Details: https://bit.ly/apls-narmada
Abstract:
For over more than sixty years, ever since the foundation stone of the Sardar Sarovar Dam and Project (SSP) was laid in 1961, the people of the Narmada Valley affected by the SSP have been involved in many intense struggles against the project. Many of these resistance movements in the Narmada valley eventually culminated into a powerful people’s movement popularly known as the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). Both Shripad Dharmadhikary and Nandini Oza were full time activists of the NBA for over twelve years. In the movement, they were involved in a range of activities including mobilising and building the organisation, planning and taking part in protest actions, strategic decision making, research and analysis, rehabilitation of affected people, working with other stakeholders like claimed beneficiary areas, handling the case on behalf of the movement in the Supreme Court and the international campaign. Over the past two decades, Nandini has also been working on the oral histories of the struggle and has brought out these oral histories in the public domain. Shripad has recently stepped back from his day-to-day work on analysis and advocacy on water and energy issues to engage in reflecting and writing about the struggle. Their collection of papers and documents regarding the struggle have been deposited with the Archives at NCBS.
Their joint talk, "Revisiting the Narmada: On Memory, Accountability and Resistance”, will reflect on how archives and history are not just memories or chronicles of past events. Going beyond that, archives can facilitate accountability by keeping alive records of promises made. Through this, and even by their mere existence, which asserts, “we will not let it be forgotten”, archives and history can be acts of resistance. Nandini and Shripad’s talk will explore this in context of the struggle of the people affected by the Sardar Sarovar Narmada project, using the archival material deposited by them at the Archives at NCBS and their own experiences of the struggle.
Bio:
Shripad Dharmadhikary is an activist and researcher, and the founder-coordinator of Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, a centre focused on analytical and advocacy work in the water and energy sectors. His work examines the intersection of water, energy, environment, and development through the lens of equity, justice, sustainability, and efficacy. Areas of his engagement include water policy and programs; river and water resource management—especially through the environmental flows approach; dams, hydropower, and irrigation; the privatisation and commodification of water; the impact of coal on water resources; and inland navigation. A graduate in mechanical engineering from IIT Bombay, Shripad worked for a couple of years in industry and then was a a full-time activist for 12 years with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, a mass movement of people affected by the dams on the Narmada River.
Social worker by training, Nandini Oza was a full-time activist of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, a mass resistance movement against the mega dam, the Sardar Sarovar Project on the River Narmada. She was the President of Oral History Association of India (2020-22). She is a writer, chronicler and an archivist and has been documenting and disseminating the oral histories of the Narmada struggle. Her books have been published in Marathi, Hindi and English. Since 2005 she has been associated with the Zindabad Trust, which supports work related to environment and social change.