars. Patridars politicked, using many organizational skills learnt through the Andolan, got the officer transferred. Social justice was temporarily sidelined.

F.2. Putting Adivasis in the forefront: The Andolan had dealt with anomaly of Nimar by using a two-fold strategy. First, it had showcased the hill Adivasis – truly the worst-hit by the project, and downplayed the presence of Patridars. The Andolan was mostly composed of

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Patridar activists. The Patridars’ interest in the Andolan was maximized as they were large land holders. The Andolan argued that submergence was largely affecting the Adivasis’ nature-culture relationship.

The Patridars are among India’s politically powerful middle and rich peasantry (see

Byres 1981). Although, their lands have always been fertile, their productivity rose tremendously during the early 1970s after electrification. The fields above the river, which had earlier been watered by wells, were now abundantly irrigated with pumps, for water crops such as, bananas, papayas, cotton, and sugarcane besides growing the more traditional chillis and groundnuts. Not

surprisingly, this class had benefited from state subsidies. Plentiful water had enabled many

farmers to grow remunerative crops. The highly capital intensive agriculture enmeshed most

Nimari farmers in a web of debt. But cultivators talk of the need to invest large sums of money

from money lenders at an interest of 25 percent per annum to keep the agricultural process

solvent. Smaller landowners did not have this economic cushion that would allow them to sit on

unattractive prices, or grow the more profitable fruit crops, which had longer gestation periods.

The system was therefore skewed in favor of larger farmers (Bhaviskar 1995, Dwivedi 1999).

Among the many layers of oppression of the Adivasis was the Andolan’s concentration on addressing the overarching cause of environmental unsustainability of the SSP, setting aside questions about class and caste conflict in Nimar and other rehabilitation anomalies. Such a strategic prioritizing by the NBA was, to a large extent, dictated by the exigencies of the battle.

The urgency of opposing the dam required the mobilization of the affected people around the unifying issue of displacement.

F.3. Negotiating development – at national scale: Lobbying, endorsing candidates from

major political parties who declare their sympathy for the Andolan, and soliciting their

intervention – the Andolan had to employ all these strategies to retain its character as a movement

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based on mass action. On the one hand, the Andolan gained positive image globally and locally through its conduct of collective resistance outside the structures of electoral politics. On the other hand, it had to set aside its ideological position and act pragmatically. Thus, the Gandhian slogan of village self-government was deployed as one among several strategies to affect the state. The clearly articulated goals, less combative means, such as bargaining and compromise, were more likely to be used to meet the specific objectives of the group. The Andolan exploited all available political spaces by simultaneously battling on many fronts – arranging protest movements and marches at global and local levels, lobbying and pressuring state and central governments directly and through the intercession of sympathetic party politicians.

Non violence was usually an effective form of resistance, which was used by the NBA and the tribals until the government acknowledged their demands. Non violent tactics were employed as a tool to negotiate with the state apparatus as they did not agree on changing the compensation package, which instituted the peoples’ rights. As interests were clarified, non violence was increasingly replaced by social negotiation as forms of resistance and tactics.

Because pressure on the state was applied indirectly as well as directly, the Andolan had to orchestrate events of public protest towards three sets of people: the state, its referent public and the affected people. The Andolan’s strengths to resolve fights – when people in the valley came together in demonstrations was the release of collective effervescence with the masses singing and chanting slogans. At the same time, the vent was aimed, via media, at crystallizing the views of an anonymous public (the affluent and literate middle class and upper classes).

However, the Andolan had not been mentioned on the government controlled radio or television channels. To capture attention and support of the educated middle class, the Andolan worked towards more colorful events, meetings and demonstrations (see Bhaviskar 1995).

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At a meeting, an active and influential supporter of the Andolan from Delhi gave a speech in which the audiences were Adivasis. He stated that, the Adivasis were “mother earth’s children” and that the dam would tear them (the children) from their mother’s breast. Here by

‘they’ he meant Adivasis. Adivasis preferred more prosaic descriptions on the threat to their land and livestock instead of using mother-child metaphors like the activists. However, this speech evidently had an impact because, later on, an Adivasi who was active in the Andolan employed this metaphor as a tactic to a television interviewer as if it were his own. His tactic was well- chosen; another film-maker who knew nothing about Sardar Sarovar struggles but had earlier taped an interview with the Adivasi activist came to record another interview, ensuring the

Adivasi had the mother-child metaphor on tape (Bhaviskar 1995).

Even though, the Nimaris were literate, experienced in the state level politics, and more

equipped to deal with political action against the state by themselves, they still preferred the NBA

to run the protest movements. The Nimaris’ attitude towards the NBA appeared to be, “You run

the Andolan; we will contribute our might”. However, the NBA was not tactically consistent or ideologically coherent, but used all available opportunities creatively under highly adverse conditions. Such a response to the project is seen through the NBA’s capability in uniting two disparate groups, the Nimaris and hill Adivasis.

The struggle in the valley, despite its rich complexity, was understood and appropriated in quite another way by the urban-based learned middle class who were concerned about representing the Andolan as fitting into a theoretical critique of the paradigm of development.

This has led to their ironing out the awkward parts of the movement – the presence of the

Patridars, for instance, or the absence of ecological sustainability – in order to demonstrate that the movement constituted a theoretically satisfying challenge to the developmental state, even though the reality in the valley was more ambiguous.

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F.4. Globalizing local resistance: The NBA was not only politicking in the three riparian states and other parts of India but mobilized protests against the dam globally. Small groups of protests were put together in New York and England. The NBA articulated its resistance through environmental groups such as International Rivers Network, Environmental Defense Fund, and

Friends of the Earth. Human and indigenous organizations, such as Association for India’s

Development have also been allies of the NBA. Several coalitions were formed around the

Narmada issue (Udall 1998).

On a windy evening of November 2000, the Upper eastern side in Manhattan, 10

students, some teachers and activists, mostly of Indian origin, converged outside the Indian

consulate, besides Central Park. This locale was probably the most favored site to globalize the

local struggle. The crowd of activists grew larger towards late evening converging at the entrance

of the consulate, a fortunate spot since a continuous flow of people were entering and leaving the

consulate office. All the demonstrations, meetings, cynical slogans were framed by the Andolan

for a selective audience mostly Indians that catered to the consulate (Gandhi 2003). This locale

was an exclusive spot, which garnered public and media attention. The passive passer-bys and

Indians who entered or left the consulate that day knew of the SSP by hearing the discourses

through the debates, protest songs, and slogans on the SSP as they entered or left the buidling.

The people came to know about the failure of state government to implementation of SSP and its

adverse impacts of the lives of the tribals. Similar demonstrations were held in England in the

Fall of 2000. These protests were crafted globally against the Indian Supreme Court that

supported the implementation of the project with little concession to the NBA’s claims. The NBA

formed alliances with legislators and aid bureaucrats in the USA and Japan who in turn controlled

the WB funding activities. These acts unsurprisingly involved a transnational alliance with

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diverse organizations and dominant funding sources to derive legitimacy from the West (Udall

1995).

In the following sections, I provide a case of a pro-dam action group, their origin,

strategies, and functioning in the valley. The Andolan was popular among the affected villagers

of MP and Maharashtra, while Arch-Vahini was celebrated by Gujarat oustees for negotiating

substantial changes in the R&R policies.

G. ENTRY OF ARCH-VAHINI

In mid 1980s, when the Arch-Vahini11 first approached the people in the middle of panic and desperation the villagers already heard about the construction of the SSP and dislocation.

They thought that it was futile to listen to the Vahini activists. The villagers also wondered, how would a few young, inexperience activists save them from the government, while the Vahini thought that they were the villagers’ only hope (see Patel 1995 for details). The people were aware of the powerlessness and inexperience of the Vahini. Needless to say the Vahini knew nothing about the maze of laws (like, Forest Act, NWDTA’s decisions on R&R). For the Vahini, the WB was distant, remote and powerful – a mere abstraction. Probably, if the Vahini knew the intricacies and the legal tangles, they would not have involved themselves with the people because of the sheer immensity of the task. Interestingly, even before the Vahini would start working in the valley, they received big media coverage. This coverage initiated the government

11 Arch Vahini is one of the leading NGOs that started working in the valley, started functioning roughly, about the same time as NBA (early 1980s). The Vahini worked in Gujarat whereas the NBA was prominent in Maharashtra and MP. The goal of the Vahini was to pressure the government through rallies, meetings, and demonstrations and bring in changes in the R&R policy, so that all the displaced people receive land, home, civic amenities, connectivity to markets and cities with roads and transportation facilities. The ideologies of NBA and Vahini did not match though they collaborated in the initial few years.

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machinery to take some minimal notice of the Vahini’s activity. Local politicians descended on the scene and chided the affected people for collaborating with the NGOs (Patel 1995).

The tribal minister mentioned that only the government can deliver substantial change for

better conditions in the rehabilitated sites for the people. He used this argument in a series of

meetings in the submerging villages in 1984 when the strength of the movement had reached a

new height. However, the people knew that these leaders were not beside them when they were

voiceless. The government or local politicians never came to talk about submergence or villagers’

entitlement even though the people wanted to know about their future. Suddenly, the presence of

the young group of people exposed the villages to media, popularity and government attention

(Patel 1995). This attention gave the people some confidence on the Vahini and gradually their

alliance grew with the activists.

In 1983, the first group of villagers had accepted R&R package, which fell short of what

was promised by the tribunal award. The encroachers were not given any compensation and were

repeatedly called thieves. Even, the legitimate land owners, whose names were not in government records because of no fault of theirs, received no land entitlement. This experience gave a boost to the tribals in submerging villages to appeal to the Gujarat High Court. Through this practical experience, the people came to know that the government was not invincible and the law could be used for their benefit as well. The tribals from the interior villages of Gujarat organized in the

beginning of 1984.

G.1. The World Bank and the Encroachers: In August 1983, the Arch-Vahini had already written to the World Bank arguing for the encroachers and for 18 year old oustees who were legitimate owners of their ancestral lands but were not receiving land compensation. The letter had a latent effect, seen 10 years later. The assurance by the Bank was that they would not only

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fund the project but look into the R&R aspects. The encroachers still were not considered by any of the riparian states and the Bank did not know about it. The tension between constitutional provisions for the tribals, due to the Indian forest act of 1927 and forest conservation act in 1980, was at best an irritating distraction for the government. The ministry of environment and forests did not acknowledge the existence of the aforementioned tension between the tribals and the guidelines of the policies crafted in colonial times. The Bank took no recourse to such technicalities. However a mission led under Thayer Scudder, took off at the end of 1983 revealing a keen insight on the critical aspects of the tribal situation (by losing common property resources, land, house, etc).

The tribals met Scudder in a village meetings speaking in anger,

The government provided no jobs, no facilities, no education, and no transportation. We

are left to fend for ourselves and still they call us thieves. The only economic activity we

can do is to grow crops. We are farmers. We cannot be thrown out of our land,

encroached upon or not, and not be given means of livelihood in the form of land (Patel

1995).

The encroachers were the majority in the meeting. Their voice became emphatically more and more clear. The label ‘thieves’ given by the officers, slowly gained the sympathy of Scudder.

According to a tribal in the meeting,

We cannot be treated like monkeys on trees, who will simply climb to the higher plane

when the water rises. We demand land – for all the families. It is not used merely in the

middle of nowhere in these mountains. We will not be heard. We must organize, get out

of these mountains and let the outside world know that we are also human beings and we

must also get our due before you flood our lands and home (Patel 1995).

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The occupation of space by a majority of encroachers effected how the official continued to interpret the dam site. There was a protest march organized by all the tribals of Gujarat and adjacent villages of Maharashtra on March 18th 1984. At this stage Vahini knew little about the development of the WB and its guidelines. The letter of Scudder’s November report of 1983 had made a huge impression in WB, which was unknown to the action groups and the people. The encroachers had written an agenda, in complete ignorance of the developments of WB. The newspapers flashed front-page stories of the tribals with photographs. The Gujarat government was rattled. The government wanted a delicate negotiation with WB. But the organized show of strength of tribals highlighted that, though they were at the mercy of the government, they could refuse to accept whatever the government was throwing at them (Patel 1995). The peoples’ show of strength cautioned the government.

Until now, the Ministry of Irrigation stayed remote from the concerns and disquiet of people. After a protest rally in Summer 1984, strangely, the Ministry acknowledged the losses people would incur through submergence and arranged a series of meetings in the submergence villages promising two hectares of land to all the encroachers and landholders older than 18 years and was the first major public announcement. In the same year, the WB entered into negotiations with the three riparian state governments. During this time, Scudder visited India and urged the action groups to detail the facts of final R&R agreement. The final formulations of the loan agreement in May 1985 referred to the landless villagers as ‘oustees’, which incorporated the encroachers and stated that stable means of livelihood would be provided so that the living standards of the people would not deteriorate.

After waiting for months for the new policy promised by the Ministry of Irrigation in

April 1984, there was a massive protest staged in the dam site in January 1985. A case was filed with the Gujarat High Court, which was rejected, then another appeal was made in the Supreme

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Court of India. At this time, the Government of Gujarat made a series of affidavits and blandly rejected any claim of the encroachers for the entitlement or means of livelihoods. The encroachers were again termed as thieves by the government. The Ministry of Environment and

Forests invoked the support of the state’s decisions. The Vahini were startled by the caprice of the

Gujarat Government donning different masks engaging the people, and the Bank might be conceived as a strategy of the state apparatus.

G.2. New R&R policy, December 1987: In the beginning of April 1987, a dramatic and uncharacteristic announcement was made in a meeting held at one of the interior tribal villages in presence of a host of government officials from Gujarat. One official stated that whatever the government officers had promised regarding giving minimum of two hectares of land to each encroacher and each adult son would be implemented through the policies. The government of

Gujarat, thereafter, put up very little resistance. A wave of enthusiasm swept through the tribal villages. The formal victory came on December 27th 1987 when a minister made the formal

announcement of the policy changes. However in past, this minister dithered but presiding over

the doubletalk of his officers in the meeting, announced the policy changes. This directly resulted

in a change in the terms of the compensation package demanded consistently by the tribals and

Arch-Vahini since March 1984 (Patel 1995).

The process of organizing the tribals of the SSP in Maharashtra and MP began in early

1986. Not surprisingly, the tribals in Maharashtra and MP had the same problems as those in

Gujarat. The memoranda submitted by the NGOs, in Maharashtra and MP, to the state authorities demanded mainly the providing of land compensation for encroachers and better quality of land to all oustees. But the major drawback of the action groups in MP and Maharashtra was, their emphasis during protest struggles focusing on the issues of the SSP being as environmentally

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unviable, instead of their being forceful in claiming the oustees’ lost entitlement. The SSP became a symbol of planned economic disaster (see Arch Vahini 1991).

G.3. 1988 – the Rise of Anti-Sardar Sarovar Movement: The city based intellectuals in

Bombay and Delhi argued that the tribals were bound to be cheated and they must not trust the

government. An environmental organization (USA), whose name is unknown, Oxfam (UK) and

WB lobbied for better R&R for the people. The US senate subcommittee in June 1988, declared

that the tribals in the valley were against the project and the opposition to the project was

widespread.

The NBA, working in Maharashtra and MP, strongly projected the dam as

environmentally disastrous and economically ruinous. They declared that “tribals would prefer to

be drowned by the rising waters of the dam, rather than give a tacit approval to the destructive

scheme by agreeing to shift” (Patel 1995).

The Vahini had sensed much rumbling about the project in Bombay and Delhi ever since

the NBA has been involved with Sardar Sarovar. The tribals of Gujarat, though suspicious about

the government’s true intentions, were rearing to get the new policy implemented. The tribals did

not want to join the battle against the dam. The Vahini, was almost certain that the tribals from

MP and Maharashtra would not abandon their quest and struggle for an R&R policy similar to

that of Gujarat, asked the NBA if they informed the tribals about the contents of the Gujarat

policy. The Vahini also raised doubts about the strengths of anti dam case, given that only a few

months back NBA had acknowledged that it was too late to stop the construction of the SSP. The

Arch Vahini criticized the NBA for protesting against the project using the tribals as pawns. The

Vahini felt that responsible and ethical activism could not be carried out in this manner (Patel

1995).

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By 1989, fresh forces joined the battle and the battle cry was not only that the dam was a

planned disaster but that the R&R was impossible. A comprehensive case was made by NBA in

1985: the poor tribals and their culture were being sacrificed so that few rich farmers and

industrialists in the plains of reap great benefits. Although, the Andolan mostly

consisted of rich Patridars, to support the statement that R&R was impossible, the Andolan

showcased the Adivasis and their cultural dependence on nature. Knowing Patridars cultivate land in the most unsustainable manner and are equal shareholders sidelining the Adivasis placing them into debt traps, the Andolan downplayed these class/caste village level conflicts and subordination of the Adivasis to fight for the most overriding one (i.e., the construction of SSP should stop). It was clear by now that the struggle for Narmada had to move on to maintain the existence of NBA globally and nationally (Patel 1995a).

H. RESISTANCE FATIGUE – shifting sides

Villagers played various tactics against the strategies of the state and the oppression of some R&R officers for the violation of their right to live, livelihood, and justice. So far, I have narrated the stages of dislocation, adverse impacts on the people, government strategies, and contrasting aims and missions of action groups. After the changes were made in R&R policies and some villagers were resettled with compensation benefits, the villagers from other submerging villages also wanted to dislocate. As promised in the rehabilitation packages, if civic amenities, lands and houses were given, villagers wanted to resettle than prolong rehabilitation.

Many of them wanted to get rid of the anxiety and speculate on of the prospects of rehabilitation.

They feared that lobbying with the NBA in anti-dam movements even after the government fulfilled their demands on lands and assets could be detrimental in earning a suitable compensation package. Probably, at this stage, the villagers were also suffering with resistance

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fatigue, which made some of them change sides from the NBA to the government (Dwivedi

1999).

On the one hand, the NBA constantly pressurized the villagers from accepting the

rehabilitation package and resettle. On the other hand, the government wanted them to resettle

under any circumstances. The NBA used political spaces to fulfill its own theoretical agenda.

Besides, going through a stage of resistance fatigue the affected suffered from the feeling of powerlessness, insecurity and not understanding the whole approach and need for the development project. The villagers, who wanted to come out of this unsettled stage, accepted

R&R (see Chapter-IV for a narrative analysis on resistance fatigue under negotiated spaces).

I. CONCLUSION

Multitude of Narmada actors locked in unstable contests over power have been situated at

points ranging from Adivasi villages (in the Narmada valley) to New York and England (Indian

government consulate office). Adivasis and activists practiced non-violent disobedience to initiate

social negotiations for altering WB agendas, national government proceedings and state R&R

policies.

The conflicted negotiation of actors who wish to implement or oppose the Narmada

project highlighted the contingent nature of power. There is a spectrum of choices that actors

undertake, in some cases enhancing state hegemony and subjugation. In other cases, these acts of

agency open up spaces for increased subaltern voice and power. Importantly, dominance and

resistance are interrelated in complex ways that can articulate or diverge. For example, in a

number of ways discourses, policies, and actions of the state were complementary with those of

the NBA or tribal constituents. Adivasis readily participated in state resettlement programmes

that expropriated their use of village land, while others vigorously opposed such policies. In sum,

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the state, the NBA and the Adivasi nexus characterizes by complicated discursive interactions of both complicity and disarticulation, of political complementary as well as conflict.

The reasons of such diverse views and actions are the geographical differentiation in a locale embedded in the material interests of the people, uneven distribution of risks, discrepancies and opportunities of resettlement policies, and different strategic predisposition of action groups.

To some, resistance does not rank as an option, to others it is the only option. Some understand resistance as risk. However, the pivotal reasons for struggle in the valley have been lack of compensation benefits, good will of the government officials and government negotiations

(Gandhi 2003, Dwivedi 1999, Bhaviskar 1995, Patel 1995, Patkar 1995).

The tribal oustees from all the riparian states have shown interest for good quality of land, security of tenure, greater access to market and other infrastructure facilities like roads, transport, electricity, schools, rudiments of health services and so forth. Previously, their access to markets and integration to market economy was limited. The questions are: how efficient the tribals are in managing market relations? Will the tribal-market linkage destroy their culture? Or,

Does the tribals know how, they want to restructure their lives in rehabilitated villages?

Any reworking agenda of development projects should show some sensitivity to the differentials that characterize peoples’ risks and opportunities and how best could the government and NGOs address to their interests. The assumption that the people have to sacrifice for greater good should be abandoned.

137 Chapter VI: CONCLUSION

A. INTRODUCTION

So far the narrated stories are based on the lives of Bhil, Ratwa and Tadvi Adivasis in the villages of Kundiuchakalam, Suryatalav, Sanoli and Golagambdi, their traditional socio-cultural practices, formulation of spaces, living conditions and resistance against the state, as expressed through their everyday actions and beliefs as found in rehabilitated and submerging areas of the

Narmada valley.

In 1962, the construction of the SSP began, but the R&R (see Table 6) commenced, in the 1980s. In 1969, the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal Award (NWDTA)1 was formulated to resolve the inter-state disputes among the riparian states of MP, Maharashtra and Gujarat2 on the

height of the dam, which was settled on by NWDTA as 460 feet. The SSP is designed for

irrigation, drinking water, and power generation to the semi-arid regions in western India, of

which it diverted water from the Narmada into a canal and irrigation system (see Table 10, 11,

12). The canal, which is the longest in the World, is divided into 42 branches and sub branches.

The submergence area is twice as large as the distribution area. The project displaces 2.5 million

1 See Apendix-1 for the criticisms on the NWDTA.

2 While Gujarat proposed a higher height to reap more benefits, MP was concerned that increased height could submerge more lands, resources and populations. However, Gujarat and Maharashtra made substantial changes in the compensation package. But MP only harped on reducing the dam height which was already outlined by the tribunal (NWDTA), instead of providing benefits to the affected.

138 people from 245 villages (see Table 2), specifically tribals with different land holding statuses and occupations (see Table 3 & 5).

The three adjacent riparian states (Gujarat, Maharashtra, MP) argued over water sharing and project benefits partially ignoring millions of displaced families that will be affected by the construction of the project, canals, and township. In the 1985, the Narmada Bachao Andolan

(NBA - Save Narmada Movement), an activist group, was formed when Medha Patkar3 visited the valley. Her discourses with the villagers divulged numerous unanswered questions, lack of information on the project, uncertainties, fear of dislocation, disruption of socio-economic conditions, and rehabilitation. This mounting exasperation among the people gradually shaped into a non-violent struggle with support from the local action groups (Bhaviskar 1995, Patkar

1995).

The formulation of a critique on development is not the concern of the people in the valley; they resist as they have always resisted against outside oppression. For the researcher though, if material spaces of development legitimates an ideology of capitalist accumulation, then the Adivasi’s non tangible and embodied discourse of struggle makes for a legitimate counter representation of resistance to that accumulation. From the juxtapositioning of these two practices of power a formative pattern of negotiation might then emerge.

Not only the SSP in the Narmada Valley, India, but there are examples of development projects all over the world, which shows that the economic and social lives of the people are altered and conditioned over time and space. The following section provides different arguments mentioned in previous chapters.

3 Medha Patkar is a social scientist and the leader of the NBA. There are already over 3000 internet sites solely dedicated on her and the NBA, for globalizing the huge amount of displacement of the tribal populations and environmental unsustainablity of the SSP. The NBA is one of the leading action groups in the Narmada Valley working with the people in resisting the state rehabilitation efforts over a decade.

139

B. SUMMING UP THE DISCUSSIONS:

B.1. Adivasi verses the State: The wealth of the earth is being appropriated by elites, impoverishing nature, as well as, vast human masses who depend on natural resources for sustenance. The challenge to development has come in the form of political movements of people who are ecologically, economically, and culturally marginalized. Over the centuries, Adivasis have fought a battle against the oppressors – the state or the market. Although, power changed hands over time, being wrested from the Marthas by the Mughals, from Mughals by the British, and from the British by the Indian nationalists, the Adivasis have experienced only a steady erosion of their material base and cultural autonomy. National independence and the new projects have not significantly altered this process; the universalizing claims of development’s benefits were meaningless to the people who did not identify with the concept of ‘India’ or ‘Our

Independent State’. Their lives were ruled by bureaucrats and traders – as their resources were alienated from by the state; they were compelled to enter into market relations and live under a hegemony of Hindu caste ideology (Bhaviskar 1995).

Resistance to domination took the form of frequent uprisings when Adivasis would

swoop down from the hills to raid villages of the plains because they were pushed to live in

infertile jungles. These Adivasis bandits ability to challenge authority of colonial power was

limited by their circumstances. Nonetheless, their tendency to importune their rulers for just

settlements and their willingness to present grievances of injustice before state indicated that,

however grudging it might have been, the Adivasis accepted colonial domination.

Domination has shaped the present day Adivasis in the hills. They have formed an

identity and an existence, which distinguishes them from their counterparts in the plains, even as

they have felt the tug from the Hindu mainstream. Their isolation in the forested hills, relatively

140 distant from centers of power, enabled them to maintain a distant language, religion, and material culture, which set them apart from Hindus, but they have been influenced by Hindu values of caste hierarchy nonetheless (Singh 1983). This influence has permeated into their communities during reform movements.

Contemporaneously, Adivasis’ isolation was voluntary and forced. Adivasi identity is expressed in the unity of the village community, defined by the clan, which stretches back in time to include previous generations (Bhaviskar 1995). The past village was remarkably egalitarian in terms of landownership and forest resources that were held in common. There was no differentiation between landowners and laborers. The community was largely governed by an ideology of reciprocity. The villagers joined together negotiating over dowry and bride price during marriages, guided by the desire bargain and at the same time, buttress power and prestige.

During my surveys in rehabilitated villages, I could sense village-level feuds formulated between neighboring households or influential groups within rehabilitated villages and between tribal villages and host villages over higher productivity of crops versus low productivity, higher living standards and income versus low standards and so on. Still marriage norms remained the same but villagers had become more city-like in their choice of gifts, such as the furniture given in

Chagan Bhai’s daughter’s marriage was quite contemporary. However, the village economy was previously based on land, forests, and rivers, now the economy is based on an agricultural cycle revolving around the more use of land and farm techniques.

B.2 Unsustainable Development: The Adivasis living in submergence zones were unaware of the construction of the project and its impact on their lands and property until field officers started to take measurements in the villages to estimate the amount of land that would be submerged (see chapter-IV and V). The issues of submerged lands were brought to the people by

141 the Gandhian workers, environmentalists, and human rights activists. Other issues raised regarding the SSP were: destruction of invaluable forests, extinction of wildlife, and the intensification of water-borne diseases by the reservoir’s stagnant waters (see Table 10, 11 & 12).

The ways in which resources would be used and accessed for economic advancement through construction and the implementation of the large damming projects establish that the environmental stability can be fundamentally altered beyond repair to indigenous people (Shiva

1998).

India, as a developing country, made considerable progress in social development:

reduction in death rates, increase in life expectancy, increase in adult literacy, etc. This has been

due to awareness programs on hygiene and health, educational programs, and provision of

medicines, sanitation, and health care. In the energy sector, however, the country has been

utilizing her natural resources in an unsustainable manner. Energy needs are mostly provided by

biomass (50 percent). Many understand dam projects as sustainable. Hydro electric projects are

sustainable as far as the natural (water) resource use is concerned. But the implementation of the

hydro electric projects creates immense miseries for humans and results in ecological imbalance

in the river system (upstream and downstream), physical flow of river and natural ecosystems.

The water flows needed to support healthy freshwater ecosystems have been degraded around the globe due to over damming. Dialogues, policies and programs that focus on integrated water resource management, poverty alleviation, or sustainable development have not adequately taken

ecosystem water needs into consideration. Adequate ‘environmental flows’ and naturally-

fluctuating water levels to support freshwater ecosystem health must be protected or restored as

an explicit consideration of any development or management program.

Massive dams like the SSP may provide electricity and water for urban areas, and

potable water to arid regions of Kutch and parts of the riparian states, but the land sites suffer.

142 The seventh plan initiated by the Indian government (1985-1990) allocates less than Rs. 20 million for the development of biomass resources, whereas, other electricity sectors received Rs.

320 million (Darmadhikary 1991, 15). In 1990, out of 329 million hectares of land, only 56 percent was considered arable out of which 25 percent was irrigated. According to the National

Remote Sensing from 1970 to 1990, forest cover dropped from 56 million hectares to 33 million hectares. Over the last 15 years from 1951 to 1976, 4 million hectares of forest area was lost.

About 22.7 million hectares of forest was cleared (Gadgil and Guha 1992, 196; UNDP 1992,

173). About 20 million hectares or 11 percent of agricultural land was severely affected by salinization (Vohra 1980:4). Due to salt accumulation, 7 million hectares of land was abandoned

(Gore 1992, 111). Deforestation and construction of embankments led to a steady increase in the incidence of floods in the fertile plains of north India. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the annual flood damages increased nearly 40 times (CSE 1991, viii).

B.3. Uneven Development: Mahatma Gandhi appealed for the revitalization of rural communities through simple techniques of craft production that provide a descent standard of living and assurance for a better quality of life to the Indian peasantry. In contrast, the Nehruvian government strongly emphasized and implemented the replica of development followed by

Western culture.

Gandhi asserted that, if the Indian nation with millions of people followed similar development and economic exploitation like Great Britain, “it will strip the world bare like locusts” (Gandhi 1951: 31). Thus India should never take to industrialization in the manner of the

West. He emphasized that the rural spaces were ecologically sustainable and offered a higher quality of life, with proper infrastructural facilities. Gandhi hoped the nation would preserve its socio-cultural originality, which could be lost in its quest to achieve rapid growth. However,

143 Gandhian ideology was variously interpreted, unanticipated, and unapproved by the Congress

Party, the then ruling party. Most of the India’s ruling nationalists reconstructed the nation-state by replicating the West through a fast injection of commodification, capitalism, industrialization,

and urbanization to quickly compensate for the losses incurred in the 200 years of colonial

oppression (Kholi 1987, 73; Gadgil and Guha (1992, 184).

From the second five year plan onwards the Indian government spent 22 percent of the

total budget in agriculture while 75 percent of the populations depended on agriculture. The

strategies adopted by the Indian state affected the social and ecological equilibrium and

destabilized the local, rural, and traditional cultures (Baviskar 1995). Centralized planning led to

a rapid increase in social and income inequality. In the irrigation sector, about 64 percent of major

and medium river valley projects irrigated only 30.5 million hectares of land while minor projects

irrigate 37.4 million hectares (Sachidanandan 1988, 80; Dharmadhikary 1995, 135-153). This

suggests that India could well implement minor and medium irrigation projects, instead of large

development projects, which entail huge amount of expenditure, large magnitudes of

displacement, and the submergence of land, forests, and other natural resources. The SSP, one

among the many river valley projects of the Narmada, alone costs more than the entire amount

spent on irrigation projects by the government since independence! (Baviskar 1995). The

construction of the gigantic project benefits big farmers on the plains while destabilizing the lives

of the people living on the banks of the river at the subsistence level whose livelihoods are

directly or indirectly dependent on the river. Yet, the state continues to invest on centralized

projects instead of smaller decentralized ones, which would sustain and support more people at a

greater political and financial disadvantage.

Of the irrigation schemes, prior to the SSP, there was no definite rehabilitation policy

other than some programmes implemented on an ad hoc basis (Joshi 1991). The compensation

144 was provided in accordance with the guidelines of the LAA of 1894, which is couched in the colonial ideology stipulating that individual oustees will be compensated based on the amount of land previously owned. Share croppers, land laborers, users of common land, and encroachers4

were not entitled to receive any land compensation in the rehabilitated villages if they were

unable to provide proofs of cultivating the land for some time period, which varied for MP and

Maharashtra (Table 2). Out of the total effected people about 60 percent of the oustees who did

not have proofs of land ownership received no land compensation. The people, for whom

cultivation was the only source of income, were affected by landlessness and income instability,

and this disparity should have raised concerns over the need to set clear guidelines for

compensation and rehabilitation for all dependent on land for survival. The reaction of the then

chairman of the Sardar Sarovar Nigam (Governmental body looking at issues of dislocation and

rehabilitation) was only ironic:

No trauma could be more painful for a family than to get uprooted from a place where it

has lived for generations… yet, the uprooting has to be done. Because the land occupied

by the family is required for a development project, which holds promise of progress and

prosperity for the country and people in general. The family getting displaced makes a

sacrifice … so that, others may live in happiness and be economically better-off (S. C.

Varma quoted in Alvares and Billorey 1987, 64).

The officials involved in displacement and rehabilitation pressumed that the villagers should

willingly sacrifice themselves for the cause of the nation's well-being. Even the educated elites

4 Encroachers are villagers who cultivated forest land or common lands for generations with or without legal ownership to the cultivated land. They were considered as illegal cultivators if the following conditions were not satisfied. Different states involved in the SSP had different ways of considering the encroachers applicable for land compensation. They had to show proofs of cultivating the land prior to 1978 for Maharashtra and by 1987 in case of MP.

145 and academicians had similar views. For example, a sociology professor at the Center for Social

Studies of the South Gujarat University had the following to say:

A culture based on a lower level of technology and quality of life is bound to give way to

a culture with superior technology and highest quality of life. This is what we call

development. What has happened to us is bound to happen to them because we are both

parts of the same society (Joshi 1991, 68).

He reiterated this sentiment, in a discussion we had on the lives of the people in the Narmada

Valley and argued that rehabilitation is replacing, disorganized lifestyles with modern orderly amenities. However, development projects produce unevenness and the process of development is unsustainable. The attitude of the bureaucrats and intellectuals was distant. But the attitude of isolation the people faced submergence from was far more immediate.

B.4. Attitudes of the Tribals towards Dislocation: I cannot generalize the attitudes of ‘all’ submerging villages with that of Vadgam yet wish to draw upon their attitudes from a case of a particular displaced community. At an aggregate level, all the villagers viewed displacement as a crisis. They did not want to move voluntarily if they had an alternative. But since the people had no choice, they accepted dislocation. The people of different occupations developed different attitudes towards rehabilitation (explanation to follow). Yet, their overall feeling towards rehabilitation was negative as they depended on the government forest lands, barren lands, and common cultivated lands for generations. The villagers’ economic lives at Vadgam were so intricately linked with the surrounding environment that the oustees5 households only wanted to

resettle to any place within 10 miles of Vadgam (see Table 9, Figure: 3).

5 The Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award (NWDTA) defines an oustee, as a person who has been residing or cultivating land or was related to the villages with any occupation /trade which was likely to be affected permanently or temporarily by submergence approximately an year before the date of publication and notification of the Land Acquisition Act (Government of India, vol-II, 1978).

146 Groups, who owned a larger acreage of land and cultivated less or no common lands, were primarily interested in higher cash compensations for purchasing land of their choice.

The group of households, who primarily depended on illegally cultivated forests or government barren lands or sold woods from the jungle or both, insisted that the government should recognize common land as legal and duly compensate them for losing it. People from this group depended on available secondary and tertiary activities in the vicinity of the dam site. Thus, they wanted to resettle in the nearby region. This group suffered from a feeling of marginalization and insecurity.

The landless villagers were not as worried about displacement. They did not receive any land compensation according to the previous R&R policy. These villagers were concerned about getting house compensation and causal job wherever they resettled. Accordingly, variations existed in people’s attitudes towards rehabilitation and different perceptions were spontaneously crafted along the lines of their economic conditions, lack of knowledge of on the overall implications of dislocation, resettlement, and the R&R policies.

The most mandated resettlement projects deprived people’s access to resources and

controlled their lives through policies and norms, like the state forest policy, eminent domain,

LAA and LAB. Confused by the state enactments, the affected scuffled with the state

apparatuses. Rallies, slogans, fastings, marches, and drowning squads were different forms of

resistance to vent-out the frustration of losing land and resources. These protest struggles forced

the state apparatuses to negotiate with the tribals and NGOs, the power and success of the people

is represented in the R&R policy changes. Resistance was used as a tool to negotiate with the

state apparatus. Clearly articulated goals, less combative acts, such as bargaining and

compromise, were used by the seeming weak to bring about in specific changes according to their

147 interests. However, the helpful NGOs also had hidden motives working against the state apparatus in which the migrants were used to serve their goals.

B.5. The NBA and Adivasis: The Adivasis collaborated with the NGOs against the state development agendas. The Adivasis beliefs about nature did not address ecological degradation or unsustainable environments created by the dam. But these issues were the force behind the

NGOs. The people living on the very edge of survival could not comprehend the state development agendas and the NBA’s political agendas against state. The nation’s development or progress was never a goal of the people of Narmada Valley. The various tactics employed by the villagers against the strategies of the state and the oppression of some R&R officers occurred against the violation of the villagers’ right to live and livelihood. In chapter-V, I have teased out the multiple power gradients, and interconnections and intersections across these power hierarchies formed among the State, NGOs, and the affected people.

The NBA amplified the local struggles into larger movements, both theoretically and practically, based on the arguments that the SSP is environmentally unsustainable and does not provide better living conditions in resettled sites. However, for its critique of development and for its attempt at creating ‘alternative political culture’ (Bhaviskar 1995), the Andolan was embraced by the urban intelligentsia. After fighting for the Andolan over a decade, villagers suffered from resistance fatigue, dropping out of the battle (Dwivedi 1999). As policy changes were made and implemented, though the NBA wanted the people to continue the struggle, the Adivasis shifted sides accepting R&R, giving into government wishes.

The following section outlines the coping mechanisms as adopted by the people in resettled villages. Further, I have mapped the changes tribals were undergoing through their

148 exposure to host communities, markets, and cities, which was sustained by transportation linkages.

C. SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL TURN ACROSS THE RESETTLED ADIVASI COMMUNITIES

Food crops do not yield enough cash to maintain the increase in farm and household

expenditures. Cash cropping, preferred by the resettled villagers, is the only alternative to

maintain income stability in absence of forest based income. In the long run, efficient cash

cropping along with subsistence farming appears to be the best strategy. Food security, however,

is still associated with low risk farming, as against quick gain and high-risk strategies. The tribals

can find balance by cash cropping and subsistence farming suited to land and family size, with

increased confidence in market efficiency. The current changes in agricultural patterns show that

the community is slowly moving towards greater food security.

The Tadvis appear to be keen on merging with urban cultures, evident in a fast adaptation

of dressing patterns, language, and dietary habits. Dressing patterns and dietary habits had been

changing in their past village, Vadgam, through the exposure to government officials and city

mazdoors (laborers). Accordingly, the distinctiveness of tribal community cultures eroding with a

replacement of urban cultures. City culture embodies the local cultural practices and production

patterns of commodification and capitalism.

Another vital change is that, all Tadvis send their children to schools now and they aspire

for city jobs, are a status symbol in their community. If obtained the ‘lucky’ one is admired. More

subtle changes are irregularly dispersed across families: the age of marriage, the preference

towards small family sizes, and women competing for village panchayat (local government)

seats.

149 Paradoxically, though women are elected as members of local governments, their husband’s actively play the role of a village leader while the women continue to be confined at home, performing household chores with little or no impact on village politics. When I was conducting surveys, the Golagambdi village had an elected female member from the Golagamdi host village. Her name is Sushila bhen. When I visited her house, enthusiastic to see her and feeling proud that the village has a women leader, I was shaken by an utterly different scenario.

Her husband greeted us and took me to the kitchen, leaving my field assistant at the door-step.

Sushila bhen was making rotis (breads) sitting on the floor. On seeing me, she pulled her veil forward and gave a smile. After that we sat at the portico with her husband to discuss the government plans for rural development, the village leader’s strategies, and interconnections with other villagers, other village leaders and government officials. Throughout the period, that we spoke about there various issues, I expected her to present her challenges and experiences as a leader. Instead, I was exposed to Sushila bhen’s husband Ganshyam Bhai, performing the formalities of a leader, such as, attending panchayat meetings, making decisions and visiting government offices in the cities. In a nutshell, he was enjoying the name, fame, and power of his elected wife. Sushila Bhen, who was elected, in reality, had no role to play.

Outside spaces are controlled by men, while women are cloistered in their houses. Roles

are so intensely gendered and performed that I dreaded to ask questions, like why was she not

actively involved with politics? Should she have the right to make decisions by getting herself

involved? I felt, she could at least engage with the village women and implement micro-scale

rural development programmes, such as promote education, management of household incomes,

family planning, or use of bio-wastes. But this was not so.

Although, young girls attend school and some are aiming at higher education, I doubt if,

these changes will have any bearing on their decisions in the home or outside of it. Rather, this

150 drive for education will produce a third space, which I call hidden space. Hidden spaces will foster their ire, restiveness, unexpressed thoughts, and desires. The transitions resettled villagers go through will lead to the formation of multiple interpretations of spaces, where men and women will share the same space but interpret space differently just as they would enter space from different positions and view space differently. The spaces where political debates, decisions on agricultural production, and market exchanges are established are forbidden spaces for women.

Men construct the discourse of power that subsumes, diminishes, and regulates the social activities, relations in households and community groups. Women counter dominance by deception, asserting rights to resources, and overcoming isolation by joining with other women in rituals or casual discussions ridiculing their husbands. Within households and communities overlapping and interlinking, spaces of power will develop through manifold paths. Several questions on the discourses of power will be formulated by women slyly behind the dominant force.

Such thoughts clouded my mind, while the surveys went on. However, my position as a researcher brought me face-to-face with different situations and raised multiple questions that were untidily distributed within me. Under different circumstances, I only asked the questions to myself, framing answers, seeking justifications but had no courage to counter the villagers, specifically the elderly and middle aged men. At these times, I thought I was a sensitive researcher, an observer who left the university with higher expectations, a set of neat research questions and clear conceptual framework, but I found myself grounded in messy discourses of the gendered socio-cultural constructions of power.

In the following section, I provide some alternatives to development with the hope that

such agendas bring forth decent changes, whereby, the lives in rehabilitation villages may

become sustainable. Some ideas were generated while talking with villagers, some from NGOs or

151 academicians, while some ideas spawned as I read various discourses on local scale development strategies.

D. ALTERNATIVES TO DEVELOPMENT

The only positive side of a large hydro power project is that it uses a renewable resource

– water. Though water is understood as a renewable resource, reckless use of water in the construction of dams creates problems of salinization, deforestation, aridity, ecological imbalance, and human life disruption. Hydro power projects sites are not renewable and these projects not only risk the lives of millions of people but also disturb the flow of the river. The river suffers from downstream sedimentation which gradually leads to its desiccation. Along with this, the dam disturbs the aquatic ecosystem; further, numerous birds, insects, and animals that sustain along the river banks are threatened. The displacement of numerous villagers with a total disruption of their socio-cultural and economic lifestyles is an unavoidable damage incurred by dams. Besides this, policy anomalies, R&R risks and implementation problems deteriorate the lives of the affected people. Risks of R&R often far outweigh its benefits. Displaced people encounter a reduction in their livelihood and income stability. As a result, the people are pressured to produce more, using unsustainable farm methods, on their newly compensated lands.

Now the displaced villagers of the SSP cannot bathe two times a day in the river, or

continue to show reverence to nature, or depend on natural resources beyond the development to

sustain their livelihoods. The state lacked foresight on the huge magnitude of displacement and

the availability of land to resettle the displaced villagers. As a result, a secondary wave of

displacement came as the state bought new lands from private landowners and relocated those

people from their lands.

152 The government could have promoted simple agrarian strategies in the rehabilitated sites

by utilizing the skills of academicians and non-governmental organizations to educate the

villagers. They instead left the villagers to succeed or fail on their own. In this section, I provide

some alternatives to large dams. Gujarat is well-endowed with renewable solar, wind, tidal and

biomass energy resources. But, so far, these resources have not been developed or have been ignored (see Table 13). One reason these resources might not be in use can be to the failure to involve the dispersed rural populations in energy conservation and development of an integrated energy system that uses those local renewable resources in conjunction with external resources.

Costs of developing local renewable energy sources are lower in developing countries compared to developed countries. The centralized bureaucratic planning commission has ignored the issues of equity and self-reliance, precluding the participation of locals in the development process.

Instead, the inclination has been towards western technology which prefers a top down financial model which assures profit to the privileged. Following are some water-saving and waste- recycling techniques which have the potential to benefit all.

1. Formation of small user groups for utilization of local water resources

2. Initiation of small watershed developments

3. Creation of incentives for saving rainwater during monsoons

4. Reclamation of animal wastes as cooking fuel6

5. Utilization of vegetable and animal wastes as fertilizers

6 Currently, villagers use wood as cooking fuel. Since all households have draught animals for tilling lands, the villagers can use animal wastes as cooking fuel. Villages in eastern India, sun bake cow dung and use the baked dung cakes as cooking fuel. If the villagers in these villages, recycle animals waste, that will save the existing shrubs and trees. In summer, the valley is unbearably hot but in winters it is moderately cold. Already, the valley is devoid of valuable forests due to the dam, reservoir and village construction. The existing vegetation should be protected accompanying growth of additional trees.

153 These techniques are not applicable to India entirely but are specific to those few villages in

Gujarat. Places have different geographical and climate make-ups with differential socio- economic and cultural populations (for details on biomass energy sources see Sant 1992 and

Dharmadikary 1995, 149, Ram 1995), which effect the plausibility of techniques. The point here is that there are many more ways to effect development without making large drastic change.

A tremendous potential for biomass (cane) based power generation exists and the immediate scope could provide for almost 7000 megawatts. This cane based fuel has a potential of 42 percent to generate power. In diversifying the energy sector to biomass and other renewable sources will result in the generation of new jobs. While the hydropower scenario permanent employment is low. Once a dam is built, all the labors working in the dam-site lose their jobs.

While it is true that biomass energy generation needs large land areas, biomass can serve a variety of functions in terms of usable output for food, fodder, as well as several valuable ecological functions7 while helping to maintain a healthy environment.

India, as a developing country supporting the second largest population, is already facing

problems of shortage of land and natural resources and excessive combustion of fossil fuels.

Hence, for developing countries (like India) we should divert our focus from sources that have

large scale negative impacts on natural landscapes and socio-economic conditions of the

populations.

The affected people of SSP could not object to the R&R policy and the proposed

acquisition law as they lacked the information about the project and their rights. The position of

the displaced, or evicted, in the social structure left little opportunity for them to gain access to

the information they needed to protest against the policies within the stipulated time laid down by

7 In India, K.R. Datye and the research team at CASAD have done some work in developing models and conducting field experiments for the integrated land/water management use of food, fodder and power. In Brazil, the largest government-owned electricity generation utility initiated a study to develop biomass as an alternative power generation source to reduce the social and environmental impacts of hydropower.

154 the government (GOI 1894, Section- 5a). Earlier organization, awareness and knowledge of the

SSP could have delayed the acquisition of land and improve compensation at an earlier stage.

Changes in the R&R policy were only possible after active involvement with the NGOs and by

the World Bank, which resulted in the Gujarat government’s decision to improve resettlement

packages in the mid 1990s. On paper, the package was the most comprehensive to date, although its implementation had met with a series of problems (see NWDTA (1978, vol-II: 123) guidelines for rehabilitation).

In this section, I suggest some techniques which could be applied in rehabilitated

villages. Agricultural improvement programs, such as, providing information on various food and

commercial crops, usage of proper and appropriate fertilizers, pesticides, mechanized farm

techniques, and marketing of commercial farm produce can be helpful. The implementation of

educational programs can enhance the level of awareness and empowerment of the local women

and men. Various financial programs could educate the people about village banks or cooperative

banks, small agricultural loans, and government subsidies. Tribal women leaders could create

self-help groups for the management of household expenditure, maintain hygienic homes, and

educate the children. Such simple techniques can infuse self-reliance, bring back stable incomes,

and promote better living in the rehabilitated villages. Drawing from my field surveys, I surmise

that if the Government is willing, it could infuse better socio-economic and cultural conditions

(Joshi 2000) through bottom-up strategies by heeding alternative paths to development addressing

the needs and demands of the lower echelons.

The aspects central to the Adivasi lives are, reverence to nature, attachment to their

homeland, livelihood mechanisms, community networks, and family prestige. These ideologies

hold the potential to challenge the NGOs and government officials to create alternative strategies

for helping Adivasis. The NGOs, researchers, and government officials should listen and observe

155 more. It is their task to develop and thereby improve lives of villagers then forging a future with developmental alternatives will be more just for the people, to nature, and in the long run themselves.

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170 APPENDIX - 1

SUBMERGING VILLAGES

The submerging villages of Sardar Sarovar were categorized into three groups: dam-site village (zone-1), rock-fill dyke village (zone-2), and interior village (zone-3) based on their diverse geographical and social settings (Table-3).

The dam is positioned in the northern part of Nandod taluka of the district in the ranges of the Satpura hills, which is also called Garudeswar. Altogether, there were 19

submerging villages (consisting of 141,484 people), among which 11 villages were situated in

Nandod taluka, five in Naswadi taluka and three villages on southern bank of the Narmada. All

the villages facing submergence were located in the on an undulating topography

with a sparse settlement distribution amidst a scanty forest cover. Among the submerging

villages, Chharbara was the smallest with six households while Ghader was the largest village

with 376 households. Approximately 1,500 households faced submergence from a total of 2,000

households. Zer was the least affected village.

TALUKA

Taluka is smaller than a district and bigger than a village. There are approximately 20

villages in a taluka with a total population of 20,000 people1.

1 This information was accessed on 11/28/2004, from http://www.peoplefirstindia.org/chap.

171 LAND ACQUISITION ACT (LAA) AND LAND ACQUISITION BILL (LAB)

The legislation was at the center of debate of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 (LAA) which was formed during the colonial period. The LAA is the statutory statement of the state’s power of eminent domain which vests the state ultimate control over land within its territory. In the post-colonial period, minor amendments in the LAA were made in 1914 and 1938 to the process of acquisition of land. Post-independence economic development justified acquisition for public purpose and denied the person who owned the land and his or her right to exercise choice as to whether he or she was willing to move or remain in his land (Fernandes and

Chatterjee1995).

The 1984 amendment (Land Acquisition Bill (LAB)) attempts to update the LAA on inclusive grounds, such as the state can only acquire land if the LAB provides compensation for said land. The LAB was ought to be a legitimate procedure to safeguard the rights and interests of the people. Instead, it ignored the rights and existence of displaced communities, by stating that the displaced people who could not prove their ownership to land cannot be rehabilitated through state intervention (Ramanathan 1996).

These negative aspects of the law outweighed the positive sides. The LAB limited the already restricted rights of the people under LAA, vesting more power to the bureaucrats and the collector who used judicial process to dislocate the people without any compensation. The judicial processes were short circuited and the time given for dislocation was limited. The LAB ignored the Draft Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) policy but largely followed the guidelines of the LAA. The provisions of LAB infringed on the rights of the poor who depended on natural resources for their livelihoods. These conservative notions of individual ownership and state acquisition were stretched unrealistically to envelop the shortcomings of displacement of entire tribal communitie who were displaced. The LAB did not acknowledge displacement as a

172 traumatic overcome and gave no mention of resettlement and the state’s responsibility to rehabilitation (Fernandes and Thukral1989).

THE NARMADA WATER DISPUTES TRIBUNAL’S DECISIONS AND THE TRIBALS

A description of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDTA) is provided in the conclusion. This section is a follow-up of some arguments on the NWDTA. The Tribunal’s decision on R&R is ground breaking, for it explicitly provided agricultural land of one or two hectares to landholding families in lieu of the land lost through submergence. This is a clean break from the past practice when the land holders received only monetary compensation through

LAA.

But the Tribunal did not notice a majority of effected tribals, who do not have formal land titles. The displacement of the Adivasis bring to focus a serious and embarrassing situation in not acknowledging the tribal’s right and access to ancestral lands but instead labels them as illegal encroachers. The roots of this problem is positioned in the history of British rulers who arbitrarily extinguished the tribal rights to take control over forests in 1860, then imposed the

Indian Forest Act in 1927 (see Chapter II). After some modification, (after independence) in

1952, the government of India retained the Indian Forest Act and carried on with the deep-seated, dubious legality, established by the colonials. Meanwhile, the Adivasis were married to the

‘legal’ stigma of being called as ‘encroachers’ or ‘thieves in government’s lands’. In sum, being flavored in a colonial euphemistic shroud, the Tribunal remained silent on identifying the rights of the dipslcees and the riparian states neatly skirted the whole issue of land entitlement by labeling the tribals.

The founding fathers of the Indian constitution did not consider the Adivasis as one of the most neglected subpopulations of the Indian subcontinent. Though the constitution explicitly state

173 protection of tribal rights, the tribunal and the contending states failed to protect the Adivasis’ land rights but instead supported an ideology that sacrificed their lives for a greater good. This ideology prevented the Tribunal from giving consideration to the plight of the mute tribals.

Perhaps, given the limits and the conflicting ideas in the constitutional provisions and statutory laws enacted by the British (before Constitution came into being) the tribunal did not want to enforce a revolutionary change in the R&R policies.

Surprisingly, at the time, when the state apparatuses debated on the policies, dislocation

of oustees, and construction of the SSP, nothing was known by these affected people – the

building of SSP was totally unknown to the people until the project officials came to their villages

marking the levels of submergence. This lack of knowledge brings forward some concerns: when

the tribals came to know about Sardar Sarovar what were their reactions? How did they view

dislocation and benefits of the project? What did the tribals want? The riparian state government

was not interested in knowing the answers to these questions and made no attempt to understand

the Adivasis feelings. The government exercised a non negotiable state at any level for the

affected people at the time. The state officials did make quick trips to the submerging areas in

time and conducted short interviews. Policy flaws became more evident as the Adivasis and

Tribunal locked in power struggled at different phases of R&R.

It is evident that these large multipurpose projects capitalized on landscapes but

produced a rift between traditional societies and the natural resources. Projects seriously

affected livelihood mechanisms, detaching the villagers from their communal roots, which

created secondary migration, household instability, breakdown of communal harmony, which

produced mental trauma and alcoholism (Cernea 1990). There is no single panacea for the

crisis inflicted by SSP in uprooting the tribal communities. Madhya Pradesh had the largest

number of families and villages partially submerged compared to Maharashtra. However, in

174 Gujarat and Maharashtra, per family dependence on land was higher than in Madhya Pradesh.

The differing features of villages across the three states and the likely impact of their

submergence for the construction of the SSP was not adequately addressed in the R&R policy

from the outset. Additionally, in the initial phases, the tribal communities were not aware of

the discourses2 constructed within the policies. The following narrative brings out the

ambiguity endured by the people which later structured the struggle for justice.

No one asked us as to whether we want to move out of here. How can they decide to

build the dam without taking our permission? Have they really decided what would

happen to us? No one has told us where we would go and where we would be resettled…

we have kukra (hens), bukra (goats), cattle and whatnot. There are also kira (insects),

mungi (birds), and so on in the valley. Have they even assessed how much destruction

and what would be the final loss? How can they just go and submerge such a large area?

(Villager, female respondent, Quoted in Patkar 1995: 158)

When I conducted surveys in villages that are resettled for some years, an elderly lady of

Suryatalav dislocated from Antras3, mentioned,

They gave us land, water, and health care benefits, but taken away our villages, fruits,

nuts, air, river, ancestral grounds, forests …. Suryatalav is not my village, I do not

belong here, I am forced to stay here because my village is submerged in the beds of the

Narmada (Sumitra Bhen, female respondent, age 76, Suryatalav, Interviewed by

Author, 23rd July 2004).

2 In everyday language discourse usually means ‘speech’ or ‘language’ or ‘text’. Discourse implies a mobile web or network of concepts, statements and practices that are intimately involved in production of particular knowledge (Barnes and Gregory 1997).

3 Antras was a remote village, nestled far from modernity until dislocated.

175 The villagers were confused over various issues related to displacement and rehabilitation. They were unaware of compensation benefits. Barely any negotiation between the villagers and the government officials took place initially, the government had no clear plan for rehabilitation, no idea of the magnitude of people affected, and land records were not updated. The geographical location of several submerging villages and closed social systems also prevented the villages from networking with cities to gather any knowledge about the SSP. In these tight set-ups, the advent of Sardar Sarovar doomed the Adivasis with fear and frustration culminating in resistance movements. Prolonged protests and negotiations with the riparian state governments incurred the rehabilitation policy makes to consider all the project affected villagers for land compensation. At a later stage, oustees4 tried to comprehend the consequences of displacement and the need to

control their own space and resources and to maximize income, but unevenness prevailed as the

female headed households, major sons, widows and single women were affected worse (see

Chapter- IV).

REHABILITATION POLICY AND PROCESS

The irrigation projects prior to the SSP had no definite rehabilitation policy other than

small programmes implemented on an ad hoc basis but these constructions of different

development projects which already displaced 30 million of people (Fernandes and Thukral1989).

The first resolution of the R&R policy provided land to the oustees who owned land in

the affected areas. The state would first allocate revenue department land and then procure

cultivatable land from the forest department. Prior to this relocation, the government had put

severe restrictions on the use of the forest land to overcome the problems related to deforestation

4 The Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) defines an oustee, as a person who has been residing or cultivating land or was related to the villages with any occupation /trade which was likely to be affected permanently or temporarily by submergence (at least) a year before the date of publication and notification of the Land Acquisition Act (Government of India, vol. II, 1978).

176 and soil erosion. Had these restrictions not been there, then the Bhil oustees could independently resettle themselves.

The second resolution provided for the oustees who did not wish to resettle in the new land. They would be given cash compensation. But in most cases, land was more valuable and the cash compensation was not sufficient. Moreover, most villagers were unaware of market mechanisms and their economic status declined for not using the compensation wisely.

At present the policy did not cater to the needs of farm laborers, jungle laborers, cowherders and other deprived sections of the resettled communities. Although, land compensation was provided, no provision for compensating losses of asset, ancestral homes, social relations and psychological attachments were given. Thus, the framework, as a legitimate rehabilitation policy, lacked in sight and imagination.

The notion of compensation is driven by the notion of current market value, which only understands displaced persons as a willing seller of land. Initially, the state proposed compensation for submerged lands in accordance with the guidelines of the LAA which stipulated: land owners can be compensated with the amount of land lost through submergence.

This placed the fate of the sharecroppers, artisans, hunters, jungle produce collectors, farm laborers, and cattle grazers in jeopardy.

Those practicing shifting cultivation in the interior villages or cultivated forest lands were

not compensated under the policy guidelines. Encroachers were not entitled to receive land

compensation in the rehabilitated villages because they were unable to provide proofs of

cultivating the land for any length of time; the exacted time period varied for MP and

Maharashtra oustees. Out of the total affected people, about 60 percent of the oustees, who did

not have proof of land ownership received no land compensation. The people for whom

cultivation had been the only source of income and occupation were affected by landlessness and

177 loss of income stability. Legally, if the construction of the project had created employment opportunities then the affected villagers should have been prioritized.

Most of the oustees wanted to live with their kinsfolk who live in nearby villages. The land offered by the government was far away from their original landholdings. Though the oustees had their own considerations and choices of sites for rehabilitation, their preferences were not asked for. If the oustees were consulted during the preparation of the plan, perhaps, the

planners could select rehabilitated sites near the submerging villages, allaying much turmoil and

discomfort for both sides.

178 GLOSSARY OF TRIBAL & HINDI WORDS

Vanias - money lenders

Sarpanj - village head or chief

Baigas - tribals who practiced jhum cultivation

Chaumasa - monsoon

Kanbi Patridars - wealthy plain cultivators settled in Shahada and Taloda districts of

MP

Levi Patridars - wealthy plain cultivators settled in Jhalod district of MP

Haats - markets

Indaal - worship of land and rain

Karaba - common land

Nimaris or Nimadis - plain dwellers, mostly referred to the wealthy cultivators

Kata ni jamin legal lands

Jamin - lands

Bazaaria - urban intelligentsia

Yatra - journey

Vahini - work-force

Jan andolaan - people’s movement

Bachao - save

Baandh - dam

179 Nahin - no

Banega - construction

Raj - rule

Hamara - our

Gaon -village

Jiji – sister

Mata – mother

Sangharsha – protest

Jal – water

Samarpan – offer

Sampriti dal – drowning squad

Bhil, Ratwa, Tadvi,- names of tribal communities

Adivasis – tribals

Vadgam, Katnera, Alirajpur, Kundiuchakalam, Suryatalav, Sanoli and Golagambdi –

names of villages of Gujarat, Maharashtra

Bhagat – tadvis who abstained drinking and eating meat

Non-bhagats – tadvis who continue to follow the traditional food habits and lifestyles.

180 GLOSSARY (commonly used words in R&R Discourse)

Compensation: Money or payment, which the people affected are entitled in order to replace the lost asset, resource or income.

Host Population: Community residing in or near the area in which affected people are to be relocated.

Income Restoration: Reestablishing income sources and livelihoods of people affected.

Impoverishment: Connotes a situation in which people's welfare and livelihood are weakened or lost because of loss of land and other assets.

Involuntary Resettlement: Development projects result in unavoidable losses, that people affected have no option but to rebuild their lives, incomes and asset bases elsewhere.

Resettlement Plan: A time- bound action plan with budget setting out resettlement strategies, objectives, entitlement, actions, responsibilities, monitoring and evaluation.

Relocation: Rebuilding housing assets, including productive land, and public infrastructure in another location.

181 FIGURES

Figure -1: The Sardar Sarovar Project Area

Source: www.narmada.org (last accessed on December 2005).

182 Figure – 2: Location map of Vadgam

Source: Das, B 1982

183 Figure – 3: The villagers searched for occupation or marriage alliances or wanted to resettle within this radius

Source: Das, B 1982

184 Figure – 4: Types of houses in Golagambdi

Source: Author’s Field work 2004

185 Figure-5: Planned structure of Golagambdi Rehabilitation Village

Source: Author’s Field work 2004

Figures – 6: Populations by caste groups in Past Village

Fig-6: Composition of the People in Vadgam 1%

Bhils

Govals

Tadvis

SC Groups

Non SC/ST Groups 96%

Source: Author’s Field work 2004

186 Figures – 7: Populations by caste groups in Past Village

Fig-7: Composition of People in Golagambdi

26% Tadvis

Bhagats

Non-Bhagats

Brahims

23% Govals 49%

Source: Author’s Field work 2004

Figure – 8: Types of crop grown in Past village

Fig-8: Types of Crops grown in Vadgam

100 80 60 40 20 Households 0

n r r e e t s o a z c a e tt v wa i i e l o u o a R h ab C T J M W et eg V Crops

Source: Author’s Field work 2004

187 Figure – 9: Crops produced in Present village

Fig-9: Crop Production in Golagambdi

80 Cotton 60 Rice Jowar 40 Tuvar Wheat

Households 20 Maize 0 1-4 Q 5-9 Q 10-14 Q 15-19 Q no prod

Production in quintal

Source: Author’s Field work 2004

Figure – 10: Amount of land owned by villagers in Past village

Fig-10: Amount of land owned by villagers in Vadgam

no land

5 acres

6- 10 acres

11-15 acres 35% 47% 16 acres &

Source: Author’s Field work 2004

188 Figure – 11: Comparison of occupational patterns in Past and Present Villages

Fig-11: Comparision of occupations in Vadgam & Golagambdi

Others Go lag amb d i Govt Service

Const Worker Vad g am Occupations Occupations Daily Agri Labor 73 Cultivator 59

0 1020304050607080

Households

Source: Author’s Field work 2004

Figure – 12: Household Asset in Present village

Fig-12: Household Asset in Golagambdi

0 Motor bike 9 57 Fridge 3 77 Phone 4 Asset 24 Radio 48 80 Utensils 80

0 20406080100

Households

Source: Author’s Field work 2004

189 PLATES

Plate -1: Hamlets, Submerging Village (MP)

Plate - 2: Hamlets, Submerging Village (MP)

190

Plate -3: Herds of Cattle, Submerging Village (MP)

Plate – 4: Site for worship, Submerging Village (MP)

Plate – 5: Stairs to the Ghat (bank of the river), Submerging Village (MP)

191

Plate - 6: The Holy Narmada (cremation grounds), Submerging Village (MP)

Plate – 7: Concrete water storage for draught animals, Rehabilitated village (Gujarat)

Plate –8: House Type – 1, Rehabilitated village (Gujarat)

192 TABLES

Table -1: State wise categories of land under submergence Type of Land States Total Gujarat Maharashtra MP Cultivated Land 1877 1519 7883 11279 Forest Land 4166 6488 2731 13385 Other lands (includes 1069 1592 10208 12869 river bed) Total 7112 9599 20822 37533 Source: Joshi, V (2000)

Table – 2: Number of submerged villages and families in the three states of India resulting from the construction of the SSP State Villages Villages Total Families Popn Avg area Avg area fully partially villages affected affected of of submer- submer- submer- (Census submer- submer- ged ged ged 1991) gence gence per per village family (hect) (hect) Gujarat 3 16 19 4600 18000 374 1.55 Maharashtra - 33 33 3133 19650 291 3.06 MP 1 192 193 33014 89796 108 0.63 Total 4 241 245 40747 127446 153 0.92 Source: Sardar Sarovar Nigam Limited, Government of Gujarat: Gandhinagar, Gujarat (2000)

Table – 3: Land Holding Status prior to Displacement State Land Co- Encroac Major Landless Other Total Owners sharer hers Sons Agri Landless Laborers Laborers Gujarat 647 850 487 2204 392 20 4600 Maharashtra 1472 - - 893 748 - 3113 MP 9985 - - - 15018 5776 2235 Total 12104 850 487 18115 6916 2255 40727 Source: Sardar Sarovar Nigam Limited, Government of Gujarat: Gandhinagar, Gujarat (2000).

193 Table – 4: The submerging villages were divided into three zones based on their infrastructural facilities, market linkages and socio-economic conditions. Zones Type of Names of Characteristics Village Villages 1 Rock-fill Navagam, 597 households, 3,894 population and one-third of dyke Limdi, the area were under submergence. They were well villages Khalvani, connected with the neighboring areas through roads Panchmuli and and transportation networks. People were exposed to Zer urban lifestyles and changes were taking place in their tastes, dressing and consumption patterns and living conditions. All these places had schools and so for three generations some members of the community were literate. 2 Dam-site Vadgam, 1019 households, 6,486 populations were facing villages Surpan, submergence. Motorable roads were built to the dam Mokhadi, site but the roads to the villages were non motorable. Ghader, Ghader was the biggest submerging village. Surpan Katkhadi and and Mokhadi were pilgrimage sites. Vadgam, Makadkhada Ghader, Surpan and Mokhadi had village schools and grain shops. 3 Interior Dhumna, 608 households, 3,804 populations were affected villages Chharbara, through submergence. This group of village was Antras, poorest among all the submerging villages. Whatever Kadada, occupation was provided due to the construction of Ferkada, the dam did not affect these villages as they were far Turkheda, from the dam-site. Unlike, Hanf no village had Hanf and motorable dirt road which made the villages Pandheria inaccessible. The land is rocky and undulating. Hanf had a school, a temple and a guest house with electricity. None of the other villages had grocery shops or any other facilities. They did not even use kerosene lamps as it was unavailable and unaffordable. Sometimes the visitors of the Narmada dam were plundered by the villagers for food. Source: Joshi, V (1983)

194 Table -5: An account of the tribes in submerging villages, type of submerging villages and year of resettlement Sl.No Village Main Scheduled Type of Year of Tribes Submergence resettlement Village 1. Navagam Tadvi (Dhanka Dyke 1984 onwards and Tetaria) 2. Limdi “ “ “ 3. Khalwani “ “ “ 4. Panchmuli “ “ “ 5. Zer “ Dam site “ 6. Vadgam “ Reservoir 1987 7. Mokhadi Tadvi, Bhil “ “ 8. Surpan “ “ 1988 onwards 9. Kathhadi “ “ “ 10. Gadher “ “ “ 11. Makadkhada “ “ “ 12. Dhumna Dungari Bhil “ “ 13. Chharbara “ “ “ 14. Antras “ “ “ 15. Kadadha Dungari Bhil, “ “ Rathva, Nayaka 16. Ferkada “ “ “ 17. Tukheda “ “ “ 18. Hant “ “ “ 19. Panderia Dungari Bhil “ “ Source: Joshi, V (2000)

195 Table -6: Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) (as in October 1992) State/Unit Submergence Year (July-June) Upto Durin Durin Durin Durin Durin Durin Total 1991- g g g g g g 92 1992- 1993- 1994- 1995- 1996- 1997- 93 94 95 96 97 98 Gujarat No. of 5 1 4 9 - - - 19 submergence villages No. of families 929 543 1405 1623 - - - 4500 affected in these villages Maharashtra No. of - 1 4 10 11 - 7 33 submergence villages No. of families - 238 411 900 763 - 152 2464 affected in these villages No. willing to - 238 350 37 - - - 625 resettle in Gujarat No. willing to - - 61 863 763 - 152 1839 resettle in Maharashtra MP No. of - - - 1 16 13 163 193 submergence villages No. of families - - - 45 1432 646 21057 23180 affected in these villages No. willing to - - - 45 1428 640 9137 11250 resettle in Gujarat No. willing to - - - - 4 6 11920 11930 resettle in MP Total No. of 5 2 8 20 27 13 170 245 submergence villages No. of families 929 781 1816 2568 2195 646 21209 30144 affected in these villages Only three villages get fully submerged in Gujarat. The submergence in all other villages in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh is partial. Note: Total area submerged is 34,867hectares, of which 11,279 hectares are agricultural land, 10,719 hectares forests, and 12,869 hectares riverbed and wasteland. Source: Patel, C.C. 1995.

196 Table- 7: General Information on the number of houses and lands affected by submergence in Vadgam, Gujarat Name Taluka District No. of No. of Total Land under Submergence (in of the houses* submer area of hect) village -ging village* Private Govern Forest houses * land ment land land Vadgam Nandod Vadod- 251 250 1912.6 255 23 184 ara Source: * Surveyed by Center for Social Studies, South Gujarat University ** District Census Handbook, 1971 Rest of the Information collected from the Executive Engineer, Gora Colony.

Table – 8: Household asset of the villagers at Vadgam Name of Radio Watches/ Cupboard Bicycle Motor Cycle village clocks Vadgam 24 49 35 19 - Source: Jyoshi, V (1983)

197 Table- 9: Chart showing the broad profiles, problems, and attitudes of various groups among the tribal villagers at Vadgam Groups Characteristi Losses Attitudes Remarks cs towards rehabilitation Larger No No loss Broadly Easy to acreage underemploy positive rehabilitate owned and ment and (interested in less illegal unemployme higher rates lands nt of cultivated compensatio n) Smaller Same as Relatively Broadly Difficult to acreage above high loss negative rehabilitate owned but (interested in large illegal acquiring lands legal status cultivated for total Government amount of prioritized to cultivated convince land) these groups Very less or Underemploy Relative loss Completely As above for no acreage ed and is very high negative rehabilitation owned and unemployed (desperate lands mostly attempts for cultivated survival) illegally Landless Same as Relative loss Neutral (will Relatively labors with above is very high prefer easy to be no illegal locations in rehabilitated cultivation the vicinity for options of casual jobs Source: Das, B 1982

198 Table – 10: Area planned to be irrigated by Sardar Sarovar Project District Agricultural area Area under SSP (‘000 % Agricultural area (‘000 ha) ha) under SSP Bharuch 507.8 97.95 19.28 Vadodara 593.0 340.15 57.37 536.1 116.01 21.63 Gandhinagar 51.9 10.65 20.52 Ahmedabad 676.2 331.27 48.99 Panchmahal 547.8 9.68 1.77 753.3 150.19 19.95 Banaskantha 925.6 313.89 33.19 Surendranagar 782.5 303.73 38.81 703.1 48.27 6.87 810.0 34.12 4.21 Kutch 2363.1 37.85 1.60 Total 9250.4 1793.85 19.39 Note: includes Surendranagar, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Amreli, , and district, with a total cultivated area of 4,176,600 ha. The SSP command area is planned to cover only 9.24% of this area. Source: Ram, R. N 1995

Table -11: Cost of SSP Item Rupees in billions Main dam 7.25 Main canal 12.26 Hydropower 6.91 Canal distribution system 21.86 Command area development 6.04 Ground water conjunctive use and drainage 3.00 SSP’s share of the Narmada Sagar Project 0.61 Total 57.93 Source: Institution of Engineers, 1988, Shah, A.A 1995.

Table – 12: Distribution of Cost of SSP across the states Irrigation Power State (in billion rupees) Total Gujarat 45.20 1.81 47.01 Rajasthan 1.41 0.0 1.41 Maharashtra 0.0 3.06 3.06 MP 0.0 6.45 6.45 Total 46.61 11.32 57.93 Source: Institution of Engineers, 1987, in Shah, A.A 1995 .

199 Table – 13: Energy planning to achieve self-reliance in water resources Energy Source Installed Operation Energy Percent capacity hours/year GWH Total (megawatt s) Narmada hydro (monsoon only) 1200 1800 2160 12.0 Wind/hydro (up to 200 units) 800 2200 1760 10.0 Wind/tidal (up to 60 units) 600 2200 1320 8.0 Thermal cogen 2400 1. Solar 2100 5040 29.0 2. Biofuel 1650 3960 23.0 3. Fossil 1250 3000 17.0 Total 5000 3448 17240 100 Source: Shah, A.A 1995

200