Agudo, Mariano, and Roi Guitián. Yindabad. Watertown: Documentary Educational Resources, Inc., 2007. 35 mm, 55 min. https://youtu.be/lWyXPoBZ07A.
The Narmada Valley Development Project was created during the late 1960s to construct 30 large scale dams, 135 medium-size dams, and more than 3000 small-size dams in the Narmada River. Over 2.5 million people have been displaced by the flooding of forests, cultivatable land, and villages. The situation in Narmada Valley is an example of one of the biggest wars of the 21st century: water management and control of natural resources. The affected people, the local Adivasis, have struggled against this project for 20 years, fighting for fair compensation and the relocation of their homes. India’s current economic plans seem to be synonymous with the destruction of indigenous people’s living conditions. As the cement walls stop the water that used to bring them life, the river floods the people for the sake of the city and development. Adivasi (tribal) women have gained consciousness of the dimensions of the problem and whilst fighting for the conservation of their culture, they have become main characters in this unequal fight. Yindabad shows this struggle from their viewpoint: from the riverbank, where the danger of rising water is a constant threat to the relocation process, and from the slum of the Indian metropolis, where the fight continues. (Source: Documentary Educational Resources, Inc.)
© 2007 Documentary Educational Resources, Inc. Trailer used with permission.
This film is available at the Rachel Carson Center Library (RCC, 4th floor, Leopoldstrasse 11a, 80802 Munich) for on-site viewing only. For more information, please contact library@rcc.lmu.de.
- Baviskar, Amita. In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the Narmada Valley. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- Cernea, M. M. "Poverty Risks from Population Displacement in Water Resources Development." Harvard Institute for International Development 355 (1990): 55.
- McDonald-Wilmsen, Brooke, and Michael Webber. "Dams and Displacement: Raising the Standards and Broadening the Research Agenda." Water Alternatives 3, no. 2 (2010): 142.
