Bhagat-Ganguly, Varsha --- "Dams and displacement: the case of the Sardar Sarovar Project, India" [2019] ELECD 2662; in Cullet, Philippe; Koonan, Sujith (eds), "Research Handbook on Law, Environment and the Global South" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 371

Book Title: Research Handbook on Law, Environment and the Global South

Editor(s): Cullet, Philippe; Koonan, Sujith

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 19

Section Title: Dams and displacement: the case of the Sardar Sarovar Project, India

Author(s): Bhagat-Ganguly, Varsha

Number of pages: 25

Abstract/Description:

India has adopted a techno-managerial model of water resource planning and management, wherein dam technology has occupied the centre stage. In this given model, shifts are observed in the role of the state, which call for deeper examination. In the discourse of development through dams, ‘national interest’ and ‘cost bearing/suffering’, that is, development induced displacement in the name of the national interest, took centre stage from 1948. This chapter analyses the evolving debates on development, dams and displacement through the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) as a case study of water resources and management, traces debates and discourses by various different stakeholders and the history of SSP, studies shifts in the development discourse especially related to the Narmada Bachao Andolan’s advocacy, maps legal-judicial initiatives and interpretations, views on cost-benefit analysis of SSP, capturing the politics of water, and needs and aspirations of citizens, including both the displaced population and the beneficiaries.