2-3 minutes
About the Oral History of the Narmada Struggle
This website shares people’s (oral) histories of the Narmada struggle – the mass resistance against the mega dam built on the River Narmada, commonly known as the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) in Western India. […]
Photo Credit: Submergence of a village in Madhya Pradesh, Photo credit: Rajesh Khanna
Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP)
The River Narmada is India’s longest west flowing river, flowing through the three western States of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. The Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) is a mega-dam project built on the Narmada River and is part of the Narmada Valley Development Plan (NVDP) which consists of 30 large, 135 medium and 3000 small dams on the Narmada and its tributaries. […]
The Narmada Struggle
The Narmada struggle around the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), which later got consolidated as the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA – the Save Narmada Movement in the late 1980s), is an intense continuing struggle waged by the affected people around the SSP on the Narmada River for more than half a century now. The first protests began way back in 1961 when the foundation stone of the dam, then called the Navagam dam was laid at village Navagam, Gujarat and lands of six adivasi villages were acquired for the construction of the project colony near the dam site in Gujarat. […]
Oral History – The discipline
The Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘oral history’ as, “information about a historical event or period that is told to you by people who experienced it.” […]
Oral Histories of the Narmada Struggle
The Narmada struggle which has made important contributions to development discourse is considered as one of the most important mass resistance movements in the history of independent India. […]
Methodology
Nandini Oza was an activist of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) for over twelve years, and then a resident of the Narmada valley maintaining close connections with the movement and its people for another nine years. She describes the methodology of collecting the oral histories of the Narmada struggle and the dissemination of these oral histories that she has followed here […]
Chronicler and Archivist : Nandini Oza
This exercise of putting together the people’s oral histories of the Narmada struggle has been planned and carried out by Nandini Oza. […]
Support Network / Acknowledgments
I (Nandini Oza) am thankful to all those whose oral histories I have recorded, not only for having honestly and transparently shared with me their lives, their work and the many intricacies of the Narmada Struggle, but also for hosting me. I am also thankful to all those who have supported this work in diverse ways. […]
