8-11 minutes
The gigantic Sardar Sarovar dam, is a modern times arsenal in the hands of the mighty to transfer resources from the marginalised to themselves seamlessly, without any bloodshed or collateral damage on their side. It is against this one-sided armory that the people of the Narmada valley have fought, in a battle that is essentially unequal from the start, because their only weapon was to make their voices heard through peaceful struggles. As Dedlibai, a senior adivasi woman leader of NBA said, “her tongue was her only weapon (to fight against the dam builders)”.
Nandini Oza
This exercise of putting together a people’s oral history of the Narmada struggle has been planned and carried out by Nandini Oza, formerly an activist with the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Nandini has recorded, edited and managed these oral history recordings and narrations. The support provided by a large number of people and organisations is gratefully acknowledged.
Nandini Oza, formerly the President of Oral History Association of India (2020-22) https://ohai.info/about-ohai/ is a researcher, writer, chronicler and an archivist. She was an activist working with the powerful people’s movement, the Narmada Bachao Andolan for over a decade. Her books have been published in Marathi, Hindi and English. In December 2017 she was awarded the prestigious writers’ residency at Sangam House, Nrityagram, Bengaluru. She was awarded the residency once again in November 2022.
After completing her Masters in Social Work in 1987, Nandini has worked as a social and political activist for over two decades in Non-Government Organisations and people’s movements.
Programme Organiser, Aga Khan Rural Support Program (I) (1987 – 1988)
Nandini’s role in the organisation was to mobilise the community in some of the drought prone areas of Gujarat for participation in the management of common property resources. The work included mobilising people for conservation of soil and water through watershed management programmes; environment protection, social forestry, biogas, agriculture extension; programmes for income generation through animal husbandry, horticulture, community fodder farms, etc.
Study Tour (Year 1989)
Nandini undertook a tour of five states (Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Bihar) in the country to study the work of various Non-Governmental Organizations and people’s movements. She undertook this tour to understand the socio-political and economic scenario of the country better and to become familiar with the work of several groups/organisations and movements working on these issues.
Full time Activist, Narmada Bachao Andolan-NBA (1990-2001)
As an activist of the NBA, Nandini lived and worked amongst the people affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), a gigantic dam being built on the river Narmada. Her main responsibility in the NBA was to help mobilise and strengthen the organisation of people affected by the SSP as well as help in coordinating programs, rallies, and demonstrations, initially for three years in Madhya Pradesh and later for eight years in Gujarat. She was part of the NBA mass actions particularly during the times of state repression and submergence in all the three states. In addition to its mass action programs, the NBA placed the negative impacts of the project before several forums including the World Bank, the Supreme Court and several Government and Independent committees. As part of this work, Nandini was involved in extensive research and documentation for the same. She has represented the NBA nationally as well as internationally. She has worked extensively in Gujarat for placing the issue of SSP before the public and has helped organise public meetings and debates around the issue. Fund collection for the NBA had also been one of her responsibilities. As part of the NBA, she was involved in several activities in support of other movements and alliance building.
NBA faced severe human rights violations from both the State as well as non-State actors including police firing, beatings, molestations and rape, attacks on NBA offices by political goons, disruption of public meetings, restriction on movement imposed by the state, etc. A large part of Nandini’s work in the NBA was to challenge and deal with both direct as well as indirect human rights violations.
Nandini’s work in the NBA helped her understand the nature of the State as well as non-State violence which is an intrinsic part of the dominant development paradigm.
In 2002, she moved out of her role of a full time activist of the NBA but continued to stay in the Narmada valley, maintaining close links with the struggle and the affected communities, and spending much of her time in documenting these oral histories.
After 2002, for two years Nandini worked as a lecturer in the Government College in Badwani, Madhya Pradesh teaching a postgraduate course in social work.
Since 2004, her primary interest and focus has been oral history documentation, as well as writing on various issues. Her writings are focussed on social and political analysis and commentary as well as on contemporary history. She remains a student of social and political change and her writing draws considerably from this study as well as her earlier work as an activist. She writes both fiction and non-fiction, believes that social media is an important medium in today’s times and uses it meaningfully.
Documentation of Oral History
Since 2004, Nandini’s primary focus has been on recording the Oral History of the struggle around the Sardar Sarovar Project in the Narmada Valley in the voices of key leaders of the movement, both local as well as from outside the valley. Currently she is engaged in putting this recorded oral history out in public domain. This web site is an outcome of this work. And so is ‘Ladha Narmadecha’, (Struggle for Narmada), a book based on the oral history of two adivasi/tribal leaders of the NBA which was published by Rajhans Prakashan in 2017 in Marathi. Subsequently, it was translated into English and published by Orient BlackSwan in 2022 and then, into Hindi published by Rajkamal Prakashan in 2023.
She is working on the manuscript of her two next books as part of the series on oral histories collected by her. One of the books is based on the oral history recordings of Late Shri Girishbhai Patel which covers the social-political and developmental history of Gujarat since independence till 2017, with the SSP-Narmada Project as central to the Gujarat Model and development paradigm. And the other book is based on the oral histories of the women leaders of the NBA.
Books
Book Titled, Ladha Narmadecha in Marathi
By Rajhans Prakashan
Oza’s book titled, ‘Ladha Narmadecha’, based on the oral history of two senior adivasi/tribal leaders of the Narmada Bachao Andolan was published by Rajhans Prakashan in Marathi in 2017 and can be viewed here.
Book titled, Sangharsh Narmada Ka in Hindi
by Rajkamal Prakashan
“राजकमल प्रकाशन द्वारा 2023 में प्रकाशित, ‘संघर्ष नर्मदा का’ नर्मदा बचाओ आन्दोलन में नर्मदा घाटी के लोगों, ख़ासकर आदिवासी समुदाय के योगदान, संघर्ष और बलिदानों की कहानी को उनके ही नज़रिये से सामने लाती है। सरदार सरोवर बाँध से प्रभावित आदिवासियों के जीवन, विस्थापन और पुनर्स्थापन की पीड़ाजनक प्रक्रिया के ब्योरे इस किताब में दर्ज हैं जो प्रकृति-अनुकूल जीवनशैली और विनाशकारी विकास-प्रक्रिया के द्वन्द्व के हवाले से, मानव समाज की भावी चुनौति और समाधान की ओर संकेत करते हैं। वाचिक इतिहास की अहमियत को रेखांकित करती हुई यह किताब बतलाती है कि स्मृति को सुनना एक राजनीतिक कर्म भी हो सकता है और परिवर्तनकारी भी। कार्यकर्ताओं, पयार्वरण-अध्येताओं, नृतत्त्व में रुचि रखनेवालों तथा मानवाधिकारों की पैरवी करनेवाले लोगों के लिए यह किताब एक ज़रूरी पाठ है”
– राजकमल प्रकाशन
Book Titled, The Struggle for Narmada: An Oral History of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, by Adivasi Leaders Keshavbhau and Kevalsingh Vasave, by Orient BlackSwan in 2022
Details of the book and the many reviews of the book could be read here
Book titled, Whither Justice- Stories of Women in Prison
by Rupa and Company
Nandini Oza’s first book titled, “Whither Justice- Stories of Women in Prison”, was published by Rupa in 2006. Rupa made the book available in Kindle edition in 2017 and is available here.
“Whither Justice – Stories of Women in Prison”, was translated in 2012 and published in Marathi by Mehta Publishing house, Pune. It is available here.
Other Writings
Nandini’s articles on history, human rights and environment issues have been published in The WIRE, EPW, COUNTERVIEW, India Together, The Raiot, Down to Earth, etc.
Links to her select articles are attached here:
Blogs
She maintains two blogs:
With 60 posts in English and Hindi translation, this blog post has over 96000 views.
Other Work
Nandini is on the board of several organisations that are involved in research and advocacy related work on public policy issues, like the Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, B.I.R.S.A and GreenPeace, India.
Since 2004, Nandini has been the Secretary of the Zindabad Trust, an organisation that provides financial support to strengthen constitutional values of equity and justice as well as supports work related to environment sustainability and human rights across the country.