True Development Through Narmada - Policy And Strategy
One Tapa, One Vow
Medha Patkar and colleagues of the Samarpit Dal
Date: July 11, 1999     Venue: Domkhedi

One tapa (twelve years) of the struggle in the Narmada valley is over.

The struggle which started with the innocent, simple tribals dependent on nature was spread further on the fertile and flowering land of Nimad. It lived on the strength of the common people and fostered dialogue and active support from outside the valley. The depressed and toiling classes were integrated as a part of the struggle, contributed their mite along with numerous activists in the valley, supporters and Baba Amte & Sadhanatai. I have been only incidental, but never distinct from the valley.

The Beginning of unity

First and foremost, the struggle has demanded the right to information about the cost-benefit of the dam and proof of its "public purpose". The people have also demanded explanations of how the trauma of displacement and environmental degradation is to be compensated. From 1985 to 1987, from the level of village patwari (record keeper) to the World Bank, we did not get the answers to our queries. If there are no answers, then the people give no clearance for the dam. The tribals of Vindhya & Satpuda ranges and people in Nimad declared opposition to the dam and showed that only the dam of their unity would be of any use to them (ekina baandhaja kamoma ava)

The thought of opposing the dam itself has not evolved out of any alien dogma, philosophy or foreign finance. It has evolved through individual experience and experience of the people at each step. As a result, we have formulated our policy and opinion about large dams, tribal life, the means of livelihood and how these are being looted, the wide breach between agriculture and industry, village and city, the capitalist-market oriented objectives as well as a socially just and environmentally sustainable vision of development. We have also evolved an analysis of the objectives and process of planning, the foreign hand, its intervention, its effect and pressure, deception of the people affected by drought and flood, the conspiracies of today and the future scenario...and an alternative paradigm of development of water and energy resources with self reliance in the direction of equality. We have explored every issue, tried to project these to the furthest extent possible, with more or less efficacy. We have extended the dialogue and tried to reach every forum. The commitment and efforts bore some fruits.

Few milestones..

• In 1987, the friends within and outside the country warned and challenged the World Bank: Vishva bank hai sahukar janata bane karjadar (World Bank is the moneylender - the people become indebted).
• In 1989, thousands of people from hundreds of organisations all over India declared: vikaas chahiye - vinash nahin (we want development and not destruction).
• In 1990, thousands of people within and outside the valley came out for the Jan Vikas Sangharsha Yatra (March of struggle for people’s development).
• 1991-94, the people faced the submergence, the tribals resolved doobenge par nahin hatenge (we will drown, but not move out).
• The review process by the World Bank, at Union government level, accepted most of the issues raised by the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Long fasts called attention to the destruction and the work on the dam was stopped. (1991-94)
• Government of Madhya Pradesh objected and got the dam construction suspended in January 1995. The Court also sanctioned the stoppage of the dam and it was suspended at 81.5 meters in May 1995

And now, the Cout has allowed the dam to go up to 88 meters, resulting in nothing less than drowning,threatening, and strangulating the tribal area.

Not Only For Narmada...

All this was not to save only one Narmada river and valley, or people affected by the Sardar Sarovar and all the big dams allied with it. We have to save the life and resources, the identity and dignity of the people, the farms, forests of every oppressed and depressed section of the population. That is why we will have to stop the Sardar Sarovar dam. We will have to stop it from going up to 139 meters despite the fact that it was taken up forcibly up to 88 meters. We have to stop the game of the powerholders to cater the interests of the few urban-industrial pockets while draining the natural resources and deceiving the people of Kutch and Saurashtra, in whose name the dam is being built.

The Struggle Ahead.

How all this will be possible? We will have to fight on. On a number of fronts, simultaneously, exploring and involving all possible avenues – just like the river, nay like the ocean. It will have to be a whirlwind of the people's movement; and it will be like that if the thousands and more thousands participate in it.

Some points of such a struggle have been envisaged by all the colleagues. Some of them I feel as necessary and inevitable. I want to appeal for the support and participation of all the colleagues, supporters and people till the last moment. This is how the struggle can go ahead.

• We will be confronting the submergence, which is bound to come at any time, in the spirit of dedication and sacrifice. We shall stay put resolutely at the centres of Satyagraha, in every house, hoping that the water may not rise -- yet ready to sacrifice the life. We wish that Mother Narmada should remain free, flowing, even if we have to sacrifice. We will see how many and who all would come and from where to be with us.
• The government shall not play the game of "saving the lives" after it had fully prepared to submerge the entire valley. No false promises. If that happens, we would confront their design. We will decide about the strategy, policy accordingly and will not leave them scot free this time.
• The time has come to raise questions on the judicial process through which the life and resources of the people in the valley are being taken away. Why not question it? After all, the objective of such process is justice, and not certainly injustice. This is a part of the system created by human beings. It is not only the matter of abstract theory but the questions are being raised out of the actual reality.

The impending submergence would violate the stipulations of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) and the orders of the Court itself. There is no land for resettlement. At this juncture we cannot but think of justice and injustice. How can it be otherwise? We are raising the issues, following the path of constitution and legal propriety, so that the judicial system would not be proved unjust due to the machinations of the powerholders. May the dignity and position of the judiciary remain intact.

For A More Participatory Judicial Process.

• Is it not possible for the Court to examine all the issues raised by the tribals and peasants about the project?
• Is it not necessary for the judiciary to evolve new ways of independently finding out the truth in a dispute between the state power and the common, depressed classes and to do justice?
• Can not the court hold a "Jan Sunwai" (Public Hearing) involving the victims, common people and people's organisations at their places about the issues affecting the hundreds and thousands of people? Why cannot the British legacy of judicial system be changed for the people?
• Is it not right that any judicial process in an issue like Narmada, with a large scale destruction of life and nature, be carried out only after suspending the project, without imposing this destruction?

We also must ponder:

• Whether it is just for the Court to give an order, involving the violation of the constitution, law and its own previous orders, which would strengthen the hands of the state power to suppress and intimidate the people's organisations, their feelings and thinking, allowing the state to become more oppressive?
• If the Court recognizes the violation of the Constitution, law and its own previous orders and after realising the blatant injustice done due to its order, cannot the Court issue a new order to demolish the cause of injustice (as in case of SSP the increase from 81.5 meters to 88 meters) or any other way out (for the construction above 81.5 meters) to stop the impacts of earlier order?
• Why the apex court of this country cannot challenge the administrative decision about any project in the name of Public Purpose which would cater only to the political interests and consumption of the small section of the society, based on fraudulent cost-benefit analysis, and on the violation of constitutional, human rights?
• Why cannot this happen in the democratic polity? We would like to ask, and ask we will, to the nation.

We will stop Sardar Sarovar Project

We are, beyond all these dimensions of the struggle, determined to stop the Sardar Sarovar Project in the larger chain of the large dams on Narmada.

The people’s power has been challenging, on its own strength and on the basis of non-violent strategy, in Narmada and elsewhere, the alien, destructive and iniquitous policy. Now, the struggle in this monsoon in the valley will once again bring before the nation and the world our policy and strategy. The intellectuals would contribute their might.

There will be an appeal in and outside the court, in keeping with all its dignity. The state and central governments will be told, as they already know, everything about the Satyagraha, about the fight between life and death.

Ultimate Non-Violent Challenge the Jal Samarpan

And yet, despite all this, if the work on the Sardar Sarovar Project is allowed, then what? At the very least, without complete and just resettlement of all those who have already been displaced by the dam and dam related works (canals, colony, sanctuary etc); without a review of the project through a new tribunal and people’s hearings, if work on the dam proceeds, to such injustice we shall give the ultimate nonviolent challenge though Jal Samarpan (Sacrifice in Water). This would depend on the resumption of the work on the dam, in an appropriate situation and time.

This is not frustration, fear or helplessness, exhaustion or defeat. Nor is it escape from the struggle, rather it is taking the struggle to its height. This is the challenge. We embrace it for the sake of true development. This would serve as an appeal to the youth and people’s power for the decades to come. This is not any Kargil war! This war will be fought with equanimity instead of hatred, peace instead of violence, on the path of change, up to its culmination.

Our Vision Ahead. We hope that this situation would not come. We also want to live intensely and with all the joy and beauty of life. We have to bring in the people’s rule in this country sans exploitation and oppression; to do away with casteism, communalism and war- mongering. We want to flourish with nature and nature to bloom with us; and to assert the rights of the dalits, toilers, tribals, peasants and women on that resource base. We have to bring in the true development with the appropriate utilisation of scientific knowledge and technology, new research for sustainable and just water and energy policy and development paradigm. We have to internalise the trinity of equality, modest lifestyle and self-reliance (samata, sadgi, svavalamban) at every level individual, community to the nation-state.

Jan Samarpan for a New Politics. An Appeal for Youths

If Jalsamarpan is avoided through the truthful decision to save the valley, as well as Kutch and Saurashtra, we can go a long way. We will have to create a new politics, and a new force with the co-ordination and alliance of all the people’s movements - an alternative with all the strength to counter the present corrupt, anti-people electoral politics. This programme would also need a unique Samarpan (sacrifice): not a Jal Samarpan (Sacrifice in Water) but a Jan Samarpan (Dedication to the people). This work has to be carried on with a long term view, conviction and path yet another Tapa. For this Jan Samarpan too, there is a need for a new strength and direction. What do we need, for the ongoing Narmada struggle and for the proposed struggle for a new world? We need a band of at least 50 young friends, who can give one year for this cause immediately. This Yuva Vikas Dal (Youth for Development group) would form the nucleus within Narmada valley and outside for the struggle and reconstruction. This is not a mere dream, but also an unbending faith in the making of a new society. What will and will not happen? Now, the larger society, and not just the people in the Narmada Valley, will decide it.

We believe that true development will evolve and we shall attain it!