Jalsindhi

An adivasi community on the bank of Narmada in tahsil Alirajpur, district Jhabua of Madhya Pradesh. There are families in 2 hamlets spread over at least 4 kms with their backs to the Vindhya mountains. Two-thirds of these families are not yet recognized as project affected. Families that stood for one another and asserted their right to have all eligible Jalsindhi families recognized in the list for securing land in their own state did not get any offer of cultivable land as yet. The government of Madhya Pradesh offered bad land or cash in lieu of land, which the families refused to accept.

Photo shows Bava Maharia (center), leader of the Adivasis in the area, his daughter Baija (right), and Luvaria Shankarya (left) who faced rising Narmada waters that has submerged their fields. The adivasis here are inhabitants of Jalsindhi since ages. They sing Guyana a mythological song giving history of humankind and they dance in hundreds before the Holi fire. Bavas letter to the Chief Minister is one of the most touching documents on Narmada. Luvaria is the main character in Drowned Out an award-winning documentary film. After participation in struggle at the national level for true development all the fields will be drowned this monsoon. The small upper plots cant help them survive. Houses were shifted up last year and they may not drown again but food security would be lost. More of the same story is that of adivasis in Anjanwara, Bhitada and Jhandawa villages in the same tahsil.

Life in the Narmada Valley

History of the Struggle