Narmada Bachao Andolan: The Non-Violent Struggle Against the Sardar Sarovar Dam

In the heart of central India, the Narmada River has long been considered sacred-a lifeline for millions living along its banks. But beginning in the 1980s, this revered river became the site of one of India’s most significant non-violent struggles. The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), or “Save the Narmada Movement,” emerged as a powerful grassroots resistance against massive dam projects that threatened to displace hundreds of thousands of people. Drawing inspiration from Gandhian principles of peaceful protest, the movement challenged the very definition of development and raised crucial questions about who truly benefits from large infrastructure projects.

The sacred Narmada and the valley development project 🔗

The Narmada is India’s largest westward-flowing river, holding immense religious and cultural importance for the communities residing along its banks. The river flows through three states-Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat-before emptying into the Arabian Sea. For generations, the valley sustained vibrant tribal communities, farmers, and fisherfolk who depended on its waters and fertile lands for their livelihoods.

The Narmada Valley Development Project (NVDP) was conceived as one of the largest river development schemes in the world. In 1979, the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) approved the project, which proposed the construction of 30 major dams, 135 medium dams, and approximately 3,000 small dams along the river and its tributaries. The most controversial among these was the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat-one of the largest dams on the river.

Proponents argued that these dams would provide irrigation water to drought-prone regions, drinking water to remote areas, and generate hydroelectric power for economic development. However, the project’s planning fundamentally overlooked the human and environmental costs that would accompany such massive construction.

Threats of submergence and inadequate planning 🔗

The scale of displacement proposed by the Narmada dams was staggering. According to the movement’s estimates, the dams would force the displacement of about a million people, predominantly poor peasants and indigenous tribal communities known as adivasis. The Sardar Sarovar Dam alone threatened to submerge land across three states, affecting over 200,000 people living in 245 villages-complete with their temples, mosques, schools, and entire community infrastructure.

Impact on tribal communities 🔗

The majority of those facing displacement were tribal people-communities like the Bhils and Bhilalas who had lived in the Narmada valley for generations. These communities practiced subsistence agriculture, raised cattle in the forests, and gathered forest produce. Many had no formal land titles despite having cultivated the land for centuries, making them legally vulnerable and classified as “encroachers” by state authorities.

The proposed resettlement and compensation measures were woefully inadequate. The World Bank agreed to finance the Sardar Sarovar Dam with a $450 million loan in 1985 without consulting the indigenous communities that would be displaced. Studies conducted later revealed that when the project began, no proper assessment of the number of people to be displaced had been completed, nor had any comprehensive rehabilitation plan been prepared.

Environmental and seismic concerns 🔗

Beyond social costs, the dams posed severe environmental threats. The submergence of vast forest areas would destroy prime habitats of rare species and disrupt the region’s delicate ecology. Additionally, the NBA raised urgent concerns about reservoir-induced seismicity, pointing out that an earthquake in the previous decade had its epicenter just 10 kilometers from the Bargi dam upstream on the Narmada, causing heavy damage in Jabalpur city. The location of major dams in a seismically active zone created the potential for catastrophic damage.

Birth of the movement and non-violent protests 🔗

The Narmada Bachao Andolan was initiated in 1985 as a social movement uniting adivasis, farmers, environmentalists, and human rights activists. The movement’s founding was directly linked to the arrival of Medha Patkar, a social work graduate from Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences, who visited the Narmada valley to understand the project’s impact on local communities.

Medha Patkar’s leadership 🔗

Patkar observed that project work was being questioned due to non-fulfillment of basic environmental conditions, yet the affected people had been given no information about their fate. She became aware of the indifference exhibited by local government officials toward those who would lose their homes and livelihoods. In 1986, Patkar established the Narmada Dharangrastra Samiti, which evolved into the Narmada Bachao Andolan by 1989.

Baba Amte, one of India’s most respected moral leaders known for his work rehabilitating leprosy patients, joined the struggle in 1990. At age 76, he left his renowned Anandwan community, declaring that Narmada would become a symbol of all struggles against social injustice.

Gandhian methods of resistance 🔗

The NBA employed distinctly non-violent methods inspired by the Gandhian tradition. Their campaign tactics included court actions, hunger strikes, rallies, and gathering support from notable personalities in film and art. The movement’s slogans-“Vikas Chahiye, Vinash Nahin!” (Development wanted, not destruction) and “Koi nahi hatega, bandh nahi banega!” (We won’t move, the dam won’t be constructed)-captured its spirit of defiance.

In 1990, Patkar led NBA members and some 3,000 displaced people on a march from northern Madhya Pradesh toward the Sardar Sarovar dam site. They were stopped at the Gujarat border by police and pro-dam activists bussed in from urban centers. The confrontation lasted nearly two weeks, with marchers-who had voluntarily tied their hands together to demonstrate non-violence-being beaten, arrested, and driven miles away before being abandoned.

In January 1991, a seven-member team including Patkar began an indefinite hunger strike. After 22 days without food, Patkar was near death before the fast ended. The NBA also developed “monsoon satyagrahas,” where hundreds of villagers refused to leave their homes even as rising reservoir waters entered their fields, forcing police to physically drag people from flooding areas.

Legal battles and Supreme Court interventions 🔗

The NBA pursued justice through the Indian legal system alongside its grassroots mobilization. Their efforts to hold the World Bank accountable led to a historic outcome in 1992 when the Bank commissioned its first-ever independent review of a project.

The Morse Commission and World Bank withdrawal 🔗

The independent review, led by Bradford Morse (former head of the United Nations Development Programme) and Thomas Berger (a noted Canadian human rights authority), examined the Sardar Sarovar project over ten months. The resulting Morse Report, released in June 1992, was devastating. It found that both the Indian government and the World Bank shared responsibility for the project’s failures. The review concluded that resettlement and rehabilitation of displaced people was not possible under prevailing circumstances and that environmental impacts had not been properly addressed.

Under mounting pressure from international NGOs and facing the reality that India could not meet the Bank’s resettlement guidelines, the Indian government canceled the remaining loans in 1993, effectively ending World Bank support for the dam. This marked the first time a grassroots movement had successfully redirected World Bank policy on a major project.

Supreme Court proceedings 🔗

Following the World Bank’s withdrawal, the Indian government continued the project with its own funds, and the NBA refocused its efforts on the Supreme Court. In 1994, the movement filed a public interest litigation petition challenging the dam’s construction on grounds of inadequate environmental assessment and violation of fundamental rights.

The Supreme Court initially stayed the construction, asking the concerned states to first fulfill rehabilitation needs. After seven years of deliberations, the court delivered its judgment on October 18, 2000. In a 2:1 majority verdict, the court allowed construction to continue, holding that the project was of national importance. However, it introduced mechanisms to monitor resettlement progress, directing that rehabilitation must proceed alongside each increase in dam height.

The court acknowledged the NBA’s contribution to raising awareness about rehabilitation and environmental concerns, suggesting that the movement could assume the role of “vigilant observer” to ensure resettlement was humane and environmental aspects were addressed. Despite this, the NBA continued fighting for proper rehabilitation, particularly for land-based resettlement rather than mere cash compensation.

Achievements and national impact 🔗

While the Sardar Sarovar Dam was eventually completed and inaugurated in 2017, the NBA’s legacy extends far beyond this single project. The movement fundamentally transformed India’s discourse on development, displacement, and people’s rights.

Recognition and awards 🔗

In 1991, Medha Patkar, Baba Amte, and the NBA received the Right Livelihood Award, often called the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for their opposition to the Narmada dams project and their promotion of alternatives benefiting the poor and environment. Patkar also received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1992 for her grassroots environmental activism.

Policy influence and broader movement 🔗

The NBA’s struggle generated a continental debate encapsulating the conflict between two opposing development models-one based on large-scale industrialization with heavy social and environmental costs, the other emphasizing decentralized, democratic, and ecologically sustainable options. Patkar served as a commissioner on the World Commission on Dams, which issued an influential global report in 2000 examining the environmental, social, and economic impacts of large dams.

The movement’s influence spread to other dam projects in the valley, including Indira Sagar, Maheshwar, and Omkareshwar. The High Court of Jabalpur stopped reservoir filling for two dams until land-based rehabilitation was completed. The NBA’s interventions helped nationalize issues of displacement, rehabilitation policy, and equitable development planning-influencing both policymaking and grassroots movements across India.

In 1996, Patkar founded the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), an agglomeration of progressive social bodies that continues to advocate for marginalized communities affected by development projects nationwide.

The Narmada Bachao Andolan demonstrated that sustained non-violent resistance could challenge powerful institutions, hold governments accountable, and shift global conversations about development. It showed that the voices of displaced tribal communities, when organized and persistent, could resonate in international forums, courtrooms, and the pages of policy documents worldwide.

What do you think? Can large infrastructure projects ever truly balance national development needs with the rights and livelihoods of displaced communities? What lessons does the NBA’s decades-long struggle offer for contemporary environmental and social justice movements?

References

1. https://rightlivelihood.org/the-change-makers/find-a-laureate/medha-patkar-and-baba-amte-narmada-bachao-andolan/
2. https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/narmada-bachao-andolan-nba-forces-end-world-bank-funding-sardar-sarovar-dam-india-1985-1993
3. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Medha-Patkar
4. https://www.waterpowermagazine.com/analysis/sardar-sarovar-the-story-so-far/
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narmada_Bachao_Andolan
6. https://timeline.worldbank.org/en/timeline/eventdetail/1911
7. https://ijlmh.com/paper/case-comment-on-narmada-bachao-andolan-vs-union-of-india-and-ors-air-2000-sc-3751/