Pune, Maharashtra
Sadhana Dadhich, has been one of the key members of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) from the early days of the movement. Her role in the expansion of NBA in the state of Maharashtra is phenomenal, along with other women members like Lata PM, Pervin Jehangir, Suhas Kolhekar, etc who worked tirelessly year after year in strengthening the NBA. A physiotherapist by profession who worked and retired from the Indian Army, Sadhana worked initially for women’s rights and is the founding member of Nari Samata Manch, Pune. Later on, she began working for the NBA devoting her substantial time in strengthening the ideological base of the movement, forming and strengthening the NBA support group (Samanvay Samities) in Pune where she remained based, travelling extensively to the other parts of Maharashtra to establish NBA support groups and spending time in the Narmada valley especially in the early years to mobilise and increase women’s participation in the movement. Maharashtra is a unique state as far as dams are concerned. It is a state with the largest number of big dams in the country on one hand and one of the earliest dam struggles in the country, the Mulshi Satyagraha on the other. Expanding the NBA base in Maharashtra was not easy with a strong support for large dams not just among development planners but dams being supported by the powerful sugarcane lobby and by some of the progressive and established people’s organisations and political parties in the state. And yet, Sadhana worked year after year to strengthen the NBA base in the state and carry out extensive support activities for the movement especially in the times of crises that the movement faced.
“It was also in our minds that the women’s movement has to move towards broader/ comprehensive issues”, in her interview here, Sadhana Dadhich explains in detail the necessity of linking the women’s movement to environmental movements and movements around developmental issues like the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). Sadhana has been one of those visionary persons who tried to bring closer, women’s movement with movements around developmental issues.
Sadhana’s family background, the work of her socialist and trade-unionist parents and her growing up years narrated here help understand the politics of Maharashtra in the post-independence period. Sadhana’s upbringing in a politicised household ensured that although she was a physiotherapist with the Indian Army, she balanced her work along with her social-political commitments that were the need of the hour during the emergency and later also. Sadhana explains how her work for women’s rights and issues helped her understand the similarities between patriarchy and the current for-profit development model. The need to link women’s movement to larger developmental issues, explains Sadhana’s own journey to the NBA and her efforts to link it with women’s movements. She explains in her interview the establishment of NBA support groups across the state of Maharashtra, the nature of the support groups, their growth, the many important players and the challenges faced not only from State but non state actors and people’s organisations.
Sadhana talks about the views of the support groups on the different strategies of the NBA, the decision-making processes and challenges therein. Sadhana explains the journey of the NBA to the establishment of 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, the cross-sections and cross- currents, the meeting points and differences among different issue-based movements, larger alliances of movements, political parties and developmental politics.
Interview Duration: 2:46:00
Language: Hindi and English, Subtitles in English
Subtitles can be switched on and off by clicking ‘CC’ button at the bottom right of the video