Village Gora, Kevadia Colony, Gujarat.
Dalsukhbhai was a young man in 1961 when the foundation stone of the Navagam Dam (later the Sardar Sarovar dam) was laid by India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru.
It was then that the lands of six Adivasi villages, including lands of Dalsukhbhai and his village Gora were acquired for the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) colony at Kevadia, Gujarat. Dalsukhbhai narrates the history of the initial surveys for the dam in the 1950s and 60s for which he was employed as a labourer, the coming of Pandit Nehru to Kevadia and the promises he made to the people belonging to scheduled tribe communities, the dispossession and acquisition of adivasi lands for the project colony, the early struggle by the people of the six villages of Kevadia colony and the response of the state. Dalsukhbhai explains how the adivasis who lost their lands to this project colony were never considered as Project Affected People and never rehabilitated. Dalsukhbhai talks about the struggle that continues even today for just rehabilitation of the people affected by the SSP colony, the Kevadia colony.
Interview Duration:
00:15:00
Language:
Audio in Gujarati, Subtitles in English
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