Manglia Pawara

Manglia Pawara, a firebrand Adivasi leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) has been at the forefront of the movement for many decades now. Manglia’s village Bhadal is one of the 33 villages in Maharashtra which have been submerged in the Sardar Sarovar Dam waters and he currently resides with his family at the Chikhali resettlement site in Maharashtra. A great orator, Manglia has been a great mobiliser too. Popularly called just Manglia, his contribution to the NBA has been phenomenal, and he has shouldered several responsibilities in the struggle. Manglia’s views on the many strategies of the NBA therefore provide important insights. 

In his oral history recordings Manglia traces the history of the Narmada struggle and explains the issues related to submergence, displacement and rehabilitation. In his interview excerpt here, he describes his life in Bhadal, a scenic scheduled tribe community village on the banks of the Narmada and goes on to explain his views on the many strategies of the NBA. He talks about the early strategy of “Our Rule in Our Village”, the change of strategy of the movement from “No One Shall Move-Dam Shall Not Be Built” to “We Shall Not Move- Dam Shall Not Be Built”. More importantly, Manglia describes in detail the many programs that the NBA had taken up in the power centres of India like Delhi and Bombay, and explains the impact that participation in them has had on the Adivasis living on the banks of the Narmada who had never been to a large city or seen a train before that. Manglia speaks about the Jalsamarpan and the legal strategies adopted by the movement. Coming from a senior adivasi leader of the NBA, Manglia’s views provide important insights about the many strategies of the NBA.   

Clip Duration: 00:47:20

Language: Pawari and Hindi, Subtitles in English

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