Village: Vaghadia
Kapilaben Tadvi, “All this (in and around Kevadia colony) has been built on our chest; whatever is there, the circuit house, the bungalow that is constructed; it is all built on our chest. Our lands, the lands of our forefathers; the government has snatched it all away. We were promised that we would be given land for land. But they have not solved any of our problems. These officers who are doing jobs on our lands; those who enjoy privileges; they enjoy and in return, we have to go and be enslaved to those same officers there. We have to go for cleaning their vessels, for mopping their homes and for washing their clothes. If they had not taken our lands away, and if we had our lands in our possession, we could have lived peacefully, couldn’t we… We have come upon this grief because of the dam and the J P Company building the dam here. How do we keep the hearth fires burning? ”
Never considered project affected in spite of losing their lands to the Sardar Sarovar Project Colony, the people of the six villages affected by the Kevadia colony became the centre of resistance right next to the Dam site in Gujarat and a crucial part of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) that led the struggle against the SSP. It was difficult to raise as much as a finger at the SSP, leave aside carry out a struggle against this project as it was not the state alone which was hostile to the people opposing the project but even parts of the civil society that considered the SSP Gujarat’s life line. And yet, the scheduled tribe community, particularly the women of these six Adivasi villages lead the struggle against the SSP from the frontlines right below the nose of the project conglomerate.
The oral history of Kapilaben therefore is a must listen to understand the acquisition of adivasi lands of these six villages for Kevadia colony, the huge influx of officers, government staff, workers and dam builders to this once pristine scheduled tribe area and its impacts, the building of mammoth infrastructure for the dam on the adivasi lands, the lack of rehabilitation of adivasis, the crushing of their fundamental right to protest and seek justice, their long and powerful struggle against the authoritative state and the overall impact all this has had on the adivasi way of life. Kapilaben’s interview is important as it throws light on the terrible history of dispossession of a scheduled tribe community and the amazing role women have played in one of the key struggles against destructive development in independent India, a struggle which raised an important question about development projects: “Who Benefits? At Whose Cost?” Kapilaben led the struggle from the front and it was from her home the NBA office functioned for several years.
Her interview helps us understand first-hand the other side of this symbol of the “Gujarat Model”, and what this large-dam based model of development has done to the people belonging to the scheduled tribe of the same state. The project and its infrastructure including the construction of Kevadia colony fractured the adivasi way of life ruthlessly and this affected the women severely. What is ironic is that while Kevadia colony is a tourism hotspot today and boasts of world’s tallest statue and draws worldwide attention, the scheduled tribe communities, whose lands this popular destination in Gujarat is built on, have not been considered project affected and never rehabilitated. Instead, they continue to be subjected to dispossession of their lands and natural resources and when they protest, they become victims of State repression. But this has not deterred the people and their struggle continues till date, over 60 years since the acquisition of the scheduled tribe lands in 1961.
This interview of Kapilaben rightly proves what Rahul Banerjee says about the adivasi women leaders of the NBA, “Adivasi women activists, they are all organic intellectuals who have contributed much to dispel the myth that the NBA was a creation of urban romantics.”
Some of the photographs in this clip are courtesy, Joerg Boethling.
Interview Duration: 2:00:00
Language: Gujarati, Subtitles in English
Subtitles can be switched on and off by clicking ‘CC’ button at the bottom right of the video