For the world Bank to aid the Rs.6,400 – crore Narmada Valley Project is nothing but midsummer madness for it is going to displace and destroy the community life of 3 million tribes in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Three million tribes mean a full-fledged nation with exclusive habitats. Over 50 countries in the world including Israel, Jordan and Kuwait have population around 3 million. To displace by drowning their centuries – old lands, hearths and homes by the gigantic dam is nothing but midsummer madness. Whether the lives of 3 million tribes are to be destroyed in this way just to benefit 3 lakh farmers who are “Hindu castes” in Gujarat and MP? Sardar Sarovar dam, therefore, is a midsummer madness. Because:
1) The beneficiaries are just 5% “Hindu castes”, while the displaced are 3 million tribals.
2) The dam irrigates less areas than it submerges.
3) It also submerges a hundred thousand hectares of prime forests which could not be replaced by man- made forests.
4) The destruction and drowning of prime forests is sure to eliminate rainfall and thereby lead to the destruction of Narmada river itself.
5) No amount of compensation and resettlement of 3 million tribes is going to benefit them once their community life is destroyed. It is nothing but a plan for degradation and destruction of 3 million tribal position.
6) It is impossible to resettle 3 million population.
Testimony of the World Bank: The World Bank itself says that Sardar Sarovar dam will be just standing as a monument for the next 50 years until the canals are dug out to utilize its waters. It will take 50 years to complete the canals. Why and how the World Bank could not make independent inquiries about the resettlement plans of displaced population? Why it should participate in the degradation and destruction of 3 million population of tribes? Sardar Sarovar is a racial war of “Hindu castes” over “Indian races” called tribes. The world Bank has no other way except to depend on the cooked-up statistics. It is time that the World Bank refused to aid such destruction of ecology and human habitations and instead advocate that the whole project be dropped. If the World Bank does not stop this crime against humanity, we may have to say that this Bank itself is a party to this international conspiracy to promote Brahminism. The thirty thousand tribals displaced in 1962 by the authorities of Sardar Sarovar dam are yet to be resettled. The colonial powers, called “Hindu castes” who rule India, follow ‘naked racialism against the tribes. This is the meaning of Gujarat govt. failure to resettle 30,000 tribes for the last three decades. How could we believe that it could resettle 3 million tribes now? The community life of the tribes is to be destroyed to benefit a microscopic “Hindu caste”. With what sense we can call this “development”? This is degeneration of human life. No dialogue is needed except the dam is to be damned. By disintegrating and dispersing 3 million tribes, these heartless upper castes are planning to enrich themselves by disposing off tribal women to Bombay brothels.
Conclusion: From all angles Sardar Sarovar dam or the Narmada Valley Project is a midsummer madness. Only insane minds can aid and abet it.
Ambedkarite and DV readers in America, Europe and England should take up this matter with the World Bank and see to it that it is dropped. The tribal population of all the three States around Narmada should be united into a form of single State with the creation of an exclusive tribal state. The fact that the Gujarat and Rajasthan “Hindu castes” are intimidating tribes to foil their peaceful meetings and demonstrations near the Sardar Sarovar dam, the barbaric colonialism of the Hindu castes is visible even to the sightless blind.
