Abstract
This chapter documents people’s resistance to the Rengali Dam due to displacement. The foundation stone of the Rengali Dam irrigation project was laid by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1973. Built across River Brahmani in today’s Angul district of Odisha, the project was completed in 1985. Over 10,700 families were displaced. The chapter gives a critical overview of the land-for-land policy of compensation by interviewing the displaced people and highlighting their current predicament. Their memories and testimonies fill an important gap in the history of resistance in Odisha.
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.
—Milan Kundera, 1981
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Notes
- 1.
Banka Behari Das was the state finance minister when the proposal of the Rengali Dam was mooted. He was initially enthusiastic believing in the benefits of the dam. Later in his life, he was disillusioned seeing the misery and distress of the people. He became very involved in people’s struggle for proper rehabilitation. In this autobiography he portrays his involvement in the movement as an act of repentance.
- 2.
The late Bholeswar Sahu was a high school student from Gogua village, which was the centre of resistance. His PhD thesis from Sambalpur University was based on the experience of Rengali oustees. He was a keen observer of many meetings being held in the village and later shared reflections about the movement.
References
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Meher, Gangadhar. 1910 (2006). Vedavyash, First Published in Sambalpur Hiteishini from 26/11/1910 to 03/12/1910. In Gangadhar Granthabali, ed. Raghunath Meher. Cuttack: Bidya Prakashana.
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Sahu, Bholeswar. 2012. Socio-Economic Profile of Displaced Households. New Delhi: SSDN Publishers and Distributors.
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Padhi, R., Sadangi, N. (2020). What the King Gave Happily. In: Resisting Dispossession. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0717-5_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0717-5_3
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