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dam-l LS: Omvedt Discussion Part 3/6 - Ashish Kothari Response
>>AN OPEN RESPONSE TO GAIL OMVEDT'S 'OPEN LETTER TO ARUNDHATI ROY'
>>BY ASHISH KOTHARI
>>
>>Gail Omvedt's "Open letter to Arundhati Roy" has raised a number of issues,
>>some of which need a detailed response, which I attempt below. To put
>>things in perspective, I should state that I was involved with the first
>>detailed critique of the Narmada Projects (back in 1983, as part of the
>>environmental group Kalpavriksh), and have since then opposed these dams as
>>being inherently destructive. I have also been involved for some time with
>>environmental assessments of large projects, and would therefore like to
>>bring in a third perspective into the debate, which has so far largely
>>focused on (1) displacement and (2) benefits of large dams. This third
>>perspective is the environmental one.
>>
>>Ms. Omvedt's arguments are essentially along two planes: one, that NBA
>>sustains itself more on middle-class Indian and foreign support rather than
>>a mass local base, and two, that its oppostion to large dams as such is
>>ill-founded. Along the way she brings in some other arguments, and takes
>>broadsides at some other people, which I will try to respond to. This
>>response is somewhat lengthy, for which I offer apologies to readers!
>>
>>A "SMALL LOCAL BASE"?
>>
>>The assertion that the NBA has a "small local base" is, to say the least,
>>rather strange and ill-informed. Some of us have just returned from the
>>Rally for the Valley, and would have had to be absolutely blind if we were
>>to accept Ms. Omvedt's charge. At Pathrad, one of the villages threatened
>>with submergence by the Maheshwar Project, there were 8 to 10,000 villagers
>>to greet the Rally. At every village and town along the Rally's route,
>>there were tumultous welcomes, such that many reporters with us remarked
>>that they had seen such turnouts only in election campaigns. Yet these were
>>not 'hired' crowds, as may well happen at election rallies. Ms. Omvedt
>>would have done well to come for the Rally, perhaps as an observer, and
>>seen the so-called "small local base" (and its alleged middle-class
>>character) for herself.
>>
>>This is not a new phenomenon. Anyone who has attended rallies of the NBA in
>>the last 14 years, would have been impressed at the spontaneously massive
>>response they receive. In 1991, we walked over 200 km. through Madhya
>>Pradesh and Maharashtra, and across the Gujarat border (where a naked
>>display of state power stopped us)…there were three thousand people, 95% of
>>them local villagers, on this Sangharsh Yatra. Two 4 to 5 day long dharnas
>>in Delhi, one of them I remember in the scorching heat of summer on the
>>streets in front of the Prime Minister's residence, were attended by
>>several thousand villagers. Several hundred of these were adivasis, many of
>>whom had walked 3-4 days to get to the spot from where transportation was
>>available to bring them to Delhi. Unless Ms. Omvedt is alleging that these
>>are all hired hands, or that they are all afflicted by a mass "false
>>consciousness", I cannot see how she can call this kind of participation
>>"small".
>>
>>Using the name of Waharu Sonavane to raise questions about the nature of
>>the NBA, is illogical, and rather strange coming from an academic who
>>should know better than to use single examples to generalise. This kind of
>>logic can easily be countered by naming a dozen tribals who remain
>>steadfast in their opposition to the dam, and are willing to go along with
>>the NBA all the way. I was just last week talking to Lohariyabhai of
>>Jalsindhi, whose hut will be the first to go under the waters if they rise
>>another few feet this monsoon (even as I finish this essay, this
>>submergence may be taking place). Lohariyabhai is resolute in committing
>>"jal samarpan", and with him are thousands of other adivasis and
>>non-adivasis. MS. OMVEDT'S CHARGES AGAINST THE NBA, AT A TIME WHEN THESE
>>VILLAGERS ARE STRUGGLING TO SAVE THEIR LIVES AND LIVELIHOODS, THEIR LANDS
>>AND CATTLE, ARE NOT JUST INCORRECT, THEY ARE RATHER INSENSITIVELY AND
>>TRAGICALLY TIMED.
>>
>>Ms. Omvedt, I would request you to go to Jalsindhi or Dhomkhedi, and ask
>>them the questions you have asked Arundhati. You'll get your response in
>>those adivasi villages. And while you are at it, go also to Pathrad, Anjad,
>>Nisarpur….and go also to the upper pada of Manibeli, already submerged by
>>the Sardar Sarovar Dam, where adivasis who had resisted the submergence are
>>now living, refusing to vacate their village even now. Ask the adivasis of
>>Manibeli, whose huts were amongst the first to permanently go under water,
>>who lost their cattle and goats, and yet who stand resolutely with the NBA.
>>It is a mockery of these incredibly brave people to call them a "small
>>local base".
>>
>>This is not to assert, in any way, that the NBA's base in the valley covers
>>the entire affected population. Undoubtedly there are dissenters, there are
>>those who have lost courage and accepted whatever doles the state
>>governments have handed out, there are perhaps even some who would be happy
>>to move out (due to locally exploitative situations, a topic on which I
>>shall come back). There would also perhaps be those, like Waharu, who have
>>been disillusioned or ignored by NBA. No mass movement is perfect, and no
>>mass movement can claim 100% support. But to point to these examples, and
>>negate the clearly evident mass base of the movement, in which I would
>>estimate that at least 30,000 to 40,000 people in the valley alone are
>>involved, is to display a bias and lack of respect for the ground facts.
>>
>>The question of why there is no "top-ranking adivasi leadership in the
>>NBA", is important, and needs to be squarely addressed by NBA itself. But
>>it is not a question restricted to the NBA, it can be asked of most recent
>>movements in India. Perhaps it has to do with the history of displacement
>>of adivasi identity, perhaps something else. Perhaps it has to do with the
>>way in which the Indian and international media singles out 'heroes' they
>>are comfortable with, or who belong to their 'class'. What is absolutely
>>clear, however, is that in the decision-making process in the valley
>>itself, both adivasis and non-adivasis are highly involved, even though
>>Medha and other 'middle-class' activists do often have a stronger say….I
>>have in the past participated in these processes, and will vouch for this.
>>Ask any of the reporters who were with the Rally throughout (barring one or
>>two who were hostile right from the beginning), and they will tell you how
>>they were amazed at the knowledge regarding the dam and its negative
>>impacts, regarding their legal rights, and regarding larger issues of
>>development, that 'ordinary' villagers (adivasi and non-adivasi) displayed.
>>This kind of in-depth knowledge, and this kind of resolute participation in
>>activities like jal samarpan, cannot be the outcome of a purely or even
>>predominantly urban middle-class movement.
>>
>>One may raise another issue here. While it is technically, academically
>>correct to call Medha and some other NBA activists who have their origins
>>in the city as "middle-class", is this a valid real-life category for these
>>people any more? Some of these activists have spent the better part of the
>>last decade and a half living with the villagers and towns-people of the
>>Narmada valley, on monthly stipends which are so low that Ms. Omvedt and I
>>would perhaps not survive for more than a couple of days on them. Some of
>>them are on no stipends at all. They have braved everything that the
>>villagers have braved, police brutalities, imprisonment, and now the
>>ultimate 'sacrifice' of the jal samarpan. To brand them as the "urban
>>elite" is simply to take recourse to tired old academic categories, and to
>>avoid facing the fact that these people have given up the trappings of
>>their own past, and chosen to live much more difficult lives to be one with
>>the dam-affected populations.
>>
>>Incidentally, it is interesting that Ms. Omvedt, after alleging that the
>>NBA has an "urban elite" leadership, lists the following people as leaders
>>of the Maharashtra Rajya Dharangrast va Prakalgrast Shetkari Parishad, an
>>organisation of farmers affected by dams and other projects that she has
>>projected as being the sort of model that the NBA is not: Baba Adhav, Datta
>>Deshmukh, Naganath Naikaudi, and Bharat Patankar. Now who amongst these is
>>adivasi, or for that matter, an ordinary farmer? Can one then ask the same
>>question of her: why is there no "top-ranking adivasi/farmer leadership" in
>>the southern Maharashtra movement? (I am NOT alleging that there is not,
>>merely pointing out to the fallacy of Ms. Omvedt's argument, based as it is
>>on a biased view of the decision-making process in the NBA). What gives
>>these people, at least some of them from urban backgrounds, more of a right
>>to "represent" local farmers than the right than NBA activists have?
>>
>>In a strange interlude, Ms. Omvedt also makes a passing reference to
>>Avinash B.J. of Satya Shodh, an NGO working with the villagers in the Koyna
>>area of Maharashtra. She claims that this person, a supporter of NBA, has a
>>"little local base", and that he is making an unjust demand to let farmers
>>remain around the Koyna reservoir, even though this would condemn them to a
>>state of being only "agricultural labour to the bigger landowners". Both
>>these claims are gross misrepresentations. In 1996, during the Jungle
>>Jeevan Bachao Yatra, a band of 25-30 of us (activists, academics, and
>>villagers affected by several national parks and sanctuaries) had travelled
>>to some of the villages in the Koyna Sanctuary, on the eastern side of the
>>reservoir. The response we got was very large, and everywhere, there was
>>one demand, that they did not want to be moved out of their villages. They
>>reiterated this demand in a recent meeting organised by the Koyna Jeevan
>>Hakka Sanrakshana Sanghatana, a mass-based organisation which by no stretch
>>of imagination has a "little local base". These farmers have their own
>>lands, they are not labourers on other people's lands, they have intimate
>>ties with the forest. Unless again this is a case of mass "false
>>consciousness", for Ms. Omvedt to allege that Avinash is falsely
>>representing them, is downright wrong. Perhaps she is confusing these with
>>some of the villages on the western side of the reservoir, who are indeed
>>badly hit by the submergence and the sanctuary, and are asking to be moved
>>out. Again, it is illogical to generalise from these few villages and cast
>>aspersions on another whole set of villagers or an NGO which has been
>>helping to organise them to fight for their rights.
>>
>>THE QUESTION OF MIDDLE-CLASS AND FOREIGN SUPPORT
>>
>>Ms. Omvedt states that the NBA is essentially sustaining itself with
>>"considerable money and backing from upper middle class people in North
>>America and Europe, not to mention Delhi and Mumbai". She contrasts it with
>>the movement of the dam-affected in Maharashtra, with which she is
>>associated, and which has not been able to get its mass rallies publicised
>>in the national or international press. I'm sorry, but this sounds like
>>sour grapes to me. To have a "weak middle class component" is not a
>>qualification to be waved around proudly. Is there something wrong in
>>having such a component, so long as it is built on a strong local base? As
>>I have detailed above, the local base of the NBA is amazingly strong, and
>>it started by mobilising such a base.
>>
>>I should know this, because I was, as stated above, involved with the first
>>critique of the Narmada projects, before the andolan had started. Our
>>detailed report was published in 1984 (A. Kothari and R. Bhartari. Narmada
>>Valley Project: Development or Destruction? Economic and Political Weekly
>>Vol. XIX No. 22-23), and since then, Kalpavriksh has been active in
>>independently updating our assessment of the Narmada projects. If indeed
>>the anti-Narmada movement had been an essentially middle-class urban
>>phenomenon, we would have been world-famous by now! As it has turned out,
>>we are not, AND RIGHTLY SO. The fact is, mid-1980s onwards, the
>>mobilisation amongst the people in the valley has been the central plank of
>>the movement, and the middle-class support has come later, as sensitive
>>people in cities begin to see a resonance to their own concerns in the
>>brave struggles of the local villagers. And also as it becomes evident that
>>the Narmada projects are not just about some local government deciding to
>>build some dams, but that they are connected to national and global vested
>>interests, including the World Bank and multinational companies like ABB
>>and Siemens. Building national and global alliances to counter this kind of
>>an invasion of human rights and environment is not to be sneered at…it was
>>done brick by brick, on the foundation of a mass local base, and yes, using
>>messages that were at once both logical/reasoned, and emotive. And it was
>>successful in kicking out the World Bank, the Japanese government, and at
>>least some of the multinational companies who were to support the
>>project…no mean achievement (though Ms. Omvedt, given her leanings towards
>>globalisation, may not think of these as positive achievements).
>>
>>Nor has the NBA ever been flush with funds, as implied by Ms. Omvedt.
>>Again, I am a personal witness to the first few years of mobilisation, and
>>the kinds of hardships that both 'outside' and 'local' activists went
>>through even to make two ends meet while mobilising affected people, the
>>conditions in which tiny, struggling offices were set up, the way in which
>>everyone had to desperately mobilise funds to make even one rally
>>possible…if indeed the NBA has survived for 14 years, it is more due to the
>>spontaneous contributions, in kind and otherwise, of the people of the
>>valley…and to characterise the movement as being flush with middle-class
>>money is to once again mock this painstaking approach. Ms. Omvedt in fact
>>should also be made aware of the fact that the NBA's agitation has cost
>>Baba Amte's incredible ashram in Warora --- where leprosy patients are
>>living the dignified life of any citizen of this country --- to lose many
>>of its donors and to face severe financial difficulties.
>>
>>That the Narmada struggle touched a chord amongst national and global
>>citizens and media, while the Krishna Valley one did not, should surely not
>>be counted against the NBA? Indeed, it is because of this networking and
>>alliance that many other struggles of people affected by big dams and other
>>'development' projects in India and elsewhere, have gained inspiration and
>>strength. And have even made many of the urban supporters pause and
>>question their own lifestyles, which are undoubtedly one of the causes of
>>unsustainable and inequitable development processes.
>>
>>Ms. Omvedt's allegations would have some basis if indeed the NBA was
>>predominantly based amongst middle-class urbanites, and its news was ONLY
>>being published in the national and international press. Neither of these
>>is true, and anyone with an open mind can verify this by going to the
>>valley, and by looking at the last few years of 'local' newspaper
>>reporting. Go with a closed mind, and you may only see Medha and Alok and
>>Chittarupa, amongst a rally of five thousand villagers, and you you will
>>only see the reporting in the English language dailies…go with an open
>>mind, and you may see the five thousand villagers, and the myriad reports
>>in local dailies.
>>
>>Finally, I wonder what Ms. Omvedt would say about the middle-class
>>(including foreign) support that the Independence movement in India had, or
>>which the National Fishworkers' Forum has (it is even part of a global
>>alliance of fisherfolk fighting against the take-over of the seas by global
>>commercial interests), or which the Chilika fisherfolk's movement against
>>prawn culture has? Incidentally, representatives of some of these other
>>mass movements had come to the Rally for the Valley, perhaps because they
>>saw in it a reflection of their own struggles. Actually, it is ironical
>>that Ms. Omvedt should have reservations about foreign support, given her
>>leanings towards globalisation and liberalisation….ironical indeed, because
>>most of the mass movements in the country today (such as the ones named
>>above) are fighting against the terrible attack on local livelihoods,
>>natural resources, and democratic spaces by today's brand of globalisation,
>>and are being helped by sensitive foreign groups in this struggle!
>>
>>THE QUESTION OF BIG DAMS AND ALTERNATIVES
>>
>>So now, let me tackle Ms. Omvedt's arguments that big dams are necessary,
>>that they can be built in a more equitable way, and that the NBA is not
>>interested in genuine alternatives.
>>
>>When I started working on the impacts of large dams, I had no pre-set
>>notions of whether they were necessary or not. I wanted to arrive at a
>>conclusion on the basis of my own assessments, or those of others that I
>>could lay my hands on. I worked for several years on the environmental
>>assessment of the Narmada projects, spent a year looking at the
>>environmental impacts of other big dams, and examined the machinery in
>>place today to ensure the "sustainability and viability" of such dams. With
>>other colleagues I took a brief look at the post-construction performance
>>of three projects: Ukai (Gujarat), Indira Gandhi Canal (Rajasthan), and
>>Hirakud (Orissa). All this was independently of the NBA. Other friends did
>>painstaking work on Srisailam, Bargi and Rihand as well as studies of