“The gigantic sardar sarovar dam, is a modern times arsenal in the hands of the mighty to transfer resources from the marginalised to the powerful seamlessly, without any bloodshed or collateral damage on the side of the aggressors. It is against this one-sided armoury that the people of the Narmada valley fought in a battel essentially unequal from the start, where they had only their tongue/voices to fight,” 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 with the powerful people’s movement, the Narmada Bachao Andolan for over a decade. Her books have been published in Marathi, Hindi and English by Rupa publishing house, Rajhans Prakashan, Orient BlackSwan, Rajkamal Prakashan and Mehta Publishing house. In December 2017 she was awarded the prestigious writers’ residency at Sangam House, Nritya, Bangalore. Once again she was awarded the residency in November 2022.
After having completed her Masters in Social Work in 1987, Nandini Oza 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 get 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 Oza 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. The NBA, apart from mass action programs placed the negative impacts of the project before several forums including the World Bank, the Supreme Court, several Government and Independent committees. As part of this work, Nandini was involved in extensive research and documentation for the same. She has represented 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 been one of her responsibilities. She was involved as part of the NBA in several activities to support other movements and towards 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 the movement by the state, etc. Lot of Nandini’s work in the NBA was to challenge both direct as well as indirect human rights violations.
Nandini’s work in the NBA has helped her understand the nature of the State as well as non-State violence which has become a characteristic of the dominant development paradigm.
In 2002, she moved out of the role of a full time activist of the NBA but continued to reside in the Narmada valley, maintaining close links with the struggle and the affected communities, spending much of this time in documenting these oral histories.
After 2002, she worked as a lecturer in the Government College in Badwani, Madhya Pradesh teaching post graduate course in social work for two years.
Since 2004, her primary interest and focus has been on 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 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. In 2017, she was selected for Sangam House Writers Residency at Bengaluru.
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 bringing the oral history so collected 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 tribal leaders of the NBA published by Rajhans Prakashan in 2017 in Marathi. This book in Marathi was translated into English and has been published by Orient BlackSwan in 2022 and then, its Hindi translation has been published by Rajkamal Prakashan in 2023.
She is working on the manuscript of her next book as part of the series on oral histories collected by her. The second book is based on the oral history recordings of Late Shri Girishbhai Patel that covers the social-political and developmental history of Gujarat since independence till 2017, with the SSP- Narmada Project central to the Gujarat Model and development paradigm.
Books
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 चुनौतियों 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।
The Struggle for Narmada: An Oral History of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, by Adivasi Leaders Keshavbhau and Kevalsingh Vasave
This book has been published by Orient BlackSwan in 2022.
Deatils of the book and the many reviews of the book could be read here
Whither Justice- Stories of Women in Prison
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.
“Whither Justice – Stories of Women in Prison”, was translated in 2012 and published in Marathi by Mehta Publishing house, Pune. It is available at:
Ladha Narmadecha
Oza’s next book titled, ‘Ladha Narmadecha’, based on the oral history of two tribal leaders of the Narmada Bachao Andolan was published by Rajhans Prakashan in Marathi in 2017
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 52 posts, this blog post has over 77000 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 Green Peace, India.
Since 2004, Nandini has been the Secretary of the Zindabad Trust, an organisation that provides financial support to environmental and human rights work across the country.