Shantaben Yadav

Shantaben Yadav is one of the key women leaders of the Narmada Bachao Andolan  (NBA). She has played a very important role in the movement including sitting on an indefinite fast at the Long March of the NBA at Gujarat – Madhya Pradesh border at Ferkuva, in the year 1990-91.

Here in this clip from her longer interview, Shantaben explains in detail the moving of Padma Vibhushan Late Baba Amte to the Narmada valley in the year 1990 from his home at Anandvan in Maharashtra. Baba threw his might behind the NBA and began residing in the submergence village Kasravad in Madhya Pradesh, made it his home and declared, “He shall drown but not move” and that the government should scrap the Sardar Sarovar Project. The joining of an iconic figure like Baba Amte, naturally  gave a tremendous boost to the NBA and its people and the movement gained tremendous attention both nationally and internationally. With an internationally acclaimed figure, a Magsaysay awardee Baba Amte residing in Kasravad, one of the 245 villages in the submergence zone of SSP, the village itself became one of the main centres of the NBA. Kasravad and its people therefore were also subjected to unprecedented repression by the State government which wanted the Sardar Sarovar dam to be built. It was therefore very important for the government to breach the unity and struggle of this particular village that had become one of the leading lights of the NBA. Thus, not only the people but even Baba Amte and his wife Late Sadhana Tai were subjected to continual harassment particularly during the time when Sunderlal Patwa was the Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Minister of the State. And yet, Baba Amte and Sadhana Tai, in spite of their failing health, continued to live and struggle in Kasravad braving all odds at their advancing age as part of the NBA.

Shantaben also explains in this interview the events leading up to the departure of Baba Amte from Kasravad back to Anandvan, Maharashtra after over a decade of living in Kasravad. More importantly, she narrates the impact Baba’s departure had on the people of the Narmada valley and how the government, particularly the then Chief Minister Digvijay Singh of the Indian National Congress,  succeeded in using this incident against the movement. The false propaganda and accusations that spread in the valley, the state repression that followed and the reason why people fell for cash compensation that broke the social fabric of the submergence villages are explained in depth by Shantaben.

This interview helps understand that while joining of an iconic figure may give a tremendous boost to a people’s movement; the departure of such a figure from the movement can leave an irreparable blow to the struggle, particularly if not handled collectively and delicately.

Clip Duration: 00:36:52

Language: Audio in Nimadi, Subtitles in English

Subtitles can be switched on and off by clicking ‘CC’ button at the bottom right of the video