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dam-l LS: Meet another hero from Narmada
The Hindustan Times
Sunday, June 27, 1999, New Delhi
Meet another hero from Narmada
Akshaya Mukul (Neemgaon, June 26) On Wednesday, Narmada Bachao Andolan
(NBA) activists decided to visit Domkhedi village to watch a rudali (folk
theatre) performance, but were unable to cross the overflowing Khad river,
a Narmada tributary. So they shifted the venue to a point uphill. And the
first to complete the climb was 72-year-old Jasbhai Patel,
academic-turned-social activist.
The Narmada movement is personified by the frail Medha Patkar and, of late,
has been injected some glamour by way of writer Arundhati Roy. But Mr Patel
symbolises the kind of ordinary person with skills to offer who has been
drawn to the movement from afar. The people of Neemgaon, Domkhedi,
Jalsindhi and other villages admire him for introducing newer and better
varieties of crops and vegetables. And if you think Mr Patel is just
another radical activist, hold on.
He is a well-known authority on Hindustani classical music and one of his
two books, Sruti and Swar is well-acknowledged by music lovers. Mr Patel
can easily pass off as an old man doing social work in the winter of life,
but once you converse with him, you return convinced: he's just the man who
can 'develop' the Narmada valley without spending crores and dislocating
thousands.
"My aim is to build small dams which would cost little and will be of
greater use to people here," he says. Nairobi-born Jasbhai, a bachelor,
came to India in 1942 as a child. A veritable voyage of discovery began.
Even as he continued his studies, he pursued his passion for nature.
Academic excellence took him to the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University
in the US from where he did his Ph.D in chemical technology. He taught at
different universities there, and returned to join the Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research and later, IIT, Kanpur. Mr Patel travelled widely
through the Narmada Valley, Garhwal Himalayas, the US and Africa, covering
nearly 100,000 km on foot.
His contact with the NBA began in the early '90s, when he contributed Rs
100 which he had just received from the Economic and Political Weekly for
an article on the Narmada. Says Mr Patel, "At my very first meeting with
Medha, I decided I could work with her for a lifetime."
He understands it's a tough and long battle, but has decided to give
another three years to the NBA. He visits the area almost every fortnight
from Baroda, where he has a 95-year-old mother to look after, and works
among the tribals - improving the soil of the area.