Dispossession and Resistance in India: The River and the Rage

by Nilsen; Alf Gunvald

• ISBN13: 9780415558648
• ISBN10: 0415558646
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781136994319
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book deals with the controversies on developmental aspects of large dams, with a particular focus on the Narmada Valley projects in India. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and research, the author draws on Marxist theory to craft a detailed analysis of how local demands for resettlement and rehabilitation were transformed into a radical anti-dam campaign linked to national and transnational movement networks. The book explains the Narmada conflict and addresses how the building of the anti-dam campaign was animated by processes of collective learning, how activists extended the spatial scope of their struggle by building networks of solidarity with transnational advocacy groups, and how it is embedded in and shaped by a wider field of force of capitalist development at national and transnational scales. The analysis emphasizes how the Narmada dam project is related to national and global processes of capitalist development, and relates the Narmada Valley movement to contemporary popular struggles against dispossession in India and beyond. Conclusions drawn from the resistance to the Narmada dams can be applied to social movements in other parts of the Global South, where people are struggling against dispossession in a context of neoliberal restructuring. As such, this book will have relevance for people with an interest in South Asian studies, Indian politics and Development Studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. xi
The river and the rage: Introducing the Narmada Valley conflict	p. 1
Dispossession and resistance in the Narmada Valley	p. 5
Understanding movement processes	p. 13
Losing ground: Accumulation by dispossession in the Narmada Valley	p. 18
Accumulation by dispossession in the Narmada Valley	p. 20
Accumulation by dispossession and the political economy of postcolonial capitalism in India	p. 38
Concluding remarks	p. 45
Everyday tyranny and rightful resistance: The emergence of the Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangath	p. 47
The contours of everyday tyranny	p. 49
The emergence of the KMCS	p. 58
Rightful resistance and catalytic work in subaltern politics	p. 63
Concluding remarks	p. 68
Discovering the dam: Militant particularist struggles for resettlement and rehabilitation	p. 70
The Narmada Dharangrasta Samiti	p. 71
The ARCH Vahini	p. 82
The Narmada Ghati Navnirman Samiti	p. 85
Concluding remarks	p. 90
Towards opposition: The formation of the anti-dam campaign	p. 93
The radicalization and abstraction of resistance	p. 94
Divergence and convergence in the formation of the anti-dam campaign	p. 108
Concluding remarks	p. 116
Cycles of struggle: The trajectory of the anti-dam campaign, 1990-2000	p. 118
Jury politics and direct action	p. 119
'Hamare Gaon, Mein Hamare Raj'	p. 125
The international Narmada campaign and the independent review	p. 131
Jury politics revived and revisited	p. 135
The limits of jury politics and the political economy of the state	p. 142
Concluding remarks	p. 146
Enablements and constraints: The making of the Maheshwar anti-dam campaign	p. 149
Factors of enablement in the Maheshwar campaign	p. 150
The role of women in the Maheshwar campaign	p. 154
Factors of constraint in the Maheshwar campaign	p. 158
Concluding remarks	p. 168
Development, not destruction: Alternative development as a social movement project	p. 170
Challenging the postcolonial development project	p. 171
Building a capacity for hegemony	p. 187
Concluding remarks	p. 192
Whither the rage? Learning from the Narmada Valley movement process	p. 194
Summary of the argument	p. 194
Whither the rage?	p. 199
Notes	p. 203
Bibliography	p. 211
Index	p. 226
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