Narmada Bachao Andolan

Also called: NBA · Topic: Civil Society, Pressure Groups, NGOs and Self-help Groups · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), or "Save Narmada Movement", is a social movement that began in 1985 (NCERT says "late 1980s"). It opposed the big dams of the Narmada Valley Development Project, mainly the Sardar Sarovar dam, because of displacement, poor rehabilitation and the flooding of forests [3][4]. It matters because it made the rehabilitation of displaced people a legal duty rather than a favour. It also forced the World Bank to answer to the people its projects affected, and it shapes the "development vs rights" debate in Indian politics.

Explanation

Who, what and why

• Project: the Narmada Valley Development Project is a plan for many dams on the Narmada river. Its largest and most contested dam is Sardar Sarovar [3][4].
• Leaders: Medha Patkar and Baba Amte [3].
• Members: tribal communities, farmers, environmentalists and human-rights activists [3].
• Grievances [3]:
• Displacement: people were forced to leave their land and homes.
• Inadequate rehabilitation: new land, housing and livelihoods were not given properly.

• Submergence: forests would go under water.

• The water-sharing dispute between states and the 1979 tribunal award belong to federalism (Centre-state relations), not to the NBA itself.

What kind of body it is

• The NBA is a social movement: many people acting together over many years, loosely organised and mostly outside formal institutions.
• Not a party: it does not contest elections or try to form a government.
• Not a pressure group: it does not speak for the narrow interest of one trade or profession. It seeks broad change in policy.
• It is a "new social movement". Since the 1970s, such movements have centred on environment, rights and identity rather than class.
• Rajni Kothari called such groups "non-party political formations". They do politics, meaning they try to change public decisions, but they never contest elections.
• Medha Patkar was also one of the founders of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), a network of such movements formed in 1992 [3].

How it fought: from protest to court to global lender

1. Street and village protest: marches, sit-ins and hunger strikes to put the issue on the agenda of the media and Parliament.

2. Pressure on the World Bank: - 1992 – Morse Review: criticism over resettlement and the environment led the Bank to order an independent review, chaired by Bradford Morse [5][6]. - The review's findings:

   • Both the Government of India and the World Bank were responsible for the project's failures [5].
   • The project had gone ahead without the data needed to judge people's needs and the harm to the environment.
   • It advised the Bank to "step back" [5].
   • 1993 – Loan cancelled: at India's request, the Bank cancelled the remaining loan (NCERT: the Bank withdrew in 1993) [5][7].
   • 1993 – Inspection Panel: the Bank set up an independent Inspection Panel, modelled on the Morse Commission. It hears complaints that the Bank broke its own policies on a project [5].

3. Litigation: the NBA went to the Supreme Court, which decided Narmada Bachao Andolan v. Union of India in 2000.

Limits

• The NBA did not stop the dam. The court let construction continue, and the dam was completed and dedicated in 2017 [8].
• Its real gains were in law and norms:
• Rehabilitation became a condition for raising the dam.

• Its demands later fed into the LARR Act, 2013.

• Critics say campaigns like this delay public projects. Movements can also lose energy, or the State and parties can absorb their leaders and ideas (co-optation).

In the Constitution and practice

• Supreme Court: Narmada Bachao Andolan v. Union of India (October 2000)
• Decided by a 2:1 majority.
• Holding: construction of the dam could continue, as long as rehabilitation kept pace with each increase in the dam's height.
• Majority view: the court deferred to policy (it left the decision to the government). It did not want to reopen a large project that had already been decided and was partly built.

• Dissent (the one judge who disagreed): proper environmental clearance and rehabilitation must come before more construction.

• Completion (2017)

• PM Narendra Modi dedicated the Sardar Sarovar Dam to the nation at Kevadia, Gujarat, on 17 September 2017 [8].
• Height: 138.68 metres. Usable storage: 4.73 million acre-feet [8].

• Beneficiary states: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra [8].

• Legacy in law: Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR Act)

• Social impact assessment (SIA): before land is taken, the government must study how the project will affect people. The study is done with the affected families and discussed in public [9][10].
• Social Impact Management Plan (SIMP): lists the steps that will reduce the harm, and judges whether the benefits are greater than the social costs [10].
• Consent:
  • The Gram Sabha (all adult voters of a village) must agree to any acquisition in Scheduled Areas (tribal areas listed under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution) [10].
  • 80% of affected families must agree when land is taken for private companies for a public purpose [10].

• Order of steps: SIA → preliminary notification → declaration of acquisition → compensation within a fixed time [10].

• Lasting effect:

• Rehabilitation of displaced people became a legal duty, not a favour.
• Global lenders became answerable to the people their projects affect, through the World Bank's Inspection Panel.

Don't confuse with

• Chipko movement: Chipko (from 1973, Garhwal, now Uttarakhand) was about trees and commercial logging, not dams. It led to the 1980 ban on green felling [1]. The NBA was about dams and displacement.
• Silent Valley movement: this also opposed a dam, a hydel project on the Kunthipuzha river in Kerala. It succeeded before construction: the project was dropped in 1983 and the area became a national park in 1984 [2]. The NBA lost on the dam but won on rehabilitation norms.
• Pressure group: a pressure group (such as FICCI or a trade union) is formal and pushes the narrow interest of one group. The NBA is a loosely organised social movement seeking broad change.
• Inter-state water dispute (1979 tribunal award): this is about how states share Narmada water, and it belongs to federalism. The NBA was about people displaced by the dams.

Prelims Hooks

• NBA leaders: Medha Patkar and Baba Amte. It emerged in 1985 (NCERT: "late 1980s") against Sardar Sarovar [3]. Do not confuse them with Chipko's Bhatt and Bahuguna or Appiko's Panduranga Hegde.
• Morse Review (1992), chaired by Bradford Morse, blamed both the Government of India and the World Bank [5][6].
• 1993: the World Bank cancelled the remaining loan at India's request, and in the same year it created the Inspection Panel [5][7]. Trap: India asked for the cancellation; the Bank did not simply walk away on its own.
• NBA v. Union of India (2000) was a 2:1 decision. Construction could continue, provided rehabilitation kept pace with the dam's height.
• Sardar Sarovar was dedicated on 17 September 2017 at Kevadia, Gujarat. Height 138.68 m. Beneficiary states: Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP and Maharashtra [8].
• LARR Act, 2013: SIA is compulsory. Gram Sabha consent is needed in Scheduled Areas, and 80% of affected families must consent for private-company acquisitions [10].

Mains Points

• Development vs rights.
• The dam brings irrigation and drinking water to four states [8].
• It also displaced tribal and rural people [3].

• NBA (2000) shows judicial deference to policy (the court leaving big project decisions to the government). A balanced answer argues for rehabilitation before submergence, with independent monitoring, which is close to the dissent's view.

• Movements deepen democracy between elections.

• The NBA used protest, an independent review and the courts to set the agenda.
• Its ideas reached the LARR Act, 2013: SIA, Gram Sabha consent and 80% consent.

• This supports the view of civil society as a bridge between citizens and the State.

• Accountability beyond the nation, and reform.

• The Morse Review (1992) led to the World Bank's Inspection Panel (1993). This shows how a local movement can change a global institution [5].
• Reform: hold early, genuine public hearings and SIAs, so that disputes are settled before construction rather than decades later in court.

Related concepts

• Social movement
• New social movements
• Chipko movement
• Appiko movement
• Silent Valley Movement

Read more

• Social movements and the environmental movements