Amita Baviskar

Why are adivasis fighting the Narmada dam and other development projects in India today? Are adivasis 'ecologically noble savages' living in harmony with nature? What is the tribal relationship with nature today? How do people, whose struggles are the subject of theories of liberation and social change, perceive their own situation? Do their present circumstances allow adivasis to formulate a critique of 'development'?

In the Belly of the River addresses these questions through an account of the lives of Bhilala adivasis in the Narmada valley who are fighting against displacement by the Sardar Sarovar dam in western India. On the basis of intensive fieldwork and historical research, this study places the tribal community in the context of its experience of state domination. Combining aspects of adivasi kinship and religion with the political economy of resource use, the book highlights the contradictions inherent in tribal relationships with nature - contradictions that permeate adivasi consciousness as well as practices.

Baviskar critically examines the way in which adivasis are represented by intellectuals who speak 'on their behalf'. The author challenges current theories of social movements which claim that a cultural critique of the 'development' paradigm is writ large in the political actions of those marginalized by 'development' - adivasis who lived in harmony with nature, combining reverence for nature with the sustainable management of resources.

tribal conflicts over development in the Narmada Valley

In the belly of the river

As cities become habitat for most of humanity, the question of their ecological capacity to sustain lives worth living becomes ever more critical. Yet, when we listen to debates about city planning and governance, and observe urban environmental campaigns on the ground, we notice that they have little to do with ecology or justice. To examine this contradiction, Uncivil City: Ecology, Equity and the Commons in Delhi looks at two decades of environmental politics in Delhi—across homes and workplaces, ordinary streets and extraordinary spectacles, and the river and the Ridge. It argues that the terms of the discourse—what is an environmental issue, who is authorised to speak, and which modes of action count as legitimate—are partial, particularistic and perverse. ‘Bourgeois environmentalists’, who claim to speak in the public interest, for nature and society, have made the city what it is: unfair and unliveable. Only citizenship and civility will save the commons—air, water, space and trees—upon which cities depend for survival.

Ecology, Equity and the Commons in Delhi

Uncivil City

Raka Ray

Examining the middle classes in multiple sites of social action, this book looks at the historical evolution of these classes -- their changing relationships with colonial power, the Indian state and other social groups -- as well as their influence in shaping contemporary cultural politics in India.

The Cultural Politics of the Indian Middle Classes

Elite and Everyman

Contributed articles presented earlier at a conference held at Kathmandu in 2003; later serialized in the Economic and political weekly on political aspects of natural resources.

Essays on Nature, Culture, and Power

Contested Grounds

Ghanshyam Shah

Sukhadeo Thorat

Satish Deshpande

Harsh Mander

This book is focused and systematic documentation of the incidence and extent of the practice of untouchability in contemporary India. Based on the results of a large survey covering 565 villages in 11 states, it reveals that untouchability continues to be widely prevalent and is practiced in one form or another in almost 80 per cent of the villages. Field data is supplemented by information about the forms of discrimination which Dalits face in everyday life, such as: – The ‘unclean’ occupations open to them – The double burden of Dalit women, who suffer both gender and caste discrimination – The upper-caste violence with which any Dalit self-assertion is met The authors also describe Dalit efforts to overcome deeply entrenched caste hierarchies and assert their right to live with dignity. While the evidence presented here suggests that the more blatant and extreme forms of untouchability appear to have declined, discrimination continues and is most prevalent in the religious and personal spheres. The authors show that the notion of untouchability continues to pervade the public sphere, including a host of state institutions and the interactions that occur within them.

Amita Baviskar

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