SACW | 7-11 Oct. 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | 7-11 October,  2005


[1]  Pakistan - India:  The Earthquake beyond Borders
(i) Editorial Indian Express
(ii) God: Save us from your followers! (ZAK)
(iii) A tragedy and an opportunity  (Edit., The Hindu)
(iv) HRCP expresses grief over massive quake loss
(v) Organisations involved in earth quake relief  in Pakistan and in India
- Appeal for quake victims  Sungi Development Foundation in Pakistan
- ATHROT Relief Action Programme for the 
Earthquake Victims in both Indian and Pakistani 
Kashmir
[2] India: Majority Report - Defining Minorities 
in a Democratic setup (Ram Puniyani)
[3]  India: Development for BJP, Hindutva for Modi (Rupam Jain Nair)
[4]  India: Justice needed at Indira Sagar (Angana Chatterji)

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[1]   [THE EARTHQUAKE BEYOND BORDERS ]

(i)

Indian Express
October 11, 2005

Editorial

The trauma of the communities hit by the October 
8 earthquake is immeasurable and unending. This 
tragedy that has hit Pakistan and India - nations 
united by geography and divided by history - 
reminds us of a common humanity and common sense 
of grief and loss. It should lead to a shared 
desire and purpose to mitigate the suffering 
being played out on a gigantic scale before our 
eyes. This is a South Asian tragedy. It requires 
a national response without doubt. But it also 
demands a South Asian response.

There is, of course, cruel irony in the fact that 
the region most affected by Saturday's killer 
quake is also the area that has been most marked 
by political tensions between India and Pakistan. 
Kashmir, even while being visited by a calamity 
of such rare magnitude, continues to remain a 
victim of its geo-political location. The 
question really is this: can we rise above the 
limitations imposed by the past to urgently 
address a situation that is embedded in real 
time? There have been instances - few and far 
between - when India and Pakistan have been able 
to throw lifelines over borderlines. Take that 
moment in 2001, when Pakistan despatched tents 
and blankets for those affected in the Bhuj 
earthquake [in India]. Just a year earlier, the 
armies of the two nations were locked in an 
eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation. India has, from 
time to time, made available its medical 
expertise to Pakistani patients. These are 
examples that can and should be multiplied as 
tensions wind down - and never more than today 
when whole villages have disappeared under 
rubble, when countless survivors have nothing but 
the sky as shelter.

That [Pakistani] President Musharraf should 
respond to [Indian] Prime Minister Manmohan 
Singh's offer of help with great circumspection 
is not surprising. He is much more comfortable 
with western assistance and is frank enough to 
explain that there are "sensitivities involved" 
in accepting aid from India for a region that is 
the source of conflict between the two nations. 
He doesn't say it, but he is worried that the 
world would read this as a sign of Pakistani 
weakness, of its inability to administer to a 
region that it believes should rightly be its 
own. These are understandable concerns - but for 
more normal times. Today, Pakistan is facing the 
biggest natural disaster in its history and India 
has a great deal to contribute, not just because 
of its proximity to the sites of devastation but 
it enormous experience in handling such 
calamities. Ways can always be worked out to 
address Pakistan's sensitivities and protect its 
interests. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the 
Hurriyat Conference, spoke a good deal of sense 
when he appealed to both countries to "come 
jointly to the rescue of thousands of people 
here".

_____


(ii)

God: Save us from your followers!

Delhi: Monday, October 10, 2005
As I switch channels - unable to cope with either 
the pictures of the havoc or of the monotonous 
display of quivering bodies of another kind on 
the countless music(?) stations - I catch a 
popular compere on QTV asking another member of 
the morality-grows-on-your-chin brigade if the 
quake was a "Test of Faith or even Divine 
Retribution", the 'capitalization' almost audible!

Another click. Another channel.

A saffron-draped man ends his bhajan, pauses 
until his much-practised serene after-glow look 
has time to register on the TV camera, then asks 
the viewers to pray for forgiveness lest "they, 
too, be punished for forgetting the 
'All-Pervading' and focusing on materialistic 
desires."

The audience sits, heads bowed in shame.The 
phrase, "materialistic desires", echoes for a 
while in their ears: Audio-technology, combined 
with Advertising can be a potent combination.

But not enough in this age of words being replaced by a thousand pictures.

So, for a fleeting moment, my mind fills the gap 
and conjures up grotesque Daliesque images: 
Bleeding children, with begging bowls full of 
Kentucky Fried Chicken Chunks, and wound-festered 
infants sitting in the rubble and nibbling Oreo 
Cookies, while loving parents, in tattered 
clothes, weep with joy as they look at their 
progeny from the power-windows of their gleaming 
overturned Hondas.

Such insane views and insensitive comments are 
not just the domain of 'backward' India and 
Pakistan: one only has to google Jerry Falwell or 
Pat Robertson to find out that similar freaks 
exist in the world's most 'advanced' nation, 
where the President claims that God talks to him 
and instructs him to invade His creations 
elsewhere.

What, I wonder, do such warped persons think the 
400 schoolgirls, who were killed in just one 
school, could have done to deserve this? And why 
would any merciful god have punished those who 
rushed in to save them?

I can only suggest to those who believe in such a 
possibility that, perhaps, the children died as 
an unavoidable fallout of Divine Fury, directed 
at the real sinners - the damned Religious Right, 
which unleashes acts of political and personal 
aggression against those who challenge them in 
any way, or disagree with their version of Faith.

Surely, they, with their misuse of the Hudood 
Ordinances, falsification of blasphemy cases, 
killing of worshippers who belong to another sect 
or belief system, sodomizing of children trusted 
to their care for 'religious' education, 
torturing of spouses in ways that even the 
Marquis de Sade did not imagine, the inventing of 
'traditions' and issuing 'fatvaas' to suit their 
personal purposes - and the covert incitement to 
countless forms of terrorism - deserve such fury 
more than the poor souls they successfully 
misguide.
by  ZAK

_____


(iii)

The Hindu
Oct 11, 2005

Editorial
A tragedy and an opportunity

Natural disasters recognise no boundaries, 
present nobody to blame, and can affect people 
across the socio-economic divide. The massive 
earthquake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale 
with its epicentre in the Hindu Kush mountains, 
exhibited all these three characteristics. The 
temblor devastated parts of Pakistan, Pakistan 
Occupied [read administered] Kashmir, India and 
Afghanistan; it was the result of nothing but the 
Indian tectonic plate's gradual and unstoppable 
northward shift and collision with the Eurasian 
plate; and it brought down everything along its 
deadly fault line, from posh buildings and 
high-rises in Islamabad to entire villages in 
Kashmir. The full magnitude of the destruction 
and a more accurate assessment of the death count 
(which could be over 30,000 according to some 
estimates) will become available only in a few 
days. Aid and rescue operations have been 
hampered by snapped power and telephone lines. 
Moreover, blocked roads due to landslides have 
made the job of reaching remote and far-flung 
villages, a challenge in the best of times, even 
more difficult. The scale of devastation in POK 
is so great that the destruction on the Indian 
side, huge though it is in absolute terms, pales 
in comparison. Muzaffarabad, the principal town 
in POK where an estimated 70 per cent of the 
buildings are either flattened or damaged, faced 
the worst of "nature's fury."

The terrible tragedy may have taken place in 
disputed territory but it has united the two 
parties that stake claim to it, India and 
Pakistan, in a common grief. At one level, New 
Delhi's offer of rescue and relief assistance, 
which was made just hours after the earthquake by 
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to President 
Musharraf, reflected the new warmth in ties. At 
another level, and perhaps more importantly, it 
has opened up the possibility of bringing the two 
countries closer on an emotive issue, one that 
will strike an immediate chord with their 
peoples. If India and Pakistan had agreed to 
coordinate their disaster relief operations, such 
mutual assistance would have constituted an 
important confidence building measure. But 
Islamabad, which has turned down this proposal, 
is obviously worried about the political 
ramifications of allowing the Indian Army, which 
undertakes much of the relief and rescue work, 
access into POK. Given such sensitivities, it may 
be far too optimistic to expect that the 
earthquake will pay a large peace dividend, but 
some sort of cooperation between the two 
countries can and must be set in place. Large 
numbers of people on one side of Kashmir have 
relatives on the other and it is imperative - as 
the moderate Hurriyat leader, Mirwaiz Umar 
Farooq, has stressed - for the two countries to 
restore communication links and facilitate the 
free flow of information across the line of 
control. The earthquake has damaged Aman Setu, 
the bridge connecting the two parts of Kashmir 
that symbolises the thaw in their ties. It will 
be repaired shortly but the tragedy has offered 
New Delhi and Islamabad a greater opportunity: 
that of establishing an emotional bridge between 
the two countries.


______


(iv)

The Daily Times
October 11, 2005

HRCP expresses grief over massive quake loss

Staff Report
LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan 
(HRCP) chairperson, office-bearers and council 
members have expressed sorrow over the massive 
human loss and devastation caused by the 
earthquake.
"The HRCP has directed our correspondents, 
core-group activists and members to offer 
whatever assistance and succour they can to 
earthquake victims, and to help Edhi Trust teams 
for this purpose. Aiding those unable to access 
relief is particularly important at this time," 
said a statement issued on Monday on behalf of 
HRCP Chairperson Asma Jahangir and General 
Secretary Syed Iqbal Haider.
The HRCP is coordinating its relief operation 
with the Joint Action Committee for Peoples 
Rights (JACPR). "Sungi Foundation, a 
non-government organisation, will be the focal 
point and HRCP members will provide vital 
information and identify groups for relief 
distribution," the statement said.
The scale of the tragedy demands wholehearted 
efforts from all citizens, especially people's 
rights activists, it added. All donations should 
be sent to the Joint Action Committee, Islamabad 
(House No. 7A, Street 10, F- 8/3, Islamabad. 
Phones: 051-0092-51-2282481, 2282482).
The HRCP hoped that the government's relief 
efforts would be completely transparent, 
especially as many months of effort would be 
required to rehabilitate and re-house survivors. 
"An assessment of the relief operation's 
effectiveness may become necessary at a later 
date, as the emerging picture regarding measures 
taken becomes clearer in the weeks ahead," the 
statement concluded.


(v)  [Organisations involved in Earth quake Relief  in Pakistan and in India ]

9 October 2005

Appeal for quake victims
Sungi Development Foundation,
Islamabad, Pakistan


Sungi Development Foundation appeals to the people of Pakistan to
donate generously to help their brothers and sisters, who are deeply
distressed, following the disastrous earthquake that hit Pakistan and
has claimed thousands of lives. Over 10,000 people are feared dead in
some of the worst hit districts of Azad Kashmir, Mansehra, Battagram
and Abbottabad.

Sungi Development Foundation disaster response team is coordinating
relief efforts in some of the worst hit districts of the recent quake
in Azad Kashmir, Mansehra, Battagram and Abbottabad. Sungi
Development Foundation has zonal offices in these districts for more
than ten years and Sungi's zonal coordinators based there are
visiting the effected areas with members of other relief agencies, so
that emergency relief supplies can be given to these people.

Sungi has set up its Relief Operations Unit at its head office (0992-
333414/334750) in Abbotabad and all relief efforts are being
coordinated from there.

Essential items need to help victims:

* Tents

* Water

* Blankets

* Food Items ( Rice, Sugar, Atta, Onions, Potatoes, Cooking oil )

* Cross Cheque ( Sungi Development Foundation, 365-40-1, MCB Star
Branch, Abbottabad, Pakistan)

* Any other house hold items.

Sungi and other civil society organizations have arranged special
vehicles to collect and send necessary supplies from Islamabad to the
disaster areas. Goods can be dropped off at the following address:

Sungi Development Foundation:

House No. 7-A, Street No. 10, Sector F-8/3, Islamabad. Tel (2282481-
2)

Contact persons at Sungi Islamabad: Naeem Iqbal, Riaz Ahmed and
Francisco D'Sa (0300-9562063)

Email: Naeem.iqbal at sungi.org  , riaz.ahmad at sungi.org


o o o  o


Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society
www.jkccs.org


ATHROT
Relief Action Programme for the Earthquake Victims

We need your donations in cash and kind to support the
relief programme for: -

1.      Relief and Rehabilitation of Uri victims
2.      Emergency relief programme for Tangdar victims
3.      Blood Donation for Azad Kashmir victims

•       Donations in Cash may be deposited at Jammu
and Kashmir Bank, Polo view Branch, on account of JKYF
account number SB 1169
•       Clothes, blankets, tents, food items and other
donations in kind may be handed over to our volunteers
at ATHROT collection counter at Lal Chowk, Srinagar
•       Donations will also be directly accepted at
our camps at Salamabad, Uri and Tangdar
•       BLOOD DONATION CAMP for Azad Kashmir victims
will be held on Sunday 16th of October 2005.

ATHROT is a collective initiative supported by Jammu
and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, Jammu and
Kashmir Yateem Foundation, Help Poor Voluntary Trust,
Friends of Humanity, Student’s Helpline, Kashmiri
Women’s Initiative for Peace and Disarmament, Apna
Ghar, Youth for Humanity, Bar Association Budgam and
students from Kashmir University and different
Colleges and members from Business community.

In this hour of despair and tragedy we appeal to
people of Jammu & Kashmir on both sides of control
line to rise up to the occasion to help their
calamity-struck brethren by all means necessary.

ATHROT programme solicits support and cooperation from
all concerned organisations and individuals to put up
a united, organised, concerted and sustained
resistance to the present calamity.

Please feel free to contact us for further details on
the following numbers:
91-194- 2482820
9419013553
2310145
9419046026
9419009950

Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society
C/O Mr. Parvez Imroz
The Bund, Amira Kadal, Srinagar
Jammu and Kashmir, 190001
India



______

[2]

Issues in Secular Politics: October I 2005

MAJORITY REPORT

DEFINING MINORITIES IN A DEMOCRATIC SETUP

Ram Puniyani

Indian democracy was the outcome of the freedom 
movement, which in turn was based on the values 
of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (community). 
During the freedom movement there were marginal 
streams which did not subscribe to these values 
and they stood out as Muslim League on one side 
and Hindu Mahasabha and RSS on the other. The 
Indian nation inherited the celebratory ethos of 
pluralism and diversity. Few sections whose 
interests stood to be threatened due to democracy 
and accompanying social and political relations 
did raise hula boo about their religion coming 
under the threat. Indian constitution, like most 
of the progressive modern constitutions provided 
the concept of affirmative action for weaker 
sections of society (SCs and STs) and certain 
other type of provisions for security of 
minorities (religious, linguistic and ethnic). 
Later to keep in tune with the concurrent 
developments and articulations in the concepts of 
human rights, India did endorse the 
recommendations of various UN bodies on this 
issue.

The idea of these was that the religious, ethnic 
or linguistic groups which are numerically 
smaller should not feel intimidated, should not 
feel out of the place and should feel free from 
the fear of being swept aside by the dominance of 
majority community. Indian constitution while 
giving the minority status to the religious 
denominations did recognize most of the religions 
with smaller following as minorities. The base of 
this provision was numerical weakness and social 
disadvantage due to various reasons. Accordingly 
Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis and Jews 
amongst others were logical religious minorities. 
Some religions, like Jainsim, were initially 
denied this minority status as the dominant 
political forces asserted that it is not an 
independent religion but is a mere sect of 
Hinduism. The statement by Sudarshan that Sikhism 
is a sect of Hinduism did create turmoil in large 
section of Sikh community.

Whatever be the position of Indian Constitution, 
RSS, which does not subscribe to the values of 
Indian constitution, naturally stands opposed to 
that. It is in this context that RSS Chief 
K.Sudarshan, who earlier had asked for doing away 
with this constitution and bringing in the one 
based on Holy Hindu books, has gone on to lay 
down a new basis of the concept of minorities. As 
per him, (I.E. Sept. 30, 2005) Parsis and Jews 
are the only religions, which are minorities, as 
these are the only people who have come from 
'outside'. By doing this, through a clever 
maneuver the whole notion and basis of minorities 
is turned upside down, its purpose is thrown to 
the wind and 'insider-outsider' duo is used to 
define and label the minorities.

This is a dangerous terrain. The concept of 
outsider-insider is problematic on several 
scores. To begin with what is the cut off date of 
this label? As per the ideas of founding fathers 
of our state, all those living here are insiders, 
the lawful, equal citizens. History has witnessed 
different communities migrating from one part of 
the globe to the other and making that its home. 
In case of India despite the 'intellectual' 
jugglery performed by Golawalkar and later 
Hindutva ideologues the current understanding is 
that Aryans came here in the series of waves of 
migration. Tilak began with the theory of Arctic 
home of Aryans, Golwalkar went to change it to 
state that Arctic home was right here in Bihar 
and Orissa region and later this landmass shifted 
northwards, leaving behind the Aryans as the 
original inhabitants of India. To substantiate 
this intellectual feat by modern techniques, one 
computer scientist, who also duplicates as 
Hindutva ideologue, N.S. Rajaram, went on to 
manipulate the seal of bull found in Mohanjodaro. 
The head of bull was substituted by the head of 
horse; the animal associated with Aryans, so as 
to prove that Aryans were the natives of this 
land and so are the logical owners of this land. 
All this has been done Golwalkar onwards to prove 
that Aryan Hindus are the real natives, so the 
real natives the Adivisis are called as Vanvasis 
in this scheme of things. Constitution and in 
turn the Indian nation has given the minority not 
on the insider- outsider basis, nor it has gone 
in to the past to give th deifintion of this. The 
date of India's birth here is 15 th August, and 
matters regarding as to who is an Indian begin 
from that date and not from the vague amorphous 
past, which has been constructed by some for 
their the sake of their political agenda If 
Sudarshan's definition is to be believed, which 
incidentally has no legitimacy as per the Indian 
ethos, as the Aryans are the immigrants, than 
Hindus are the minority, whatever that means.

One should not blame Mr. Sudarshan beyond a 
point. As he and his RSS do not subscribe to the 
Indian constitution and have Hindu nation, Hindu 
Rashtra, running in their blood. We need to 
ensure that such illegitimate ideas have no place 
in our modern democracy. The whole concept of 
minority is essentially meant to provide security 
to numerically vulnerable groups. Again it cannot 
be taken in the straightjacket manner. Democracy 
has to give paramount importance to the 
individual rights. Group rights come in only as a 
defense in certain situations and also for the 
reason that minorities are not subjugated by the 
dominant communal streams. Unfortunately in India 
due to the prevalence of communal violence, due 
to bringing to fore the issues related to 
religion and the identity politics, the threat 
perception amongst religious minorities has gone 
up and many of them may be seeking further 
strengthening of these group identities. Ideally 
such group identities have to loosen up and 
become secondary over a period of time, with the 
Indian national and Human identity taking 
precedence over the other one's. Dr. Ambedkar 
tried to overcome this dilemma by suggesting that 
majorities should create a situation where the 
minority does not have to seek shelter under the 
minority tag and minorities should try to 
overcome that label and avoid taking recourse to 
being a minority.

The onus seems to be on the state, which ideally 
should not let the majoritarian discourse sweep 
away the democratic agenda and norms, while 
providing the assurances and proper protection to 
the minorities. In this direction the conduct of 
Indian state has been abysmal. It has let the 
dominant tendencies run riot, its components, 
police, bureaucracy and even at times judiciary 
have compromised with the norms of democratic 
conduct as per the law, resulting in the violence 
against minorities and the consequent 
strengthening of minority identity to the extent 
of ghettoisation of minorities at places.

By asserting that only Jews and Parsis are 
minorities, Mr. Sudarshan, true to his Hindu 
Nation theory, wants to do away with the 
safeguards for weaker religious denominations, 
especially Muslims and Christians, who are the 
major victims of RSS progeny's Trishuls and 
Lathis. Doing away the provisions for Muslims in 
particular be exrememly harmful as the community 
has been thrown back on the scales of human 
development, be it socio economic stuts or 
education, housing, jobs and what have you the 
Muslims are lagging behind. The clauses which can 
improve their condtion are already being opposed 
tooth and nail by majoritarin tendencies and on 
the top of that the very clause of minority will 
be reomoved if Mr. Sudarshan's Hindu nationalism 
is to be accepted. Such anti Minority designs 
need to be curbed so that we can have the 
flowering of democracy in a more egalitarian 
manner.



______

[3]

The Indian Express
October 07, 2005

DEVELOPMENT FOR BJP, HINDUTVA FOR MODI
Local polls CM says he will end 'Mughal Raj', 
leaves his candidates in minority areas squirming
Rupam Jain Nair

AHMEDABAD, OCTOBER 6: The BJP mascot is at it 
again. While most party leaders here are 
focussing on development issues in their campaign 
to wrest the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation 
(AMC) from the Congress, Chief Minister Narendra 
Modi has rolled out a one-line theme: Hindutva.

Promising to bring an end to the rule of ''Begums 
and Badshahs'' and reiterating his promise to 
establish a ''Hindu Rajya'', Modi is gearing up 
for his Jan Sampark Yatra starting tomorrow. Modi 
is particularly keen to score in the October 18 
polls, as the BJP had lost the AMC to the 
Congress four years ago, when his main rival 
Keshubhai Patel was CM.

This time, in every public meeting, Modi calls 
the Congress term as ''Mughal Raj'' and assures 
voters that he will fight for Hindu rule. He has 
also slammed the Congress for ''appeasing 
minorities'' and blamed them for slow pace of 
development.

Modi had stormed back to power after the 2002 
riots on the Hindutva mantra. But this time, 
there are many in his party who are squirming, 
especially those contesting from 
minorities-dominated areas.

''It becomes tough for us to convince Muslim 
voters in our constituency,'' says Ketan Patel, 
who's contesting from Dariapur. Of the 61,000 
voters in the constituency, over 35,000 are 
Muslims.

''Of the 129 BJP candidates, 82 are contesting 
for the first time. The party does not want them 
to speak on sensitive issues and has asked them 
to restrict themselves to local issues,'' says 
BJP spokesperson Kamlesh Patel.

According to BJP Rajya Sabha MP Surendra Patel, 
''Masses expect Modi to give his take on 
Hindutva. They want to listen to his views on 
Hindu Rajya. We respect his opinion but not 
everyone in the party is comfortable speaking on 
Hindutva.''

Patel, busy campaigning along with Modi and other 
leaders, says he prefers to speak about 
development issues as they affect the 
''day-to-day life of the masses.''

SMany Congress leaders have complained about 
Modi's fiery speeches, too, to the State Election 
Commission and have alleged that the CM is trying 
to create a communal divide. But then, Modi's 
line has its share of fans. ''Hindutva is our 
core issue,'' says Harin Pathak, MP. ''Modi 
speaks for the party boldly. He doesn't fear 
criticism and draws large crowds.''


______


[4]

Asian Age
20 September 2005

JUSTICE NEEDED AT INDIRA SAGAR
by Angana Chatterji

For those held captive by the Indira Sagar 
Pariyojana (also Narmada Sagar), the Madhya 
Pradesh High Court Order of July 27 and August 
17, 2005 sets an unprecedented context for 
justice.

The people of the Narmada Valley are the nation's 
émigrés. They live within its borders, treated 
with contempt. In construction since 1984, the 
Indira Sagar multipurpose project is scheduled to 
displace over 175,212 people in western Madhya 
Pradesh. Records show that about 16 per cent of 
the displaced are adivasis. Almost 80 per cent of 
the total population engage in cultivation.

Most are economically disenfranchised. The Indira 
Sagar is one of 30 large dams on the River 
Narmada. At 262.19 metres, it stands to submerge 
249 villages, 91,348 hectares of land, 41,444 of 
which are forests, to yield 1,000 MW of 
electricity and irrigate 123,000 hectares of 
land, a third of which is already irrigated. The 
resettlement and rehabilitation policy, shaped by 
the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award (NWDTA) 
of 1979, includes a land for land clause.

Even in its present and inadequate form, 
resettlement and rehabilitation provisions are 
systematically violated. Rehabilitation, when it 
occurs, discounts differences in culture and 
gender, ecology and society, occupation, 
religion, and ability. Families and communities 
are broken apart, forcing alienation, struggles 
with the unfamiliar, new forms of poverty, 
disrespect. Compensation amounts disable people 
from purchasing alternative agricultural land.

There are no provisions for socio-psychological 
rehabilitation that responds to the extensive 
trauma experienced by those displaced. Diverse 
categories of evicted peoples are excluded in 
determining rehabilitation, in some instances 
disregarding their inclusion as stipulated by the 
government's own policies. The condition of 
disenfranchisement is used against the poor to 
invalidate their right to life and livelihood.

In July 2004, Harsud was evacuated at gunpoint, 
as 85 villages remained partially and fully 
submerged, and 32 others waited to sink. A Dalit 
woman from Bhavarali village testified: "They 
(government officials) said we were getting in 
the way of the dam. Sometimes I think it would be 
easier to drown, easier if my children were not 
born." The government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) 
proposed to shut down 20 gates of the dam, 
ensuing submergence for 91 additional villages in 
the monsoon of 2005. On December 31, 2004, the 
GoMP ordered that the evacuation of 91 villages 
be completed by April 30, 2005, displacing 10,000 
families.

That's when the people of Indira Sagar said "No." 
They refused to move. The government's diktat 
contravened the injunctions of the Supreme Court 
writ petition [(Civil) No. 1201/1990] that 
resettlement be completed in all respects at 
least six months in advance of any likely 
submergence, and the NWDTA, decreeing 
rehabilitation of all impacted families at least 
one year prior to submergence.

Over two decades, the people of the Narmada 
Valley have been profuse and prolific in their 
resistance to large dams, to the state capture of 
adivasi and peasant lands through development and 
nationalisation. In Indira Sagar, the Narmada 
Bachao Andolan (NBA, Save the Narmada Movement) 
involved itself since July 2004 to mobilise 
struggle. Solidarity across affected peoples of 
the Narmada has been integral to shaping dissent 
to Indira Sagar.

In April 2005, a massive rally at Khandwa pledged 
to fight for justice. As homes were demolished, 
in May 2005, Ram Kuwar, from Khedibalwadi, Maan 
dam, others from Sardar Sarovar travelled to 
Indira Sagar to support and organise. On May 7, 
2005, the NBA filed a writ petition [(Civil) No. 
3022/2005] to challenge the state in court.

Chittaroopa Palit testified for 25 hours, on 
behalf of the 10,000 affected families. On July 
27 and August 17, 2005, the division bench of the 
Madhya Pradesh High Court passed its interim 
order.

The July 27 order expresses the court's outrage 
at the GoMP's December 2004 notification, citing 
that compensation efforts began only after April 
30, 2005. In answer to the NBA's petition, the 
interim order adjudicated that the GoMP and 
National Hydro Development Corporation (NHDC, 
implementing authority) stop construction at 255 
metres to halt the 91 villages from drowning.

The court directed that the government offer Rs 
10 crores to recompense those evicted without 
compensation, without house-plots or agricultural 
lands, and in violation of the six-month rule. 
The court's decision extended to include the 
nearly 100,000 people impacted by backwater 
effect (in hydrology-speak, raising of surface 
water upstream as a consequence of the dam) who 
have until now been barred from rehabilitation 
processes. The court stated that the Narmada 
Control Authority (NCA) failed to monitor the 
submergence survey, and rehabilitation and 
resettlement of oustees.

The court asked that monitoring and grievance 
procedures be set up, ordering that the Grievance 
Redressal Authority convene weekly to receive 
complaints. The bench instructed that 
resettlement and rehabilitation of the 91 
villages be completed by December 31, 2005. 
Conditional on which, the court ruled, the GoMP 
might commence the submergence of these villages 
during the monsoon of 2006.

While the court clarified that the NBA's conduct 
or intent are not in question, in retaliation, 
the minister in charge of Narmada development 
from the GoMP's ruling Hindu nationalist 
Bharatiya Janata Party has rumoured that the 
Andolan is engaged in corruption and 
anti-national acts. Immediately after the July 27 
order, the GoMP disobeyed its prescriptions.

On August 3, 2005, Fatehgarh, an adivasi village 
on the Narmada, from where you can gaze at Joga 
Kala's historic fort, was attacked by 400 
policepersons, two male residents beaten, 60 
houses broken. The sub-divisional magistrate of 
Kannaud harassed Meema, an adivasi woman, baiting 
her to leave. She refused, and was threatened and 
intimidated by the police.

Twenty-one houses were razed in mid-June. 
Flouting the six-month tenet and resettlement 
provisions, 200 resident families were awarded 
compensation, arbitrarily, in end-July. Three 
days later the police arrived, municipality 
workers participated, bulldozers cracked homes.

The people of Indira Sagar maintain hope in 
anguish, resolute in resistance. They are 
affirmed, even elated, by the court's decision, 
yet sceptical of the state's adherence to the 
rule of law. Their resistance is shaped by a 
larger despair, as they are forced to leave what 
is "home." The state apparatus, diverse, often 
incongruent, here, acts in concert, with 
methodical callousness, to subjugate.

The human rights practises of the GoMP, NCA, 
Narmada Valley Development Authority, NHDC, and 
its progenitor, National Hydroelectric Power 
Corporation, record the absence of transparent 
functioning, vast neglect and egregious abuses. 
How will the judiciary enforce accountability on 
part of the state and its affiliate corporations?

As we witness the magnitude of the disaster 
following passage of Hurricane Katrina through 
south/south-east United States, and the severity 
of ineptitude and racism in the US government's 
response, evidence suggests that the impact on 
New Orleans is compounded by the mismanagement of 
the Mississippi river, where the construction of 
29 dams has led to the sinking of the Louisiana 
coast.

Large dams do not work. The world over, those 
economically poor and socially disenfranchised 
bear the burden of elite modernisation. 
Accompanied by liberal development, 
state-administered terrorism, majoritarian 
nationalism, and the consolidation of a cohesive 
middle-class base, nation building in India 
continues the subordination of marginalised 
castes, women, adivasis, religious minorities.

The imaginary of maldevelopment collaborates to 
displace and mutilate, commit ecocide, ethnocide 
(Narmada, Bhopal, Kashipur). A hundred thousand 
Harsuds: purposefully planned, performed, 
labelled "necessary," called "progress."

"Our struggle is for the Narmada, the people and 
the river, the forests and wildlife," Chittaroopa 
says, "it is also for a world we wish in which 
people are not pauperised, but treated with 
dignity and humanity." Will the state submit to 
those of conscience in Indira Sagar, to chart a 
different, ethical, course?


Angana Chatterji is associate professor of Social 
and Cultural Anthropology at California Institute 
of Integral Studies




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