Sadhana Dadhich

Sadhana Dadhich, has been a key member of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) since the early days of the movement. She, and other women members like Lata PM, Pervin Jehangir and Suhas Kolhekar, who all worked tirelessly year after year in strengthening the NBA, have played a phenomenal role in the expansion of the NBA in the state of Maharashtra. Sadhana was a physiotherapist by profession and worked for and retired from the Indian Army. She worked for women’s rights and is the founding member of Nari Samata Manch, Pune. Later, she began working for the NBA and devoted a substantial time to strengthen the ideological base of the movement, and to build and strengthen the NBA support group (Samanvay Samiti) in Pune. She continued to stay in Pune, but travelled extensively to the other parts of Maharashtra to establish NBA support groups. She spent a lot of time in the Narmada valley, especially in the early years, to mobilise women and increase their participation in the movement. Maharashtra is a unique state as far as dams are concerned: while it has the largest number of big dams in the country, it is also home to one of the earliest anti-dam struggles in the country, the Mulshi Satyagraha. It was not easy to expand the NBA’s base in Maharashtra because there was strong support for large dams not just among development planners and the powerful sugarcane lobby but also among some of the progressive and established people’s organisations and political parties in the state. In spite of this, Sadhana worked year after year to strengthen the NBA’s base in the state and carried out extensive support activities for the movement, especially in the times of crises that the movement has faced.

In her interview, Sadhana says, “We also had in mind that the women’s movement has to move towards broader, more comprehensive issues” and goes on to explain in detail the necessity of linking the women’s movement, environmental movements and movements around developmental issues like the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). Sadhana has been a visionary in trying to bring together the women’s movement and movements around developmental issues. 

Sadhana’s description of her experience of growing up in a family with socialist and trade-unionist parents helps us understand the politics of Maharashtra in the post-independence period. Her upbringing in a politicised household ensured that although she was a physiotherapist with the Indian Army, she balanced her work with her social-political commitments especially during the emergency. Sadhana explains how her work for women’s rights and issues helped her understand the similarities between patriarchy and the current profit dominated development model. Her need to link women’s movement to larger developmental issues, explains Sadhana’s own journey of joining the NBA and her subsequent efforts to link it with women’s movements. She explains in her interview how NBA support groups came to be established all over the state of Maharashtra, the nature of the support groups, their growth, the many people who played an important role in them and the challenges they faced not only from State but non state entities and people’s organisations.

Sadhana talks about the views of the support groups on the different strategies of the NBA, their decision-making processes and their challenges.  Sadhana describes the journey from the  NBA to the establishment of the National Alliance of People’s Movements in the state and reflects on what could and could not be. 

Sadhana’s interview is a ‘must listen’ for all those interested in people’s movements, issue-based movements, larger alliances of movements, political parties and developmental politics because she throws light on their cross-sections and cross-currents, their meeting points and their differences.

Interview Duration: 2:46:00

Language: Hindi and English, Subtitles in English

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