Our activist friend, a young journalist, my dad, and myself went on a road trip to the south of Gujarat through Narmada, Tapi, and Valsad districts. We spent the night at our mutual friend’s ashramshala in the most stunningly luscious landscape I’ve ever seen. She runs an ashram shala, a Gandhian boarding school for kids from surrounding villages. This was the site of Gujarat’s plan to construct 7 dams to allegedly provide drinking and irrigation water to villages in central Gujarat with water shortages. This beautiful ashramshala would be drowned if the project were to take place, and so would more than a hundred villages.
Rice Paddy Fields
The Guesthouse at the School
A Painting by the Adivasis of the Region
Beautiful, Right?
I browsed the report made by the government of Gujarat on the dam and it is obvious that the implementation is not even economical, bringing negligible tangible profits. The return is 8%, or 8 paise on one Rupee. That is absolutely nothing for a project devised on such a massive scale with definite result of pushing out thousands of people, leaving their livelihoods destroyed, enormous land under farming and forests submerged.
Opponents question the dam’s published intentions mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The water that flows north in a 400 mile (WOW) canal is most likely meant to satisfy industries’ insatiable water needs. Because the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada River was supposed to provide for the water hungry regions of Kutch and Saurashtra, but fell short of the claims originally made, the government is now looking for additional sources by diverting waters from rivers in these poor tribal areas. The industries, farmers and city dwellers of the state in the powerful Ahmedabad-Vadodra urban-Industrial corridor got the lion’s share of Narmada waters and the water from these rivers too will go the same route.
These three pictures were taken at the site of the dam
What’s quite sick is that no representative of the government nor any literature or notification informed the villagers of the fate of their land. After seeing two scientists regularly come to the river to take water samples, some tribals confronted the men, who claimed they were there to build check dams, small-scaled dams meant for local use. After our local host called our friend, he alerted them of the fishiness of that answer, as water samples are unnecessary for small dams. He did some research and found the information on the website and enlightened the villagers on the immensity of the project. The villagers were able to stop the scientists and engineers, but how long before the government gets violent?
All photos taken of check dams along the road.
Villagers we talked to are adamant in their refusal to leave, knowing no other form of work to feed their families and supplement their income besides farming. They will stay their ground – shunning bleak prospects of being shoved to the cities for unskilled labor. Many say they will risk being drowned rather than leave their homes. These hilly villages are divided by border between Gujarat and Maharashtra, two of the most industrialized, urbanized states in India. The village leader we briefly talked to said that villagers from both sides of the border are suffering from this project implementation –GJ and MH jointly sanctioned this project. As a result, the two sides unite in rallies and coordinate campaigns against the 7 dams, believing together their forces will advance resistance efforts.
I do not mean that economic growth through industrialization or urbanization not encouraged. But put yourself in the positions of these villagers. Would we willingly give up our land, houses, jobs, or neighborhoods for the greater progress of our state or nation? Moreover, most of the villagers in these affected communities have only recently come on the government’s radar –they have lived outside its constituency in the past. The only face of the State they end up dealing with is apathetic, corrupt, even violently intrusive one.
What happens when the prime agricultural land that serves as a nexus for the economic growth of entire communities, that bulwarks strings of livelihoods, is put on an official list for usurpation, without any local knowledge of the fact until it is often too late? What should occur when those whose lives have not only been sustaining on their own, but based on wisdom and practices adopted by generations, are offered little to no compensation and a complete lack of future job security? Those affected get their land taken away at prices far below the established market price; what is this but exploitation?
In published government report, externalities and hidden costs remain silent though in reality their presence becomes ugly. I have take both AP micro and macroeconomics and I know the way the textbooks teach inquisitive and gullible students that the market will correct both good and bad externalities, or it is taken for granted that the government will fix the difference between the externality and market equilibrium, or that externalities also become damaging for the producer so everything will even out in the long run and the sticks will cross again. But this, in reality, is all BS. The negative externalities burdening powerless humans and the ecology isn’t factored in published costs or balanced sheets—completely absent as if there are none. This selectivity is a noxious form of propaganda.
A very important fact that I am perpetually reminded by locals is that these adivasis, like the man we talked to in Dharampur block about the 7 dams who refuses to leave even when the state machinery comes, are not romantic villagers frolicking in their paddy fields who only want to hold on to what they know without adapting to the ways of the modern world. The villagers weigh the future cash-flow of earnings from their piece of land and other supplemental products from the commons (forests, rivers…..) against the empty promises of compensation and urban jobs. Then they stage their ground.
They have seen the plight of displaced people who suffer because of these dam/factory/SEZ etc. constructions many times over and know what kind of power they are up against.
Narmada Bachao Andolan struggled for 20 years to oppose the Sardar Sarovar dam construction, one of the biggest movements in India? And still there are plans to build another network of displacement dams that can have the same consequences. Through these projects, more problems are created than solved.
Most of these activists or cause supporters, including us, are not crazy lefties taking our cues from the 70s, but only want human development, ecological sustainability, and community inputs to be the primary instigator of industry and expansion. So we all, as citizens of this world, must internalize the fact that our free market ideology has several assets that are polluted by propaganda inherent to the modern laissez faire economic model that, in other words, is globalization. In most of these development schemes there is no fair competition, there is no rational self-interest. In fact, such displacement and rural dilution destroy free enterprize, annihilate local competition and market diversity.
By the way the activist friend circle I know some about is not widespread –most middle class urban people fully support Narendra Modi’s State policies. In fact I shouldn’t even specify Narendra Modi because the majority of middle class individuals in developing countries and the developed world DO silently suppress such andolans by fully backing the stability and progress of such adverse development power structures everywhere, on an international scale. We all equate free market ideology with democracy. But really, how can we tolerate processes akin to forced migration from the rural sector to urban labor, a migration that occurs without any significant quality of life improvements. In many cases, it is in fact a significant deterioration! I cannot imagine what the life of an unskilled laborer must be like, when he actively knows the air he breathes while mixing the chemicals for the industrial plant he works in 12 hours a day is slowly poisoning his blood. Or having one’s child subject to the harshness of cotton picking for a mere pittance. And in the case of India, the urban fate does not offer hopes of skilled factory work – most eke their miserable living from informal, seasonal day labor in construction work or other odd jobs. Some work in richer irrigated farm lands, maybe the agro-businesses that bought out their own plots. Truly is a subsistence economy…
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Gujarat’s roads and infrastructure are more up to date and better maintained than many parts of the other States we visited, thanks to a rigorous “development” policy by the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. What is driving what the Economist magazine calls “India’s engine of growth” is industry, on a scale so massive that entire expanses of land have fallen to non-agricultural development. There are some significant projects in the name of economic growth that are being shoved down the throats of locals that those of you who don’t know should. GJ, like the entire developing world, has Special Economic Zones, tracts of land where companies are exempt from following national economic laws to incentivize foreign investment. Gujarat has 45.
Moreover a newly proposed Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor is going to take up 38% of Gujarat’s land. According to the DMIC’s website, the “Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor is a mega infra-structure project of USD 90 billion with the financial & technical aids from Japan, covering an overall length of 1483 KMs between the political and business capitals of India, i.e. Delhi and Mumbai.”
Their mission is this: “This project incorporates Nine Mega Industrial zones of about 200-250 sq. km., high speed freight line, three ports, and six air ports; a six-lane intersection-free expressway connecting Delhi and Mumbai and a 4000 MW power plant. Several industrial estates and clusters, industrial hubs, with top-of-the-line infrastructure would be developed along this corridor to attract more foreign investment.”
Think about what is going to happen to the millions of people who will be pushed off, all the agricultural and forest land that livelihoods depend on eliminated, the cycle of these farmers, adivasis, or rural poor having to integrate themselves as low paid manual laborers in dangerous conditions… the ramifications are enormous.
God did it rain! Monsoon season almost ruined our plans to see Vapi, an industrial waste-ridden town that jarringly marred the lush greenery that naturally enveloped the region. Gujarat is considered a more developed state now – it is even pushed back on major aid agencies’ (like Action Aid India) lists to make way for priority states like Bihar and Jharkand. The Chief Minister of Gujarat would not mind this as it suits his vigorous campaign to propagate the state’s international image as a success story. Let me tell you, Narendra Modi is kind of a creepy dude. His pictures are on billboards EVERYWHERE; he is like a Big Brother watching over his Golden Gujarat.
Gujarat is clearly on the path to Americanization, where suburbs and right wing politics steer a middle class individual’s aspirations and faith.
Anyways, I digress. Back to Vapi. The article in New Earth magazine is eloquently and clearly written, and explains the situation better that my attempts. Please read this before continuing! See Here: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/gentle-critical-pollution
I can tell you in my own words what Vapi looked like though. As I said, the rain ceaselessly poured from the sky. We almost decided the two-hour drive was not worth it because we would only be able to see two of the hotspots of pollution, and making our way in the toxic wasteland in heavy rain would be impossible. I thought what the hell, we came for this, lets go! So we did. Eating boiled corn and peanuts and having intensive discussions while listening to Bollywood tunes and staring at the paddy fields through the rivulets of rain streaming through the glass.
Then it all changed: Himalaya mountains of waste comprised of wires, plastics, chemical discharges. Some people were illegally operating open waste collection facilities. There was one authorized adjacent to the massive makeshift piles watched by guards. Right across the road men were selling paan and soda. The air smelt like pesticides. Worst of all, there was a disfiguring beauty to the streams of khus green and iron rust red water that pored out on the sides of the major roads in Vapi—dye factories unleashing their toxic waste into the open gutters in front of apartment complexes and bazaars. At the next place, we went to see the large scaled version of chemical dumping we saw on the streets. The story of Down to Earth that you read above was the cover story, and the picture on the cover showed the chemical saturated water being pored into the rivers nearby through pipes. Because it was monsoon the spouts were underwater and the toxic sludge we carefully walked through that horded the pathway didn’t allow us to go any further. Our guide is a risky guy and has to be careful when he ventures in these areas because he is involved in the struggle to bring the rampant pollution under control and call attention to the side effects of such waste. Powerful industrial tycoons are not fans of such he-who-must-not-be-named. We were being watched so although we came all the way from the northern end of the state to the southernmost part for this short experience, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures! How sad. Sorry, use your imagination to experience the thrill and suspense of this clandestine operation!
These streams were EVERYWHERE
Vapi is the second most polluted area in India (!!), behind only Ankleshwar, which also happens to be in Gujarat. It was put on a list of such critically polluted cities that the government imposed a moratorium on their expansion. Now the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests is being a slacker and disregards its previous assessment of pollution, though the areas require environmental rehabilitation. In light of this blatant flaunting of national regulation and the dubious claims that pollution in these industrial hotbeds has been tamed, activists boldly confront this injustice. Please, Please, Please take the time to read the full article on Vapi. Fake overtures by the government itself coupled with the alliance of foreign money and domestic giants pushing for industry expansion form a veritable opponent, but the area is a hothouse for confrontation and environmental activism.
What I saw was incredibly depressing levels of garbage and toxins carelessly externalized onto the Vapi community. So I wonder how many firms would survive if they were actually forced to clean up their mess, a useless word to use here as I use it to describe my room once in a while. How does the destruction of health, land, and water figure into industrial development? This corridor in Gujarat has the highest concentration of chemical industries in India. The mindless dumping and routine externalizing of costs hurt our eyes and our psyches, but also hurt our justice bones. We shouldn’t just feel pity, but feel anger. Why are these abundant waste creating factory cities hurting the people of GJ. Is it because they are illegal or uneconomical or politically impossible in the developed world? And why? With just a couple hours in Vapi and spending a couple of minutes reinforcing my sights with the article, I can witness the politics of globalization, the uneven scale that tips to the developed world with invisible weights.
Pure for Sure? You Sure?
Great place to raise children, huh?
On the way back, we stopped by my best friend (out of all my parents’ friends –sorry rest of ya’ll!) parents’ place in a nearby town. 85+, the couple were so funny, sharp, and affectionate. They started an institution years ago that is Gandhian, but not in the traditional sense. For example, everyday the students and teachers sit in a circle and explain what they have done and what they extracted from the day. Students plan the lessons! Teachers take the students, which are being trained to be teachers, on trips all over India. The institution is one of only two recognized by UNESCO in all of South Asia for doing exceptional educational work. Her dad is so hilarious and cunningly slipped in what appeared to be a joke but was actually a very insightful and pointed comment about, well, personal stuff. He is an avid reader and doesn’t just read books and books on Gandhi only like many other Gandhians I know do. He let me borrow some of his prized books specifically dedicated to him. On the way he pinched me and said that if I didn’t return them to his daughter, I would have to come all the way back from America to personally return them to him and bear the shame.
I cannot tell you how lucky I am to have such friends/uncles/aunts that I love so much and who treat me like their children but simultaneously treat me like their friend and colleague. I feel like I have special status; the number of people in these activist fields that adopt me into their affections is unimaginable. Some I have met or stayed in touch with every few years, others I might have met once or twice as a child, and the rest for the first time now. And it is not even that they are friends of my family members or virtual or long distance collaborators. It is the bond between people whose lives temporarily run parallel courses, whose journeys briefly intersect for some moments. We do not necessarily go in the same direction on the zoomed out picture, let alone travel together. Yet it is the people who have dedicated themselves to the public life and social service – with open arms and warm hearts—whose company I found myself most happy in. With a great ability to love and share their lives with others, I have learned so much both about social issues and how I want to lead my life during my brief times with them. I really don’t deserve all of it. But I’m eternally grateful!
I have an observation I’d like to share with you all. First, because of the wars the States are entangled in, the financial crisis fissured even more deeply because of vicious partisan politics, and the perception of it becoming severely weakened by its own follies, the rest of the world is starting to take us less seriously. Even I thought our image was still sturdy before hearing what a lot of people were saying.
I have similar criticisms about the US. US policies and history can often be repulsive, but sadly few people acknowledge that some revolutionary thinking, great movers of history, and innovations are unique to America only. People brush aside the States, as if we contributed negligible amounts to modern thinking. It’s easy for them to be dismissive, though in many ways they are being rational. The way they disregard its diverse and progressive history is a risk to them but mostly us too. We need to salvage this if we want the US to count in the minds of the citizens of developing countries because we are being collectively delusional about our power. Hegemonic wars and debt-ridden consumerism are not just who we are. Like watch this video another good friend showed me. All you Indians will probably laugh but even the most liberal Americans will cringe after a few minutes. (Sorry cannot load it yet. Will try again later).
