The social, economic and political contexts in which development projects in India are implemented, and consequences to people displaced by such projects, are analyzed in this book. Development, displacement, resettlement and rehabilitation processes related to three major reservoir bases' irrigation and power projects, and three major industrial projects are studied. The role of the State, international agencies and the private industrial sector in promoting development and managing rehabilitation of the displaced people is assessed, and the author proposes a framework for a comprehensive policy on development, displacement and rehabilitation.
The Sardar Sarovar Project has been one of the most debated development projects of the past several decades at both an international level and within India itself. Cullet's volume brings together all the key documents relating to the project: including those pertaining to World Bank loans, the judicial pronouncements of the Supreme Court and documents relating to specific local level issues - in particular environment and rehabilitation. The work includes an introductory section focusing on the history of the project, the involvement of the different actors, the impacts on the local population, and a general analysis of the controversy surrounding it. In providing an easily accessible source for all the main documents relating to this landmark project, this compilation will be a valuable resource for researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of International Environmental Law and International Development Law.
Presents a critical assessment of the World Bank supported project to construct the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada River in Northwest India. Reviews the measures being taken to mitigate the human and environmental impacts of the project including the resettlement and health risks of rural populations.
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Subcommittee on Natural Resources, Agriculture Research, and Environment
Two decades of commentary by the New York Times–bestselling author: “An electrifying political essayist . . . uplifting . . . galvanizing.” —Booklist From the Booker Prize-winning author of such works as The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, My Seditious Heart collects nonfiction spanning over twenty years and chronicles a battle for justice, rights, and freedoms in an increasingly hostile world. Taken together, these essays are told in a voice of unique spirit, marked by compassion, clarity, and courage. Radical and superbly readable, they speak always in defense of the collective, of the individual, and of the land, in the face of the destructive logic of financial, social, religious, military, and governmental elites. “Her lucid and probing essays offer sharp insights on a range of matters, from crony capitalism and environmental depredation to the perils of nationalism and, in her most recent work, the insidiousness of the Hindu caste system. In an age of intellectual logrolling and mass-manufactured infotainment, she continues to offer bracing ways of seeing, thinking and feeling.” —Pankaj Mishra, Time Magazine Praise for Arundhati Roy: “Arundhati Roy combines her brilliant style as a novelist with her powerful commitment to social justice in producing these eloquent, penetrating essays.” —Howard Zinn “One of the most confident and original thinkers of our time.” —Naomi Klein “The scale of what Roy surveys is staggering. Her pointed indictment is devastating.” —The New York Times Book Review
This book deals with the controversies on developmental aspects of large dams, with a particular focus on the Narmada Valley projects in India. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and research, the author draws on Marxist theory to craft a detailed analysis of how local demands for resettlement and rehabilitation were transformed into a radical anti-dam campaign linked to national and transnational movement networks. The book explains the Narmada conflict and addresses how the building of the anti-dam campaign was animated by processes of collective learning, how activists extended the spatial scope of their struggle by building networks of solidarity with transnational advocacy groups, and how it is embedded in and shaped by a wider field of force of capitalist development at national and transnational scales. The analysis emphasizes how the Narmada dam project is related to national and global processes of capitalist development, and relates the Narmada Valley movement to contemporary popular struggles against dispossession in India and beyond. Conclusions drawn from the resistance to the Narmada dams can be applied to social movements in other parts of the Global South, where people are struggling against dispossession in a context of neoliberal restructuring. As such, this book will have relevance for people with an interest in South Asian studies, Indian politics and Development Studies.
Are Dams Political Symbols? With Its 18 October 2000 Judgment, The Supreme Court Allowed Construction To Resume On The Sardar Sarovar Dam. But Controversy Still Rages Around The Dam, And Any Chance Of Debate Between The Widely Differing Opinions On It Is Drowned In Angry Rhetoric. Where Does That Leave The Common Man In The Affected States, Or Even Elsewhere In The Country? Seeking Answers, Activist And Journalist Dilip D Souza Searches Beyond Polemics For An Understanding Of The Narmada Project. Analysing Documents Put Out By The Dam Authorities Themselves, The Author Builds His Simple Thesis--That Regardless Of Conflicting Feelings On The Dam, The Way It Has Been Conceived And Is Being Built Should Be A Matter Of Grave, General Concern. He Finds A Pervasive Haziness In The Way Key Issues Recurring In This Material Are Addressed The Statements Of Aims (The Lifeline Of Kutch And Saurashtra ), The Numbers Of People Displaced, The Benefits Claimed For The Dam. Besides, There Are Innumerable Contradictions In The Figures Presented. Further, D Souza S First-Hand Experiences Among Affected People Only Underline This Gap Between Paper And Fact, And The Inescapable Conclusion He Reaches Is That Dams Are Being Built Less For Solving The Problems Of Water, Floods And Power, And More For The Sake Of Politics. Such Findings In Themselves, Besides The Alternative Strategies Described, Constitute The Strongest Case Against Dams Like The Sardar Sarovar. Passionate And Incisive, This Book Becomes A Searing Indictment Of The Type Of Development We Have Pursued Since Independence.
