18/03/2024, 00:11 Narmada Bachao Andolan: The longest living Gandhian ‘Satyagraha’

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Narmada Bachao Andolan: The longest living Gandhian ‘Satyagraha’

Led by Medha Patkar, Narmada Bachao Andolan is perhaps the longest living Gandhian movement in
the history of the world. The river is witness to a struggle of ordinary people using forgotten methods

POCSO case against Yediyurappa handed over to CID

for probe
Amit Sengupta
Updated: 02 Oct 2018, 5:53 PM
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18/03/2024, 00:11 Narmada Bachao Andolan: The longest living Gandhian ‘Satyagraha’

“A Tamil poet says that man’s life is as transient as words inscribed on water. This needs to be pondered
over repeatedly.”—Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi is both right and wrong.

In the Narmada valley, as across the planet, man fails to realise that his life is transient and ephemeral,
that death is inevitable and immortality is impossible.

However, words inscribed on water, can become eternal as in this valley. As eternal as the Gandhian
satyagraha, and the way of life he showed, in everyday living, in thought, text and action.

Led by Medha Patkar, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) is perhaps the longest living Gandhian non-
violent movement in the history of the world.

The river is witness to a great struggle of ordinary people using forgotten Gandhian tools and
reinterpreting them.

In ‘Words on Water’, Sanjay Kak’s classic documentary on the NBA, it is the music by the band, ‘Indian
Ocean’, which touches the deepest core of the soul. In this discovery, the movement is like a river, and
the river is like the movement.

The river lives in the eyes of children and young, in the slogans and songs of the women who are ready
to sacrifice everything for it, in the rustic hands of the farmers; it is in their smile and easy laughter,
with its simmering moistness between their fingers, inside the lungs and intestines, as life’s most
precious and tangible liquid.

The gates of the 138.68 m high Sardar Sarovar Dam at Kevadia in Gujarat might be shut, and the entire
State apparatus might be backing it, but the river moves in ripples, inside the mind, across the oral
traditions, in memories, stories, folk narratives.

On September 17, last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a grand ceremonial gesture to mark his 67th
birthday, inaugurated the gigantic structure of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Kevadia, Gujarat. Almost 3,500
people doing peaceful Satyagraha at Kevadia colony were forcibly picked up by the police after a lathi-charge
and left in distant locations, while several were detained

A DV E RT I S E M E N T

It travels ceaselessly, deep inside the lost and buried Vishnu temples drowned in the waters of the dam,
or in the little Shiva temple at Chota Barda with a bright red Gulmohar flower waiting to drown one day,
and, then, emerging suddenly on a full moon night as the backwater recedes. These words on water
move inside the lush green fields of the Narmada valley, soaking the valley with its life-giving
substances. Vast stretches of corn fields, banana and cotton plantations, soya, dhan and rice, sway with
POCSO case against Yediyurappa handed over to CID
the cool winds of the river, while the sky remains for
transparent
probe and blue. It is difficult to believe that this
fertile land will one day disappear under water.
xPeople are stillWill NPR, NRC
refusing follow “Non-violence
to move. CAA? Answer clouded
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unanimous opinion. At least 35,000Subscribe

people are still to be rehabilitated, NEXT
while hundreds have refused to
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18/03/2024, 00:11 Narmada Bachao Andolan: The longest living Gandhian ‘Satyagraha’

move to the new, officially marked ‘rehab sites’ as in the empty and desolate landscape of Karman
Basahat in Badwani. Over 200,000 people have been displaced because of the dam.

Medha Patkar quotes Gandhi: “My life is my message.” While doing her PhD from TISS in Mumbai, and
working in the tribal areas of Gujarat, her life changed once she had an encounter with the river, and the
gigantic, medium and small dams which were out to ravage it.

It has been 33 years since then, and the movement remains as relevant as ever, including the ideals of
‘Small is Beautiful’ and decentralised, small scale models of development, with the typical Indian village
as the epicentre, as propounded by Gandhi.

The movement is at once a critique of the western and capitalist model of development, as much as a
belief that the synthesis of nature and humanity can alone save the world.

On September 17 this year, Medha Patkar led a huge rally of people affected by the dam. It was called the
‘Pol Khol’ rally. People came from MP, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The rally moved to Anjad in Badwani,
led by women, the driving force of NBA. ‘Nari Shakti Ka Samman’ is one of the most significant slogans
of the movement, with women leading all forms of struggles. Indeed, the NBA has coined many unique
slogans, while reinterpreting songs from the folk narratives around Narmada, as much from the popular
songs of struggle in the Left movement and the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA). However,
the most significant paradigm shift in the Gandhian method, which they have improvised, is the Jal
Satyagraha and Jal Samadhi. The samadhi inside the waters is the last ritual of sacrifice when drowning
and submergence is inevitable. The river reaches to their eyes, but they remain steadfast, often fasting
for days inside the water. Finally, the police enter and drag them out by force.
On September 17 this year, Medha Patkar led a huge rally of people affected by the dam. It was called the ‘Pol
Khol’ rally. People came from MP, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The rally moved to Anjad in Badwani, led by
women, the driving force of NBA. ‘Nari Shakti Ka Samman’ is one of the most significant slogans of the
movement, with women leading all forms of struggles

A DV E RT I S E M E N T

On September 17, last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a grand ceremonial gesture to mark his
67th birthday, inaugurated the gigantic structure of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Kevadia, Gujarat. Almost
3,500 people doing peaceful Satyagraha at Kevadia colony were forcibly picked up by the police after a
lathi-charge and left in distant locations, while several were detained.

Modi declared the big dam as a great beginning of progress in Gujarat, whereby water will come as a
bonanza and permanently change the life of farmers and people in Gujarat, especially in Kutch and
Saurashtra. It was also designed to seduce people before the Gujarat assembly elections in December.
One year later, all his promises have proved to be false. First, most of the canals have not been
constructed. Second, it was a drought year in 2018POCSO summer,casewith water
against scarcity and
Yediyurappa low rainfall.
handed over to CIDThird,
the Gujarat government banned the farmers fromfor even touching the water for irrigation in a few canals
probe
which had water. Fourth, many farmers had already sowed their seeds in anticipation of the bonanza.
xFifth, without Will
water, it NRC
NPR, was afollow
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doublespeak Gujarat who
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lived downstream of the dammed river. And, sixth, Kutch and Saurashtra are still waiting,NEXT while the
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18/03/2024, 00:11 Narmada Bachao Andolan: The longest living Gandhian ‘Satyagraha’

farmers are alleging that the water is being diverted to big industry and urban areas. “So was it another
jumla, or was it a transparent lie,” asks Medha Patkar. “If the dam can’t give water to the thirsty land of
farmers, why did they build this gigantic monument? Will it be now declared as a mere monument of
tourism, after the destruction and havoc it has caused? What is the cost and benefit analysis of the dam?
Is this model of development not an abject failure?”

On September 17, at 3 am, women led by Medha Patkar entered the water, while a huge posse of police,
district officials and two small boats of the National Disaster Management Authority watched from a
distance. For five hours, they remained inside the river, their faces visible, shouting slogans, singing
songs, listening to speeches.

As darkness descended, Medha said, “Don’t forget the poorest of the poor. The Dalits, fishermen,
adivasis, minorities, small traders, farmers, the landless, the exploited and crushed. Reject caste and
religious divides. Unite for the sake of humanism. They have forgotten Gandhi, but we have not
forgotten him. This Jal Satyagraha is a warning. Next time, it will be Jal Samadhi.” The lighted diyas float
in the darkness. Her words, too, moved on the water.
The writer is a senior journalist

A DV E RT I S E M E N T

This article first appeared on National Herald on Sunday; it was edited at 5.53 pm on October 2, 2018 to add
the opening quote

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Maharashtra Gujarat Mahatma Gandhi Medha Patkar Narmada Bachao Andolan Indian Ocean

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Badwani Jal Samadhi POCSO case against Yediyurappa handed over to CID
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