whose nation?

7/27/2019 Whose Nation?

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Whose Nation?

The Displaced as Victims of DevelopmentSmitu Kothari

Efforts at minimising displacement or improving resettlement will only be marginal, palliative and temporary ifthey are not contextualised in a wider socio-political context. Three contentions support the argument: irst, thatthe current patterns of economic development which are constantly invoked to justify the forced eviction of peopleall over the country, are themselves incompatible with the goals of creating wider conditions of equity and social wsecurity. Second, despite constitutional mandates, in an overwhelming number of cases, national and regional interestsviolate the interests of politically and economically weaker groups and individuals. Third, political and ecologicalsolutions sought must recognise the need to both democratise the control over the resources and processes of productionand regenerate the degraded ecological resources.

The total domination of nature nevitablyentails a domination of people by thetechniques of domination.

Andre Gorz'

"I am most unhappy that developmentprojects displace tribal people from their

habitat, specially as project authorities onot always ake care o properly ehabilitatethe affected population. ut sometimes hereis no alternative nd we have to go aheadin the larger nterest..."

Indira Gandhi, 19842

Introduction

THIS paper, while providing an overviewof developmental displacement, situates thedebate on displacement and resettlement na wider socio-political context. It argues hatif this context is neglected, efforts atminimising displacement or improvingresettlement will only be marginal, palliativeand emporary. These efforts will not, exceptin a few rare cases, improve the socio-economic and cultural security of thecommunities who are displaced. Threecontentions support the argument.

The first contention is that the currentpatterns of economic development whichhave been constantly invoked to justify theforced eviction of people all over the country,are themselves incompatible with the goalsof creating wider conditions of equity andsocial security. Further, hese pattems have

been equated with national progress where"public purpose" nd "national nterest" avebeen used interchangeably nd based on thepolitical premise that nation states aresacrosanct political entities and possessexclusive rights to political sovereignty andthe power of eminent domain:

In the name of the Constitution, ourts andgovernments, continue to justify large-scaleacquisition f land supposedly "for he publicgood". For instance, as recently as 1994, theSupreme Court stated that,

The power to acquire private property orpublic use is an attribute f sovereignty and

is essential o the existence of a government.The power of eminent domain wasrecognised n the principle hat he sovereignstate can always acquire he property of acitizen or public good, without he owner'sconsent... The right o acquire n interest nland compulsorily has assumed ncreasingimportance as a result of requirement fsuch land more and more everyday, fordifferent public purpose and to implementthe promises made by the framers of theConstitution to the people ofIndia (emphasisadded).4

Claims that local populations should begranted nalienable ights o their ands wherestate access is subject to a mutually definedprocess of negotiation are interpreted as'sub-nationalist' or 'secessionist' andtherefore, except in the rarest of rare cases,denounced.5 This issue gains greatercomplexity in societies like India whereregular elections are held and it is therebyassumed that those who are elected to rule"represent" he people and have been thusvested with the authority o define what isand what is not in the national interest.6

These patterns and assumptions need tobe challenged and rethought f any seriouseffort is to be made to reduce the numberof victims of displacement and to widen thebase of social and economic justice.

The second contention s that the issue ofdisplacement and resettlement has to beviewed within the broad question ofdistribution f power. Despite constitutionalmandates and an emphasis on favouring heunderprivileged, n an overwhelming numberof cases, national and regional (andincreasingly global) interests the primarybeneficiaries of the developmental process -transgress from or violate the interests ofpolitically and economically weaker groupsand ndividuals. In decisions on who shouldbe displaced and what should be the reatmentmeted out to them, the more powerfulinterests have continued o prc aiil, speciallywhen they have encountered poor andpolitically weak populations. This questionis therefore essentially linked to demo-

cratising the planning process itself andintegrally involving the historicallyunderprivileged and disempowered indecisions that so crucially affect their ives,livelihoods and lifestyles. 0

The final contention is that political and

ecological solutions must be sought whichrecognise the need to both democratise hecontrol over the resources and processes ofproduction, and regenerate the degradedecological resources of the country. Else,lakhs of people will continue obe consigned"to the dustbins of history" by the processesof planned and market-driven evelopment.

POST-INDEPENDENCEISPLACEMENT

Since independence, evelopment projectsof the Five-Year Plans have displaced aboutfive lakh persons each year primarily as adirect consequence of administrative andacquisition.7 This figure does not includedisplacement by non-Plan projects, changesin land-use, acquisition for urban growth,and loss of livelihood caused by environ-mental degradation and pollution.8 Also notincluded are the substantial displacementsthat are resulting as a consequence of the"systems of monoculture" hat are replacingthe ecological diversity along the coasts, onthe lands and in the forests.

Hydroelectric and irrigation projects arethe largest source of displacement and,destruction f habitat. Other major sourcesare mines (particularly open-cast mines),superthermal and nuclear power plants,industrial complexes as well as militaryinstallations, weapons testing grounds,railways and roads, the notification andexpansion of reserved forest areas,sanctuaries and parks and the use of profit-improving echnologies (causing arge-scaledisplacement of traditional fisherfolk andhandloom weavers). Most of theseinterventions also adversely affect artisanalcommunities and other self-employedpeople. For instance, since independence,over 1 600 majordams9 nd ens of thousandsof medium and smaller irrigation projectshave been built with the attendant canal

1476 Economic and Political Weekly June 15, 1996

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systems and the invariable consequences ofwaterlogging nd oil salinisation. As aresult,between 100-120 lakh people have beenforcibly displaced. Another estimate placesthe number closer to 210 lakhs by thesedams from 1951 till 1985.10

In the absence of firm projectwise data,the estimates of the total numbers displacedby planned development nterventions rom1951-1990 range from a conservative 110

lakhs to an overall figure of 185 lakhs."These figures do not include the sizeablenumber f people who are not acknowledgedas being 'project affected' (i e, by loss oflivelihood caused by natural resourceextraction or degradation), hose displacedin urban areas and those victimised by theprocesses of secondary displacement.'2 Ifthese are tallied, the number of thosedisplaced since independence would be ashigh as four crores.

A significant number of those displacedare tribals and other economically marginalrural populations who have historically

depended on the natural resource base,particularly the commons, for theirsubsistence. The 29th Report of theCommissioner of Scheduled Castes andTribes'3 otes that even though tribal peopleare roughly 7.5 per cent of the population,over 40 per cent of those displaced till 1990came from these communities underscoringthe fact that tribals are disproportionatelyaffected by developmental displacement.

Walter Fernandes estimates that in therecent past the proportion of tribals amongthose displaced has been increasing.'4 Forexample, of the 11.6 lakh persons to bedisplaced by 20 representative dams above50 metres either under construction or beingplanned n the 1990s, 59 per cent are tribals.This figure will obviously increase for damsplanned in predominantly tribal areas(Suvamarekha, ollavaram, tc). The CentralWaterCommission's I990Registerof LargeDams'" s also instructive. Of the 32 damsof more than 50 metre height completedbetween 1951 and 1970, only nine (22.13per cent) were in tribal areas. Between 1971and 1990, 85 additional dams of similarsizes were either completed or were underconstruction. However, by now not onlywere they taller and more sophisticated,

around 60 per cent of them were in the tribalregions.

A recent official report n the rehabilitationof tribals, based on a comprehensive studyof I 10 projects, concludes that of the 16.94lakh people displaced by these projects,almost 50 per cent (8.14 lakhs) were tribals. 6

This scenario is also true for mining. Amajority of mines are located in tribal areasand n addition odirectdisplacement, miningactivity severely affects the livelihoods ofthousands more as water ables get disrupted,overburden s dumped on fertile agriculturalland, and forests are cut.'7 Not only are com-munities deprived of their vital subsistence

resources, he ong-term ustainability f theresources themselves is jeopardised.'8 InSingrauli,'9 which is being developed as theenergy capital of India, (and which has thelargest open-cast coal mine in Asia), thegrowing number of super thermal powerplants represent a new trend: instead ofbuilding power stations near industrial andurban entres, as was the practice n the past,they build near 'captive' coal mines, and

feed the power into regional or nationalgrids. Although lower transaction costs isone obvious reason for this change, theprimary easons for it are that dispersed andpreviously displaced populations are alreadyfragmented and disempowered, and that,comparatively, pollution and environmentaldegradation remain less 'visible'. Theseprocesses also increase rural displacement,particularly of tribals, since a majority ofcoal mines are in tribal areas.

Experience from across the tribal areas nthe country llustrates he severe difficultiesthat displaced tribal communities have had

in dealing with the market economy. Theirlow level of modem skills coupled withalmost non-existent official efforts tofacilitate an easier entry into the dominanteconomy, pushes a majority of tribals intoconditions of servility and bondage. Theneed to avoid such arge-scale displacement,particularly of tribals, and in the case ofunavoidable displacement, their ultimateresettlement on fair and equitable terms,have become central issues of thedevelopmental process itself.

For a majority of tribals, geographicalspace and an evolved relationship with it hascontributed. o their cultural identity andtheir complex patterns of subsistence whichprimarily depend on land, forests, waterbodies, and animal and plant ife. In addition,most do not live in discrete nuclear amiliesbut n extended ones that are ntegrally inkedto a larger community fabric.

Despite the rhetoric to the contrary, bestsummed up in Pandit Nehru's famousstatement on tribal policy,2" planningdevalues this complex nterrelated ntegratedlifestyle and applies reductionist egal andeconomic categories to define how, if theyare to be displaced, should they becompensated. Even for agriculturists, o titles

existed and, as a rule, the letter of the LandAcquisition Act, 1894 (subsequentlyamended n 1984) which only made he stateliable for cash compensation, n the processlegitimising the gross injustice and socialviolence in reducing rights and nterests ntoclaims and complex systems into monetarycompensation, was literally the final word.It also only recognised individual and notcollective orcommunity ights and hereditaryusufruct rights were not even recognised.2'

Additionally, the multiple and season-specific relationships with the ecosystemwhich played a critical role in supportingtheir lifestyle was neither recognised nor

compensated (assuming that much of thiscan be quantified). n most cases, since thereis a fundamental gap in the lifestyles of theplanner and the tribal, even where resettle-ment has taken place, little or no efforts havebeen made to ensure access to a similarecological zone. Effectively, state inter-vention and the law have primarily servedthe interests of injustice rather han ustice.

Ironically, much of this is conceded in

official literature. For instance, a report ofthe home ministry acknowledged that, "Inthe tribal areas, where the displaced personsare given only cash compensation, thetendencies o spend he compensation mountby buying consumer goods and becomingdestitute are common.... In most of theprojects, the tribal oustees become listlesswanderers without a mooring."22 oon afterindependence, the constituent assemblydebates themselves acknowledged theirvulnerability and their rights.23 However,this recognition has rarely been followed upby state action that can even be called

mitigatory.A small caveat, lest there is mis-understanding: his paperdoes not propagatethe view that no displacementisthe preferredoption or that tribal cultures in a specificgeographical space need to be frozen n thatlocalised context. After all, the process ofacculturation with Hindu and Muslimpractices and rituals has been a long anddifferentiated one, and these cultures haveevolved complex relationships with the"outside world." What s being argued roma constitutionalist as well as ecological-political perspective s that no displacementis just unless the due process outlined hereis respected and that developmentalinterventions need to internalise hese social,economic, ecological and processualobligations to those who are displaced -obligations that may require he interventionitself to be altered or recast.

TRAUMA FDISPLACEMENT

The experience of the post-independenceperiod from projects across the countrysuggests that the long drawn out process ofdisplacement has caused widespreadtraumatic psychological and socio-culturalconsequences. These nclude he dismantling

of production systems, desecration ofancestral acred zones or graves and emples,scattering of kinship groups and familysystems, disorganisation of informal socialnetworks that provide mutual support,weakening of self-management and socialcontrol, disruption f trade and market inks,etc. Essentially, what is established in theaccumulated vidence n the country uggeststhat except in the rarest of rare cases, forceddisplacement has resulted n, what MichaelCernea alls "a spiral of impoverishments."24Cernea also points out that trade linksbetween producers and their customer base(and systems of exchange and barter) are

Economic and Political Weekly June 15, 1996 1477



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interrupted and local labour markets aredisrupted. In addition, there is a loss ofcomplex social relationships which providedavenues of representation, mediation andconflict resolution. In essence, the verycultural dentity of the community and theindividual within it is disrupted causingimmense physiological and psychologicalstress. In fact, one of the tragedies of forceddisplacement is that while in most cases,persons displaced by natural disasters orcommunal violence are able to return o theiroriginal habitat, his choice is not availableto those displaced or those whose livelihoodsare adversely affected.

These social and ecological impacts findlittle reflection n project planning and policywhere he economicjustifications of projects(particularly he cost-benefit analysis) areessentially reductionist nd devalue or gnorebasic socio-cultural nd ecological processes(most of which in any case are non-quantifiable in conventional neoclassicaleconomic exercises). How, for instance, do

you value the complex social, cultural andecological role of the forest? How can thecost of the destruction of biodiversity bequantified? Or the increase in incidence ofreservoir-induced eismicity in many damprojects? Where do you acknowledge andrespond to the multiple violations of rightsto the displaced? While there may be someusefulness n evolving a more comprehensivecost-benefit analysis making, n the process,many projects uneconomic), the danger inrelying on this exercise is that even at itsbest, it "subordinates human values andinterests o those of the market, and one thatis distorted by vested interests to boot."25

The process of displacement is alsodisempowering since it breaks up socio-political organisations articulating critiqueof the project and of the development processitself). In fact, in many cases, this processis fashioned in such a way that it furthersdisempowerment. Activists of the TehriBandh Virodhi Samiti state that there wasa conscious strategy of the project authoritiesand he state government o divide the unitedresistance to the Tehri project.26 One groupof those who would be displaced (selectedfrom among the most active supporters ofthe Samiti) was resettled near Dehradun,almost a 100 kilometres from the dam site.(Tragically, many of them now face theirsecond displacement as the lands that theyhave painstakingly regenerated are neededfor the expansion of the Dehradun airport)..While the Samiti was able to maintain somecontact with them at their new settlement,it was impossible for it to sustain collectiveaction across geographical space.

The other neglected dimension ofdisplacement s its adverse mpact on women.Their trauma s compounded by the loss ofaccess to fuel, fodder and food the collectionof which inevitably requires greater time

and effort. Few resettlement ites have made

provisions for this. This is the experienceeven in the "model resettlement villages" (eg, Malu), which were built for the Gujaratoustees of the Sardar Sarovar project.Additionally, when displaced, most womenexperience greater pauperisation and getconfined to the margins of the abour market.Similarly, children are adversely affectedsince not only is schooling less accessible,in most cases there is also a disruption nthe traditional socialisation processes.

APATHETIC LANNING

An overwhelming majority of plannersinvariably see people who happen to live ator around he siting of a development project,as impediments to progress, as those who"must make sacrifices for the developmentof the nation."27 ehru was one of the firstwho legitimated this attitude. In a speech afew months after independence, at thefoundation aying ceremony of India's firstmajor river-valley project, he Hirakud damin Orissa, he said to those facing

displacement, "If you have to suffer, youshould suffer n the nterest of the country. 28Dams and other large projects were, afterall, also legitimated as symbols ofindependence and self-sufficiency.

In fact, n several cases, displacement tselfwas presented as development. It is thismindset that ustifies the labelling of thosewho criticise these projects as not only anti-project or anti-development but also anti-national. As a consequence, the democraticactivities of the critics of these projects areoften treated as a public order problem.

Planners and administrators nvariablycapitalise on and manipulate he relativelyweaker ocio-economic and political positionof most of the people facing displacement.Their numbers are underestimated, hey aretreated ndifferently and only minimal cashcompensation, if at all, is paid.29 There isan extraordinary nwillingness ogrant hemclear rights, such as security of tenure onalternative developed land sites. A graphicand painful example is again that of thedisplaced of Singrauli who are part of theover two lakh people first displaced by theRihand dam n 1964. Tens of thousands whoin the absence of any resettlementprogramme, settled on the banks of thereservoir, cultivating the land which isexposed when the reservoir recedes in thesummer season. They were subsequentlydisplaced by thermal power plants, coalmines, railways, ndustries and urbanisationand now face displacement for anincomprehensible fifth time in a singlegeneration as their temporary settlementsare to be evicted to make way for urban, oadand rail transport nd afforestation projects.Since the dam was a foregone conclusionand, anticipating further 'development',could they not have been permanentlyresettled and given clear titles to land in

1964 itself?

Other studies across the country havedocumented multiple displacements ofcommunities who had after a painful andtraumatic period of transition, stablished anew lifestyle only to be informed that theyare to be moved again. In addition to theplight of the oustees of the Tehri projectmentioned above, two other recent examplesare of fishing communities displaced or theNew Mangalore Port in the 1960s andresettled as agriculturists, who are now beingdisplaced a second time for the Konkanrailway and those displaced by the Kabinidam in the 1970s who are being displacedagain for a biosphere reserve.

In an overwhelming numberof ases, thereis an almost arrogant assumption that theproject that has been drawn up forimplementation s socially and economicallythe most appropriate and that thedevelopment intervention cannot bechallenged because t has been conceived byexperts and is in the 'public' and 'national'interest. Alternatives that could have been

more democratically conceived and moreeconomical as well as more sustainable vergenerations have almost never beenconsidered. Feasibility studies neglect thisdimension. Also, older mentalities of 'doingdevelopment' and bureaucratic routinesinhibit openness and sensitivity to listening,internalising and acting in the collectiveinterests of victimised communities. In thatsense we may argue that there continues tobe a class bias in the planning andimplementation process tself, which in turnsustains and often compounds he economicgap between the primary beneficiaries ofthese developmental nterventions and theirvictims.

In addition to this, there is also a basicinstitutional weakness in comprehensivelyaddressing the displacement of people. Forinstance, there is a continuing inability ofgovernment departments, ministries,corporations nd development authorities obetter co-ordinate their activities. Forcommunities facing displacement, product-ive activities is an integrated whole. Theydo not separate water resources fromagriculture rom energy. The compartment-alisation of policy or the sectorally nformeddecision-making process has played havocwith this integrated ystem. Not only is therea critical ack of machinery o deal with thecomplex process of resettlement, n caseswhere some co-ordination s attempted, hereare significant interdepartmental onflicts.One of the most graphic examples is againof the Singrauli situation where a plethoraof agencies - Northern Coalfields Limited,National Thermal Power Corporation, heSingrauli Area Development Authority aswell as district and state evel administratorsfrom wo states - had differing ommitmentsto the displaced. Almost 30 years after thebuilding of the Rihand dam and the massive

subsequent expansion of the coal mines,




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power plants and a complex of urban andindustrial developments, this co-ordinationstill does not exist.

This reality also points to the urgent needto institutionalise public hearings as well asfor democratic ecision-making oupled withlegislation that facilitates this. It may beargued that more legislation does notguarantee he realisation of rights. After all,even with one of the most progressive

Constitutions (despite critical flaws) anddespite constitutional guarantees, violations(particularly f the rights of the disadvantagedand the poor) are galore. Yet, as a first step,there s no substitute o the more open accessto information and to enlightened publicdiscourse. This process must be an integralpart of the planning, implementation andmonitoring of the project itself and not anadjunct that is seen as a 'burden'.

INCOMPATIBILITY FECONOMIC EVELOPMENTAND USTICE

While mitigatory strategies may be

devised, it must be recognised that thescale of displacement and, to a large extent,the official attitude towards those facingdisplacement, is a direct consequence ofthe dominant patterns of economicdevelopment whiich continue to dependquite heavily on the intensive and extensiveutilisation of natural resources. Forcommunities who depend on theseresources as the primary source of theirlivelihood, the extractive processes set intomotion a destructive dynamic that forcesthem to either become migrants or moveonto increasingly fragile lands. Despitegrowing evidence from projects all over thecountry, a host of environmental problemsremain unacknowledged. For instance, thisconcentration of large numbers of peopleon increasingly fragile eco-systems mostoften leads to further unsustainable use ofresources. All this leads to increasingeconomic marginalisation and culturalinsecurity which compel most of thedisplaced to seek desperate means ofsurvival - cultivating increasingly fragilelands, migration, bondage, contract, crime,even prostitution. The case of the Ukai damwhere tribal women displaced by the projectwere regularly soliciting truck drivers on

the national highway from Baroda toAhmedabad is not an exception.3"

The experience of the past almost fivedecades of planned development demon-strates hat arge-scale displacement s inbuiltin the patterns of economic developmentwhich themselves are incompatible withsocial justice and genuine long-termenvironmental sustainability. The socialimpacts of the recent hrust owards a greatermarket-driven conomic process point to areality that as the national and globaleconomies penetrate deeper nto the interiorareas of the country, the lives, livelihoodsand ifestyles of those who critically depend

on the natural resource base will continueto be seriously threatened.

In 1988-89, a group of scholars, activists,lawyers and other concemed people,3" fterconsultations ithcommunity epresentativesand social movements all over the country,had drafted a National Policy onDevelopmental Resettlement. The policystated that these development projects,

entail a massive nvestment n public moneyinvolving decisions on priorities elated opublic needs. Such projects not only involvethe harnessing f natural esources uch asland, water, minerals, orests, etc, but alsoalter he existing distribution, se, access toand control over natural esources amongdifferent sections of society raising n theprocess, vital ssues concerning he airness,equity and justice in the allocation andutilisation of these resources.

What was highlighted was the need to alsodo a class-benefit analysis of developmentprojects, in addition to an analysis of theireconomic and ecological impacts. The policydraft also stated that,

Often the ill effects of displacement aisedoubts about he very viability, desirabilityand justifiability of the project.

IIProcess of Resettlement

Despite the scale of displacement,resettlement of those displaced bydevelopmental projects and processes hasbeen minimal. Notwithstanding ome effortsby the government and independent groupsover the past decade, data on the number ofpeople displaced since independence, theircurrent location and the changes in theirsocio-economic status, is almost non-existent. Some indicative data highlights heseverity of the apathy and indifference ofofficial agencies and the government o takeresponsibility for those who, in anoverwhelming number of cases have beenforced to forgo their ancestral habitats andhave experienced social and culturaldisruption n the past four and a half decadesof planned development. For example, 25years after the building of the prestigiousBhakra-Nangal roject, nly 730 of the 2,108families displaced in the early 1950s from

the Bilaspur and Una districts of HimachalPradesh, had been resettled. A majority ofthose displaced by other renowned projects,like the Hirakud dam n Orissa or the Rihanddam in Uttar Pradesh, have never beenofficially resettled.

The other illustrative example is that ofthe oustees of the Pong dam in HimachalPradesh, who were displaced in the late1960s. Out of the 30,000 families or morethat were displaced, only 16,000 were foundeligible for compensation and in the endonly 3,756 were moved hundreds of milesto a completely different cultural, inguisticand ecological zone in Rajasthan. Some of

the land meant for their occupation wasalready occupied, while most of the otherland was uncultivable. Compounding his,the host community was not prepared ortheir arrival and eventually over 75 per centreturned o Himachal only to find minimalsupport for their re-establishment. Theymigrated all over the northern part of thecountry, most of them in various stages ofdestitution.32

Official indifference and callousness isalso evident in the lack of data regarding hetotal numberof persons displaced by differentdevelopmental nterventions. The trend hasconsistently been one of underestimating rneglecting altogether the number to bedisplaced. Independent tudies of the ousteesof Hirakud placed the figure for thosedisplaced at 1,80,000 while governmentfigures were 1,10,000. Official data for thecontroversial dam on the Narmada iver, heSardar Sarovar Project (SSP) fluctuatesbetween 10,758 families and 30,1 34 families.The Morse Committee Report3l citing the

World Bank and other research data placesthe figure of those who will be displaced bythe dam and the canals at 1,75,000, whiletheNarmadaBachao Andolan has maintainedthat over 2,00,000 will be displaced by thedam and the canals. This figure does notinclude the sizeable number of people whoface displacement as a consequence of dam-related activities, such as the sanctuary atShoolpaneshwar, ompensatory fforestation,and those dependent on the sites chosen forresettlement, etc. If these are included, thenumber of displaced persons would beabove 4,00,000.

Compounding Uncertainty nd Insecurity:The time it takes between the decision toinitiate a project, through its design andimplementation, is a period of escalatinguncertainty and insecurity for potentialoustees. Most often they lack even the basicinformation on the schedule and the extentof displacement and are at the mercy ofofficials, speculators and a wide variety of'outsiders' who spread rumours requentlywith the intention of pu..hing he oustee offthe land. The lower the cost of doing this,the better t is. A climate of uncertainty etsin, distorting and altering the entire socialmilieu.

Additionally, ribals and dalit communitiesare extremely vulnerable. Too much isstacked against them. Even in highlypublicised projects ike the Sardar Sarovar,where years of struggle and public pressurehas brought significant gains in the policyfor resettlement, the actual practice ofresettlement on the ground has been shoddy,grossly inadequate, and, in several casesdownright insulting (model coloniesnotwithstanding) and this too over a decadeafter construction of the dam began in fullearnest.34

The other policy that has been selectivelyapplied ince 1967 by the central

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is to provide one job per family to thosedisplaced by industrial projects. While thissounds minimally just, in practice it hasprovided little succour to those displaced.Most oustees are unskilled and n the absenceof training programmes eventually end upwith the lowest paying and temporary obs.Further complications arise when familysizes are not based on nuclear amilies, landrecords are in the name of an ancestor whois no longer alive, etc.

Compensation: It would not be anexaggeration o say that very few resettlementprogrammes n the country have adequatelycompensated all those who are dispossessed.The question of how oustees will make aliving after displacement has been a matterof lowest concern to project planners. Thelittle interest that is taken is more aconsequence of wider public awareness andlocal resistance or the high profile of theproject concerned. In fact, in most cases, theLand Acquisition Act is used to pay aninsultingly low cash payment hat s grossly

inadequate o restore and enhance standardsof living. The experience even withcompensation for potential oustees reflectspersistent ad hocism where the ousteescontinue to be perceived as a burden.

Dependency: The low amounts ofcompensation and, in rare cases, land-for-land, reinforce dependency on officials andofficial agencies as those who face displace-ment hope to secure a better altemative. Thetrauma of displacement is unfortunatelycompounded by the disproportionate mountof energy and time that the displaced haveto expend in 'dealing' with the agency. Italso makes for a wide range of corruptpractices where the oustee is exploited bygovernment officials, lawyers, and evenvoluntary agencies. The Srisailam and Ukaicases adequately reflect what are not uniquecases. It would make for a more sane andjust policy to involve the displaced in theentire process of their shifting (if the projectis inevitable), handing over clear titles to theland along with adequate support facilities(including grants or other forms of aid thatcan tide the family over the first period ofthe first harvest) that would permitcommunities o manage heir resettlement nan open and transparent manner.

This points to the clear need for anindependent nstitutional arrangement. Thisis all the more necessary since the projectimplementing agency is, after execution,keen to move on to the next assignment. Thisinstitutional arrangement hould be vestedwith the responsibility of ensuring that theprocess of resettlement akes place with theleast possible social, economic andenvironmental disruption.

Transition tage: One of the most raumaticstages of resettlement is the process oftransiting from the original habitat to theresettlement site. If there is a commitment

to minimising the trauma of the overall

process of displacement and ensuring thatconditions are provided at the resettlementsite where the community can improve itslivelihood, this phase needs the mostattention. Past experience has shown thatthis phase is inordinately ong, and fraughtwith a diversity of 'adjustment' problems."Again, what requires attention s a strategythat ensures he social and economic securityof the displaced.

One of the few cases where efforts weremade to implement a land-for-land policywas with the second of the two dams of theUpper Krishna Irrigation II Project inKarnataka. The World Bank funded part ofthe project and then realising that pressurefor a better plan was building from localcommunities who had seen the experienceof those displaced by the first dam, withheldits funds pending a detailed resettlementplan. This led to the involvement of a state-based social action group, MYRADA, intwo phases of the plan- surveys andimplementation.36 While several families

were provided plots in the command area,others were resettled on unirrigated and orgiven the choice of an income-generatingproject. But even here, experience showedthat those with assets and power prior todisplacement cornered most of the benefitswhile most of those belonging to poorercommunities were left with unproductivelands and a few temporary obs.

The case of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port inNew Bombay illustrates how lands wereacquired far in excess of what was neededfor the present and future needs of the port,that these were then sold to private buildersand contractors, hat those who had assetsprior to displacement were able to cornermost of the compensation and jobs and thatmarginal peasants and fisherfolk receivedalmost no benefits, even the mandatory onejob per family. The experience ofeconomically and socially underprivilegedpeople (sharecroppers, landless labour,fisherfolk, etc) displaced by the UpperKrishna project has been identical.

These two cases underscore what isgenerally he rule all over the country wherefor most fishing communities, the processof displacement lso increases ocial tensionsas they transit from a predominantly

collective and equitable economic situationto one where individual based employmentwidens economic disparities.37 Damreservoirs also adversely affect river-basedfishing communities who are unable o affordand adapt to reservoir-based fishing.Communities living downstream are alsoadversely affected. For he SSP, for nstance,thousands f downstream amilies dependenton fishing will be made destitute as aconsequence of salt water ingress owing toa reduction in the flow of the river.38

Conflicts with Host Community: Amultitude f problems arising out of conflicts

with the host community have been

encountered at the resettlement sites.Experiences from the Srisailam, Pong andNarmada dams, from the Kaiga NuclearPower Plant, from Singrauli and elsewherehave highlighted problems ranging fromconflicts n the sharing of commons,jealousyof the host communities arising out of thespecial services provided to oustees, etc.Much of this is unavoidable as most sitesof resettlement are in ecologically fragileareas and in India, where every ecologicalniche is occupied or sustains some familiesand communities, new populations placeadditional pressure. Inevitably what hasresulted s an inability to adjust and manageand the consequent marginalisation,compounding the migration owards urbancentres.

Additionally, resettlement, wherever t hastaken place, has always been on lands whereno detailed surveys of the social, ecologicaland physical characteristics were made. Theland and water use, socio-economic patternsas well as access to commons (to name ust

three) of the host communities have rarelybeen studied, which invariably have led toconditions of animosity and conflict bothwith he government nd he host community.It is precisely this reality that also points tothe need to locate the displacementprpblematique n an ecological and politicalcritique.

IIIProtests and Resistance

The growing awareness amongcommunities who face displacement, hasgiven rise to a wide range of protests all overthe country. This resistance is not new. Innumerous parts of the country, by the middleof the 19th century tself, communities hadmobilised to oppose colonial policies ofresource extraction. This opposition wassignificantly manifest in tribal areas wherethese communities did not acquiesce quietlyin the face of external intervention. Therewere protests and rebellions against coloniallaws such as the Forest Act of 1876 and ribalpeasants were waging struggles against tateintervention in forest resources based ontheir own moral economy. Guha and Gadgilhave aptly described his conflict as between

the political economy of profit and he moraleconomy of provision.39

Protests against dams were evident as earlyas the 1920s, when, for instance, SenapatiBapat launched an organised resistanceagainst dams in Maharashtra. n the post-independence period, progress, national elf-sufficiency, industrialism, and the largedevelopment project were seen assynonymous. Carried by the euphoria ofnation building, most 'sacrifices' sought bythe rulers were widely seen as legitimate,justified as being for the 'national good'.This is not to say that here were no protests,

no resistance. The firstmajor protests against




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to undertake ong-term monitoring. Here wecan point to:1 The condition of the displaced in theexisting resettlement sites;2 Tracing those who were paid cashcompensation and who dispersed over a vastgeographical rea as was the case with someof the Pong dam oustees).3 Responsibility o those who were displacedby earlier projects but who continue to facea grim economic and social predicament.4 The displacement caused by the intensivedevelopmental activity that inevitablyfollows an nitial developmental ntervention.

Considering that the development,displacement nd resettlement rocesses havecomplex political, economic and socialdimensions that most often transcend thelocal context, there s a need for greater andmore sustained multidisciplinary socialscience intervention that goes beyond therecording f the rauma hat displaced personsface in a specific locale.

This challenge is even more urgent since

the New Economic Policies are going toimpel a greater demand for land, in turncompounding the displacement of people.

FALSE SHORTAGE OF LAND

One of the main contentions of plannersis the paucity of land available for resettlingthe thousands of people displaced bydevelopmental nterventions. An ecologicaland political approach demonstrates how theoften heard claim that 'land s not available'is just a part of the official attitude of evadingresponsibility towards the less powerful.

Over half of India's and, capable of bioticproduction is in various forms ofdegradation.46 hileasubstantial proportionof it is still used, the paucity of water andother resources for maintenance, result notjust in productivity remaining acutely lowbut in some of it going out of production.In addition, here are substantial ands underthe forest department which are criticallydegraded.

The acquisition, distribution andregeneration of this land could play a dualrole: of giving the displaced communityclear itles to land hat can become productiveand of gradually restoring degradedecosystems (which would also mean bringingdegraded and fully back into production orregenerating forest lands).

Secondly, n almost all parts of the country,landowners hold lands that are in excess ofceiling or are managed n absentee situations.Surveys in the command area of the SardarSarovar Project n Gujarat have shown thata significant amount of land s available withabsentee andlords primarily patidar) whoseoffsprings have moved to industry. However,this land is both expensive and often hardto acquire owing to the political clout of thepatidar and other powerful landowningcommunities who want o either etain control

or charge extremely high rates. The only

explanation or the lack of any effort in thisdirection by the Gujarat government s thatthey lack political will, or do not want toset a precedent.

Project authorities cross the country havealso acquired land that is far in excess oftheir requirements on the plea that it isrequired for future expansion plans.Significant lands would be released if theland held in excess which has not been useddespite expansion is distributed among theoustees. For nstance, he NTPC n Singraulihas ands under ts control hat can adequatelyresettle displaced populations. What mustbe held illegal is the practice of selling theselands to private builders and contractors asthe already mentioned case of the JawaharlalNehru Port47 o graphically illustrates.

If major gains are going to accrue fromthe project concerned, those who will beadversely affected need to be given a shareof the benefits. For instance, in the case ofdam projects, clear titles should be given inthe command area. This is rarely done since

lands become perennially rrigated and thedominant nterests want to retain control. InUkai, for instance, the Patidar farmersbenefited substantially as a result of thetransition from labour intensive rain-fedcoarse grain cultivation to cash crops.Employment opportunities declined for thetraditional landless and marginal peasantboth because of the new agricultural racticesand an escalation of competition with thearrival n the area of the oustees of the dam.

WORLD ANK POLICY

As a direct consequence of growingprotests, popular esistance and criticisms ofits insensitivity o social and cultural mpactsof the projects it has supported, he WorldBank has, over the past 15 years,acknowledged the scale of displacementsand tried o define a comprehensive policy.48With the notable exception of theInternational Labour Organisation's policyfor tribal and indigenous people, no otherinternational organisation has attempted ospell out and define policy regarding thecomplex socio-cultural impacts ofdisplacement. A recent institutionwidereview, was also completed last year. Itacknowledges that:

When people are orcibly moved, productionsystems may be dismantled, ong-establishedresidential ettlements re disorganised, ndkinship groups are scattered. Many obs andassets are ost. Informal ocial networks hatare part of daily sustenance systems -providing mutual help in childcare, foodsecurity, evenue ransfers, abour xchangeand other basic sources of socio-economicsupport collapse because of territorialdispersion. Health are tends o deteriorate.Links between producers and theirconsumers reoften evered, nd ocal abourmarkets are disrupted. Local organisationsand formal and informal associations

disappear ecause of the sudden departure

of their members, often in differentdirections. Traditional authority andmanagement systems can lose leaders.Symbolic markers, uch as ancestral hrinesand graves, are abandoned, reaking inkswith the past and with peoples' culturalidentity. Not always visible or quantifiable,these processes are nonetheless real. Thecumulative ffect s that he social abric andeconomy are torn apart.49

The report lso accepts hat, omparatively,women are more adversely affected thanmen, "...since they are more likely to earntheir living from small businesses locatedat or near heir residences. Woman may alsobe affected disproportionately n rural areassince they are more often dependent oncommon property resources". Whencompensation s paid o heads of households,most of whom are assumed to be men, itconverts, "the collective assets of the familyto cash in male hands".5"

Other policies adopted by the Bank allowfor the retention of a large measure of tribalautonomy and cultural choice.

Such a policy of self-determinationemphasises the choice of tribal groups totheir own way of life and seeks, therefore,to minimise he mposition fdifferent ocialor economic systems...

This policy also stresses that,

...national governments and internationalorganisations must support rights to landused or occupied by tribal people, to theirethnic identity, and to cultural autonomyand hat national overnments r non-tribalneighbours should not compete with thetribal society on its own lands for itsresources.More recently, anthropologists and

sociologists have accompanied Bankmissions and have identified the wide rangeof immediate impacts on communitiesdisplaced.5'

While there has undeniably been progressin policy statements and efforts to seek thecompliance of governments, here has beena critical lack of implementation on theground. Thus, there remains a wide gapbetween intent and implementation. It isevident that this is primarily due to a muchweaker recognition of the structural ausesof displacement and he systemic constraintsto ensuring hat acomprehensive esettlementplan is drawn up and implemented.

Additionally, the Bank's structuraladjustment policies as well as its support oa wide range of displacement generatingprojects and policies overwhelminglycontradict ts stated commitments to thosewho aredisplaced. The 1994 review ndicatesthat globally, over two million people arethreatened yBank-funded rojects. nIndia,the study on resettlement conducted by itsOperations Evaluation Department, statesthat, The overall record s poor o the extent

of being unacceptable."52 t can be argued




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th.at an institution hat has been responsibleIor o much ocial nieglect hould not nterferein domestic policy-making. Furthermore,the primary responsibility for citizens of anindividual country, s to seek accountabilityfrom the government n power. Nonetheless,given that global economic institutions areincreasingly playing a central role n definingeconomic and other policy, it has becomeincumbent on representatives f the affected

communities as well as other concernedpeople to demand and secure theaccountability rom both the government aswell as, in alliance with citizens groups inother countries, global institutions.53

It is also clear from the experience withother World Bank funded projects that thedegree of its capacity to enforce its policyis linked o the nature of the regime in power,the strength of the economic and politicalinterests behind the regime, the nature of thecountervailing pressure of organisations ofthe affected people as well as the Bank'sown structural incapabilities. These are

interlinked factors. For instance, strongvested interests prevail over communitymobilisation as in the SSP, in spite of thewidespread ocal, national, and nternationalsupport for the Narmada Bachao Andolan.On the other hand, the Krishna Project inKarnataka was more effective inrehabilitation because the regime wasamenable. In the context of the SSP, duringthe period that the Bank was directlyinvolved,54 he furthest t went was to pushfor the implementation of the resettlementpolicy on a pari passu basis - as and whendisplacement was imminent. The Bank hasrecently argued that if it had not withdrawnfrom the SSP, its presence would havefacilitated better resettlement.55 For aninstitution that abets destruction throughdisplacement on such a large scale, this isindeed a poor public relations statement hatexposes an objectionable desire to play amoral and policing role in countries likeIndia.

ABSENCE OF A RESESTLEMENT OLICY

Despite the magnitude of displacementand the longevity of the multiple trauma hatmost oustees face, one of the most glaringexamples of successive central governments

shunning heir constitutional responsibilityhas been, till recently, the lack ol a nationalpolicy for those that have to be forciblydisplaced "in the national interest".

In the past two years, there has been avirtual flurry of policies56 and even thoughthe "policy of tribals displaced bydevelopment projects" has been in thedrafting stage for the past five years, it isonly now that a range of different policieshave emerged. Some like the NationalThermal Power Corporation (NTPC) andCoal India Policy have been prepared witha view to serve as a guiding document across

their range of operations.

All these policies, assume that sincedisplacement is inevitable, the need is to"deal" with the trauma, not to question theproject or the process that is causing thedisplacement. In addition, many officials (aswell as academics) have argued thatcommunities and individuals have aremarkable system of adaptability, aresilience that can see them through a periodof temporary oss. Still others have stated

that development projects that generatedisplacement play a useful social role in thatthey irelease abour for industry and other'usefuil' jobs.57

Undoubtedly, there is an urgent need fora national policy and, more importantly,a national legislation. Some concern hasbeen expressed that expending energy insecurinig the formulation and adoption ofthese official documents may detractfrom the more important ask of ensuringthat a lublic debate or the viability andjusticiability of projects themselves beheld. Ini fact, this is precisely why what

has bec-ome urgent is the process offormulaiting and drafting a policy andlegislati on - a means to engage a widercross-se,ction of society to debate, not justthe proc esses of displacement and resettle-ment, b ut the very patterns of economicdevelop ment.

The recent policy drafts acknowledgethe importance of a land-for-land approach.Howeve r, there are so many escape clausesthat the (Irafts end up ensuring he provisionof land in only the rarest of cases.

Histor-ically, the trajectory of the land-for-land policy has ollowed an nversecourseto that of the economic value of land. Themore thob value of land (and the per capitapressure on it), the more reticent officialshave bee n in providing and or resettlement.In the ye ars after independence, land wasprovidedi in several instances though inmost cas es it was dry and which the ousteeshad to i urture and expend resources ontowards its upgradation. In the process,many be came paupers. In most cases, onlythose go t land who either made a collectiveclaim or who used political patronage. Bythe 197()s, even this became rare as thenormal o fficial propensity was to avoid theland ques;tion altogether and offer cash

compens;ation instead.By the ir;id- 1 970s, however, wider public

awareness, the demand for greatertranspare ney in project mplementation, aswell as thie more organised movements ofthe midd1le farmer as well as the landlessand marg-inal peasants grew, making theland-for-landl demand more urgent. Thenew poli(y di afts acknowledge this urgencybut shirc away from making any directcommitrnent. In fact, it can be demonstratedthat the.se policies seriously violate theConstitu,tion since they do not guaranteean alternlative hat ensures the right to life

with dignity.58

CONCLUSION

The extent and range of displacement, hesignal failure o comprehensively ehabilitatethose displaced by development as well asthe critical inability of policy-makers tosuccessfully provide higher levels of socialsecurity underscores wo levels of addressingthe situation - palliative and structural. fany intent of the government has to be taken

seriously, it must immediately take thefollowing palliative steps: comprehensivelyresettle those who have been displaced inthe past as well as those whose displacementis imminent. Land-for-land needs to beprovided as a rule while also offering thechoice of skill upgradation and permanentabsorption n the projects hat are displacingthem.

So far, the dominant thinking n govern-ment has been that legislative consent ordiscussion (on projects and lands that areacquired for them) is not required or eventhought to be necessary since all decisions

are within the sphere of executive authority.In the context of development projects anddisplacement nd he politics of developmentitself, the crucial ssue that needs to be moresharply raised s: should such broad powersbe vested in the executive? This issue gainsall the more importance since we now havealmost half a century of project planningand, as is conceded in several governmentalevaluations hemselves, the experience of somany public projects hat have proven o beeconomic, social and ecological failures ornear failures.

In the context of the recent policy drafts,while several detailed critiques areavailable,59 let us highlight some basicprinciples that must be reflected in anyexercise to frame national or state egislation.First of all, these exercises have to be basedon the question of accountability - bothpublic and judicial. Also, beyond thepalliative and, as argued throughout thispaper, he primary ecisions to build projectsare developmental. Displacement andresettlement follow. Therefore, legislationmust have the capacity to challenge theconstitutionality f projects hemselves - theprojects and he process of resettlement mustmeet he constitutional uarantees f ensuring

the right to life with dignity of those whoare adversely affected by the developmentalintervention.

The need is for creating conditions whereif displacement is inevitable, resettlementcan become an opportunity, a mandate orreconstructing production systems, raisingstandards of living, restoring communityand kinship relations and minimising theconflict with the host community.Resettlement must also take place in thesame ecosystem and in a similar cultural-linguistic zone. It must take place withoutbreaking the community as a cluster of

villages representing crucial kinship




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relations. The experience so far has been thefragmenting of communities and familiesthemselves sometime across hundreds ofkilometres. It is only such a comprehensiveapproach which guarantees resettlement na similar ocio-cultural-ecological pace thatcan minimise the trauma of displacement.

The commitment therefore has to be notjust for resettlement but for rehabilitationwhich should be an entitlement and not anact of reluctant generosity. In case ofirrigation and hydroelectric projects, thereshould be clear strategies so that those whohave had to give up so much are able tosubstantially share the benefits of thedevelopmental intervention.6"

Giventhegrossly unequal powerexercisedby the planners, politicians and the nexusof interests that develops around any largeproject compounded now with the adventof the New Economic Policies - it wouldrequire a clear institutional commitment onthe part of the governments and projectauthorities o be transparent nd accountable.

Projects and processes that causedisplacement must be open for public debate.This would also facilitate those potentiallyfacing displacement to make informedchoices. For future projects, t is imperativethat the full costs of rehabilitation beinternalised into the project cost. Morecomprehensive means of compensating non-quantifiabte losses will also have to bedevised. Finally, alternatives that causeminimal displacement, hat benefit a majorityand that are ecologically sustainable willhave to be sought. If, afterdue public process,displacement s inevitable, a comprehensivepackage that will enhance the social andeconomic security of displaced communitiesis the least that should be offered to thosewho are being forced to forgo and sacrificeso much.

Notes

[This paper was presented at a workshop on"Displacement and Resettlement", held at theDelhi School of Economics on January 21-23,1995. I am grateful for the comments receivedat the Workshop on 'Displacement andResettlement: Towards a National Policy,'organised by the Centre for DevelopmentEconomics in Delhi from January 21-23, 1995where this paper was first presented. I am alsograteful for the personal comments of UshaRamanathan, K G Kannabiran and Jean Dreze.Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitudeto the several mass movements which I have hadthe privilege of interacting with and whosestruggles have given me many of the insightspresented here.]

1 Quoted in Donald Worster, Rivers of Empire,Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.Worster's book is also an importantcontribution towards explicating thecorrelation between the evolution of hydraulicsocieties and he domination of political powerby an elite.

: 2 Letter from Indira Gandhi to Baba Amte,

August 30, 1984. Cited in Edward Goldsmith

and Nicholas Hildyard eds), The Social andEnvironmental Effects of Large Dams, Vol II,p 245.

3 The power of eminent domain confers on thegovernment the right to take private propertyfor a "public purpose." This power has beendescribed as the "highest and most exact ideaof property remaining n the government, orin the aggregate body of the people in theirsovereign capacity". For a more detailedexplanation see, Black's Law Dictionary (6th

edition), p 523, 1990.4 Ram Chand vs Union of India, I SCC 44,pp 49-50.

5 In fact, courts have held that public purposeis not even a justiciable issue. See, e g,Jagaveera Rama Muthukumara Zamindar ofEttayapuram vs State of Madras, SCR 761,1954.

6 Nehru was among the first who elevatedmassive technological nterventions n Naturefrom the profane to the sacred. In what hasnow become an oft-repeated quote, he saidwhile inaugurating he Nagarjunsager am inAndhra Pradesh, hat, "... dams are he templesof modern India."

7 Clarence Maloney, 'Environmental andProject Displacement of Population In India,Part I: Development and Deracination',Universities Field Staff International, FieldStaff Report No 14, 1991. Also see SmituKothari, 'Vikas Aur Visthapan', Udvasit 2,Lokayan, 1988.

8 It also does not include displacements causedby communal and other conflicts as well asnatural disasters though some of the lattermay be engendered by developmentaldegradation. It is important o recognise thatin some cases, communal and social conflictshave their roots in the loss of livelihood andthe resultant nsecurities caused by iniquitouseconomic development.

9 During the First Five-Year Plan period,projects costing more than Rs 5 crore were

classified as major. This level was maintainedin the Fourth Plan document while projectscosting between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 5 crorewere classified as medium with those costingless than Rs 25 lakh being called minor.Another classification of large dams is thatthey have a cultivable command area (CCA)of more than 10,000 hectares while mediumdams have a CCA between 400 and 10,000ha.

10 Vijay Paranjpye, High Dams on the Narmada:A Holistic Analysis of the River ValleyProjects, New Delhi: Indian National Trustfor Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH),1990. For an overview of the social impactsof large dams see, Smitu Kothari, "TheDamming of the Narmada and the Politics ofDevelopment' nWillian Fisher ed), WorkingTowards Sustainable Development: TheDamming of the Narmada River, Boston:Cambridge University Press, 1995. Also see,Society for Participatory Research in Asia(ed), People and Dams, 1989.

I 1 For detailed tables see, Walter Fernandes andEnakshi Thukral (eds), Development,DisplacementandRehabilitation, New Delhi:Indian Social Institute, 1989 and ClarenceMaloney, op cit. The present author's ownestimates made on the basis of extrapolatingdata rom state and central governments placesthe number of displaced by developmentprojects, since 1950, at over 20 million.

12 Secondary displacement efers o those whose

livelihoods are adversely affected either as a

direct or indirect or as a short-term nd long-term consequence of the developmentalintervention but who are not acknowledgedas "project ffected people (PAPs)". nseveralcases, their numbers exceed officiallyrecognised PAPs.

13 Twenty-ninth Report qf the Conmmissioner fScheduled Castes and Tribes, New Delhi:Government of India Press, 1990. Also seeB D Sharma, 'Scheduled Castes and Tribes:A Status Report', Lokayan Bulletin 8:6, pp

27-38, 1990.14 Walter Fernandes, Power and Powerlessness:Development Projects and Displacement ofTribals', Social Action 41, pp 243-70, 1991.

15 Central WaterCommission, Registerof LargeDams in India, New Delhi: CWC, 1990.

16 Government of India, Working Group onDevelopment and Welfare of Scheduled Tribesduring the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1990-95),1993.

17 For a recent account of the process of tribaldisplacement, disempowerment andimpoverishment see, Carol Sherman, ThePeople 's Story: A Report on the Social Impactof the Australian-Financed Piparwar CoalMine, Bihar, India, Sydney: AID/WATCH,1993. Also see, L K Mahapatra, Developmentfor Whom?: Depriving the DispossessedTribals', Social Action 41, pp 271-87, 1991.

18 Smitu Kothari and Pramod Parajuli, 'NoNature Without Social Justice: A Plea forCultural and Ecological Pluralism in India'in Wolfgang Sachs, Global Ecology, London:Zed Books, 1994.

19 Deriving its geo-cultural identity from theonce princely tate of the same name, Singrauliis a long stretch of valleys surrounded y theKaimur hills that lie between Sidhi districtin Madhya Pradesh and Mirzapur district inUttar Pradesh.

20 "We must approach the tribal people withaffection and friendliness and come to themas a liberating force. We must let them feel

that we have come to give and not to takesomething away from them. That is the kindof psychological integration India needs. If,on the other hand, they feel you have cometo impose yourselves upon them or that wego to them in order to try to change theirmethods of living, to take away their and andto encourage businessmen to exploit them,then the fault is ours, for it only means thatour approach to the tribal people is whollywrong.. .The Government of India isdetermined to help the tribal people to growaccording to their own genius and tradition."Jawaharlal Nehru cited in The Tribal Peopleof India, Government of India Press, 1973,p 5.

21 While the 1984 amendment streamlined heprocedures or the payment of compensationand gave a few additional rights to those tobe displaced, it strengthened he power of thegovernment to displace people in the interestof "public purpose." n case of urgency, suchacquisition could be done with a 15-day noticewith courts having no right to question themerits of the urgency. For a detailed critiqueof the implications of the Act see, MultipleAction Research Group, The LandAcquisitionAct and You, New Delhi: MARG, 1991. Alsosee the discussion of the Act in the 'DraftPolicy on Developmental Resettlement,' opcit. For a more conventional and detailedcritique, see, V G Ramachandran, The Lawon Land Acquisition and Compensaltion.

Vol 1, 1990.




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22 Government f India, Report of the Committeeon Rehabilitation of Displaced Tribals dueto Development Projects, New Delhi: Ministryof Home Affairs, 1985. This important tudyis almost impossible to get. (For copies, writeto Lokayan, 13 Alipur Road, Delhi 110054).

23 CGonstituentAssemrbly ebates, Book IV, p 975.24 Michael M Cernea (ed), 'Involuntary

Resettlement: Social Research, Policy, andPlanning' in Putting People First:Sociological Variables n Rural Development,New York: Oxford University Press, 2ndedition, 1991, p 195.

25 Philip Hirsch, Dammed or Damned?, inSociety for Participatory Research in Asia,op cit.

26 Personal communication with SundarlalBahuguna nd V D Saklani, both office-bearersof the Samiti. This has also been recorded nthe petition of the Samiti filed in the SupremeCourt in 1985.

27 Government of India, op cit, 1985.28 The Bomnbay Chronicle, April 12, 1948.29 The people to be displaced, at times in the

hundreds of thousands, are almost alwaysmissing from the detailed feasibility reports,project reports, evaluation reports, even theofficial National Directory of Dams.

30 Personal communication with AshokChoudhry, an activist working among thedisplaced communities of Ukai.

31 The decision to form the National WorkingGroup on Displacement was taken at agathering of activists, academics and policy-makers organised by Lokayan in 1988 inChitrakut, UP. The group, under the jointconvenorship of Medha Patkar and SmituKothari subsequently held a number ofconsultations n different parts of the country.Udvasit, a journal on the politics ofdisplacement nd rehabilitation, was publishedby Lokayan and a legal subgroup with GirishPatel, B D Sharma and others drafted the"National Policy on DevelopmentalResettlement" which was then discussed atseveral workshops. The various governmentdrafts have selectively drawn from this buthave refrained from including aspects thatchallenge conventional developmentalpractice. For a partial text of the draft seeFernandes and Thukral, op cit, 1989.

32 For acase study see, Renu Bhanotand MridulaSingh, 'The Oustees of Pong Dam: TheirSearch for a Home' in Enakshi Thukral. BigDam'ts, Displaced People: Rivers of Sorrow,Rivers of Chanige, New Delhi: SagePublications, 1992.

33 Resource Futures International, SardarSarovar: The Report of the IndependentReview, 1992.

34 Extensive empirical tudies of the resettlement

sites are now available. The single-mostcomprehensive documentation was presentedby the Narmada Bachao Andolan as well asindependent researchers and activists to theReview Committee set up by the Ministry ofWater Resources in 1994, whose Report wasmade public by the Supreme Court inDecember 1994.

35 Scudder, Thayer, A Sociological Frameworkfor the Analysis of New Land Settlements'in Michael Cernea, op cit, pp 148-87.

36 J P Nayak, 'Resettlement Anthropology andthe Upper Krishna rrigation rojects', CurrentScience 59:2, 1990.

37 S Parasuraman and C Sengupta, 'Socio-economic Condition of People Displaced by

Jawaharlal Nehru Port', Report for the JNPTrust, 1992.

38 This was the experience in dams all over thecountry. For case studies from Bihar, seeGanga Mukti Andolan, Ganga Ko AviralBehne Do, 1989; or Kamataka, ee the variousstudies of the social impacts of the UpperKrishna projects; for the Narmada river seethe extensive documentation on the Bargi,Tawa and the Sardar Sarovar dams.

39 Madhav Gadgil and Ramchandra Guha, ThisFissured Land: An EcologicalHistory fIndia,New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992.

40 For two excellent documents on thedestructiveness of large technologicalinterventions in the water regimes of Bihar,both of which also document the signalcontribution of Bhattacharya, see, LokJagriti Kendra, Jab Nadi Badhin, 1990 andGanga Mukti Andolan, Ganga Ko AviralBehne D(;, 1990.

41 The Maharashtra Project Displaced PersonsRehabilitation Act, 1976, amended in 1986.Madhya Pradesh also enacted a legislationand while both these laws are primarilyintended for dam oustees, they have beenapplied o other projects. However, ronically,in the Sardar Sarovar Project, even though

there is displacement in Maharashtra andMadhya Pradesh, these laws do not applysince they are not valid for nter-state projects.The Karnataka Assembly passed a bill in1987. It is still awaiting the president'sapproval. It needs to be acknowledged thatother legislation preceded the MaharashtraAct which also addressed the rights of thosedisplaced by specific projects. See, forinstance, the Nagarjunsagar Project(Acquisition of Land) Act, 1956.

42 Among the earliest post-independence rotestsagainst developmental displacement were theagitations led by Ram Manohar Lohia in thelate 1950s and 1 960s. One of the most notablestruggles oughtjustice or the 3,00,000 peopleto be displaced by the Rihand dam. A daybefore submergence, over a 100 politicalactivists and community eaders were pickedup and imprisoned. There was no effort torehabilitate those displaced and the fate ofover 70 per cent is not known while theremaining have faced the repeated rauma ofmultiple displacement. For more detailedstudies on Singrauli see, Vikas Ki Kimat, NewDelhi and Ahmedabad: Lokayan-SETUPublication, 1986 and The Price of Power,Delhi: PIRG, 1994.

43 For a representative isting of the range ofthese initiatives located in a historical andpolitical context, see, Gail Omvedt,Reinventing Revolution, M E Sharpe, 1994.Also see, Smitu Kothari, Social Movements

and the Redefinition of Democracy' in PhilipOldenburg, India Briefing, Westview Press,1993.

44 Kashtakari Sangathna, Fifteen Years ofStruggle, unpublished manuscript, 1994.

45 See perspective documents and recentstatements issued by Jan Vikas Andolan,Bharat Jan Andolan, Kashtakari Sangathnaand the Indian Council of Indigenous andTribal Peoples.

46 B B Vohra, Land and Water: Towards aPolicy for Lift-Support Systems, New Delhi:INTACH, Second Impression, 1988.

47 H S Verma, 'Land as a Resource or Develop-ing a New City: Rhetoric, Operationalisationand Lessons from New Bombay', National

Institute of Rural Development, Nagarlok,13:3, 1994.

48 William Partridge, esign andlmplementationConsiderations or Human Resettlement nthe Narmada SagarProject, MadhyaPradesh,India, World Bank, 1984.

49 World Bank, Resettlement and Development.The Bankwide Review of Projects InvolvingInvoluntary Displacement, 1986-1993,Environment Department, April 8, 1994,pp iii-iv.

50 Ibid, pp 2/9.51 See, World Bank, Early Experience with

Involuntary Resettlement: Overview, and theprojectwise assessments, in particular, theassessment of the Maharashtra rrigation ndKarnataka Irrigation Projects, OperationsEvaluation Department, June 30, 1993.

52 Ibid, p 2.53 This point has been developed at greater

length in the editorial of the Special Issue ofthe Lokayan Bulletin, 'Enough! Fifty Yearsof Bretton Woods Institutions', II:3/4, 1994.

54 Despite its withdrawal in 1993, it is stilllegally bound to the project since thegovernment has yet to pay back the loanamounts that had already been disbursed.

55 See the text of the speech made by the president

of the World Bank, Lewis Preston, n Madridon the occasion of the fifty year 'celebrations'of the Bretton Woods institutions,Washington: World Bank, 1994.

56 Government of India, Ministry of RuralDevelopment, Note for Cabinet: NationalPolicyforRehabilitation f'PersonsDisplacedas a Consequence of Acquisition of Land,1994; Government f India, Ministry of WaterResources, Draft National Policy forResettlement and Rehabilitation of PersonsAffectedbyReservoirProjects, 994; NationalThermal Power Corporation, esettlementandRehabilitation Policy, May 1993, and, CoalIndia, Resettlement ndRehabilitation Policy,undated. Only the NTPC document is alsoavailable in Hindi.

57 This view was reiterated ecently by officialsof the Central Water Commission at aconference on alternatives o the SSP held atthe Nehru Memorial Library, New Delhi.

58 For a detailed analysis of the policies in thecontext of the Constitution ee, Smitu Kothari,'Developmental Displacement and OfficialPolicies: A Critical Review', prepared forthe National Workshop on RehabilitationPolicy, Delhi, February 19-21, 1995 andUsha Ramanathan, 'Displacement andRehabilitation: Towards a National Policy',paper presented at the Workshop on NationalPolicy on Rehabilitation, Centre forDevelopment Economics, 1995.

59 Smitu Kothari, op cit and Walter Fernandes

and Samyadip Chatterji, 'A Critique of theDraft National Policy for Rehabilitation ofPersons Displaced as a Consequence ofAcquisition of Land', both prepared or theNational Workshop on Rehabilitation Policy,Delhi, February 19-21, 1995; UshaRamanathan, op cit, and Jai Sen, 'NationalRehabilitation Policy: A Critique', EPW,Vol XXX, No 5, February 4, 1995.

60 This was one of the main recommendationsof one of the few academic-activist-policy-maker dialogues held in India on the issueof displacementand esettlement. ee, Institutefor Social and Economic Change, Workshopon Rehabilitatifon of Persons Displaced byDevelopment Projects, Bangalore: SEC, 1990.


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