6-7 minutes
Oral history documentation of this kind and scale is not possible without the conviction and faith that all those I (Nandini Oza) interviewed put into this work. I am thankful to all those whose oral histories I have recorded not only for having shared with me honestly and transparently their lives, their work and the many intricacies of the Narmada Struggle, but also for having hosted me.
Two people without whom this work would not have taken off are Shripad Dharmadhikary and Venu Madhav Govindu. Their comprehensive inputs right from the start of the work, from selection of equipment to methods of dissemination of Oral History have helped in bringing this work this far. Both Venu and Shripad also helped in bringing the necessary professionalism and funds required for this work. Shripad Dharmadhikary not only helped in conceptualising this work but also helped in interviewing some of the interviewees. Shripad helped in editing the first book, Ladha Narmadecha and also helped conceptualise this website. He has in fact been a co-traveller in this journey.
Other friends whose inputs have been useful in taking this work this far have been Arundhati Roy, Neeta Deshpande, Nikku Nayar, Rahul Banerjee and Sanjay Kak. I especially wish to thank Dr. Indira Chowdhury, one of the pioneers in the discipline of oral history in India for having been a source of encouragement to me in bringing this work out in public domain.
Financial support, particularly during the initial years when it was not sure if this work would ever see the light of the day from well wishers and friends like Angana Chatterji, Anirban Hazra, Ashwin Gambhir, Deepak Malghan, Esha Shah, G. Gautama, G V Murthi, Hemant Badgandi, Manoj Saranathan, Neeta Deshpande, Pradyumna Singh, Prasad Boddupalli, Rahul Banerjee, Shankar Krishnan, Shashi Enarth, Subramanya Sastry, Sumitra M. Gautama, Suresh, Venu Govindu, Vinod John and Vinay Kumar helped keep the work independent. In the later years, support from the Global Greengrants Fund, the Programme for Social Action and Darshan helped in carrying the work forward.
Many activists of the Narmada Bachao Andolan and Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangathan have helped me in different ways including travel to the inaccessible submergence areas in the Narmada valley. The list is long. However, I would particularly like to mention Rajesh Khanna (Bacchu), Kemat Gawale and most of all Rehmat.
Other friends who have supported the endeavour are Sunil Sawant, Narendra Damle, Ajit Gaunekar, Captain Vijay Prasada and Mrs. Sheila Prasada.
Verbatim transcription and translation of these recordings has not been easy as the interviews are in different languages and dialects. I therefore wish to acknowledge the primary role played by Alka Potnis, Amit Kumar, Eesha Roy Chowdhury, Krishnakant, Nishank, Nandini G Oza (lest people are mistaken, Nandini G Oza is a senior journalist and we share a common name), Mamta Hemnani, Pathik Dodiya, Rahul Banerjee, Sadhana Dadhich, Sushrut Kulkarni, Swatija Manorama, Siddharth Joshi, Suhas Paranjape, and Vandana Kulkarni.
This website was first launched in English in November 2019 and in November 2021 in Hindi. I am particularly thankful to Siddharth Joshi for the translation of the English website to Hindi.
Amaltas Books and Amol Kale helped generate videos for the web site from audio recordings and JoyTree Software helped design the website. A special thanks to their teams.
I wish to say a few words about the photographs used in this website in particular. During the early years of the Narmada struggle, digital photography was not available. Taking photos was neither as convenient, easy or ubiquitous as it is today. We as activists and the NBA as an organisation, had our own constraints, and partly due to lack of equipment, there was very little photo documentation that we ourselves could do. Most of the photographs of the movement during this period were taken by visitors, supporters and journalists who came to the valley and its action programs as participants or observers. Many of them have generously shared their photographs with me (and with NBA) and have allowed me to use them here and elsewhere in presenting these oral history recordings. I gratefully acknowledge them all, most of all Ashish Kothari whose photographs have been used extensively for this website. And then Chetan Salve, Dr.Sugan Baranth, Gaurav Jat, Golu Sen, Janantik Shukla, Joe Athialy, Joerg Boethling, Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangathan, Mangat Varma, Mukesh Jat, Narmada Bachao Andolan, Pragna Patel, Programme for Social Action, Rahul Banerjee, Rohit Jain, Rehmat, Rakesh Khanna, Shailendra Yashwant, Shripad Dharmadhikary and Wikimedia Commons. I also wish to thank Simantini Dhuru and Anand Patwardhan for allowing me to use still photos from their film, Narmada Diary for the interview of Champaben Tadvi. I specially wish to thank Amita Baviskar and Nirjhari Sinha for the photos in the interviews of Girishbhai Patel and Gangarambhai Yadav. I thank Parthiv Shah for a photo in Amit Bhatnagar’s interview. I have not always been able to acknowledge and credit individual images with the names of the photographer and I sincerely apologise for the same. In several cases, while their photographs are part of our collection or the Narmada Bachao Andolan collection, the names of the photographers have been lost in the chaos and tumult of the struggle and cannot be traced and so I am not able to thank them by name. In some cases, photographs have been shared with me by the interviewees and they have not been able to name the photographer. In case anyone knows the names of the photographers of the uncredited photographs on this website, kindly bring them to my notice and I will be grateful and more than happy to acknowledge the same. As there are not many photos available with the movement or the interviewees or activists like me who have been part of the movement, I have shared the photos that were available with me while placing these oral recordings in video format with subtitles on this website as well as the dedicated YouTube channel regarding these oral histories.
And lastly, I thank my family for standing by my voluntary work and for having taken care of most of my financial needs during that period. Without them, I would not have been able to allocate my time to the work of my choice and interest.