t.com www.GOALias.blogspot.com www.GOALias.blogspot.com

www.GOALias.blogspot.com140 Politics in India since IndependenceNarmada Bachao AandolanSocial movements that we discussed so far raised variousissues about the model of economic development that Indiahad adopted at the time of Independence. Chipko movementbrought out the issue of ecological depletion whereasthe farmers complained of neglect of agricultural sector.Social and material conditions of Dalits led to their massstruggles whereas the anti-arrack movement focused onthe negative fallouts of what was considered development.The issue implicit in all these movements was madeexplicit by the movements against displacement causedby huge developmental projects.Sardar Sarovar ProjectCredit: Design and PeopleA poster in supportof Narmada BachaoAndolan.An ambitious developmental project was launchedin the Narmada valley of central India in early’eighties. The project consisted of 30 big dams, 135medium sized and around 3,000 small dams to beconstructed on the Narmada and its tributariesthat flow across three states of Madhya Pradesh,Gujarat and Maharashtra. Sardar Sarovar Projectin Gujarat and the Narmada Sagar Project inMadhya Pradesh were two of the most importantand biggest, multi-purpose dams planned underthe project. Narmada Bachao Aandolan, a movement to saveNarmada, opposed the construction of these dams and questionedthe nature of ongoing developmental projects in the country.Sardar Sarovar Project is a multipurpose mega-scale dam. Itsadvocates say that it would benefit huge areas of Gujarat and thethree adjoining states in terms of availability of drinking waterand water for irrigation, generation of electricity and increase inagricultural production. Many more subsidiary benefits like effectiveflood and drought control in the region were linked to the success ofthis dam. In the process of construction of the dam 245 villages fromthese States were expected to get submerged. It required relocationof around two and a half lakh people from these villages. Issues ofrelocation and proper rehabilitation of the project-affected people werefirst raised by local activist groups. It was around 1988-89 that thelocal voluntary organisations.Debates and strugglesSince its inception the NBA linked its opposition to the SardarSarovar Project with larger issues concerning the nature of ongoingdevelopmental projects, efficacy of the model of development that