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Globalisation and Narmada People's Struggle
Since 1985, the adivasis of the Narmada valley have been struggling against displacement and destruction resulting from the Sardar Sarovar Project. Their united fight reveals that not only the political and economic aspects of globalisation, but also its intellectual repression must be resisted. The people's knowledge regarding their land must not be ignored, particularly when government information is fraught with inconsistencies.
'Don't talk like illiterates!’ thundered justice Kurdukar when asked about the responsibility of the Maharashtra government towards displaced villagers of Maharashtra being relocated to Gujarat. As the newly appointed grievance redressal authority for rehabilitation of Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) oustees in Maharashtra, he was, at the behest of the Supreme Court of India, making his first visit to the villages. Gujarat, whose grievance redressal authority began work in May 1999, had already declined to consider the grievances of oustees from other states. Some of these villagers who came to meet Kurdukar in Kevadia Colony (in Gujarat) on the night of August 7 had accepted resettlement in Gujarat only on paper. Once again it seemed that government records took priority over ground reality as to where and how people were living. A tribal person who does not defer to these records is called an illiterate ... what do you call a judge who disregards the people in favour of the records?
Dangerous Signals
Dear Reader,
