Conflict and Collective Action: The Sardar Sarovar Project in India

For over two decades, large infrastructure development projects have been the subject of major controversies the world over. This book is a comprehensive account of the well-known Sardar Sarovar Project in India, and the world-wide campaign led against it by the Narmada Bachao Andolan. The book attempts to understand the unfurling crisis around the project in order to develop a comprehensive sociology of development action that goes beyond positivist methods and evaluative frames. Its significance lies in its contribution to three research issues: first, the theoretical focus on actually existing development; second, a methodological query concerning crisis analysis; and third, the substantive examination of the Narmada Bachao Andolan and its collective action against displacement and despoliation in the Narmada Valley. This detailed and comprehensive book furthers our understanding of how the Narmada struggle symbolises more than opposition to development projects with dubious benefits. It represents, among other things, the debate around citizenship and democratic decision-making, and a recognition of intrinsic faults in the dominant models of development. Published posthumously, the book ends with the Supreme Court judgement on the Sardar Sarovar Dam. Amita Baviskar brings the debate up to date in her Introduction. A must-read for those interested not only in a detailed analysis of the Sardar Sarovar Project, but also in the anatomy and dynamics of collective action and social movements, in the political economy of resources–in particular of water–and more generally in development studies.