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 against it led 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. It deals with three main research concerns: first, the theoretical focus on actually existing development; second, a methodological query concerning critical analysis; and third, the substantive examination of the NBA and its collective action against displacement in the Narmada Valley. Published posthumously, the book ends with the Supreme Court judgement on the Sardar Sarovar Dam. Amita Baviskar, well-known expert in the field, brings the debate up to the present in the Preface.

Foreword Amita Baviskar. Preface. Acknowledgements. Introduction 1. Development-induced conflicts: Concept and Analysis 2. Development, Crisis and Conflict: The Indian Experience Design 3. The Sardar Sarovar Project and State Conflict: Development on the Narmada Appraisal 4. The Gainers and Losers: A Cost-benefit Analysis of the SSP Construction 5. Collective Action and the Development Discourse: Against the SSP, Against Development Evaluation 6. The Narmada Movement and the Significance of Risk Politics Reviews 7. Independent Juries and Reviews: Views from Above Impact 8. Displacement and Resettlement: The View from Below Reform 9.Conflict as Change-agent: Reform in the SSP 10. Development, Crisis and Change: In Conclusion. References. Index

The late Ranjit Dwivedi was at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague. Prior to this he taught at the University of Delhi, India. In 2001 Ranjit Dwivedi left the Institute to teach Development Studies at the Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.