Who Defines Development?Anshul Bhamra THE POLITICS OF DAMS: DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVES AND SOCIAL CRITICAL IN MODERN INDIA By Hannah Werner Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2015, pp. 276, Rs. 895.00 VOLUME XL NUMBER 5 May 2016 Development and nationalism were
two themes highlighted in March
2016 with two major stories in the
national media: the Union Budget Announcements
2016-17 and the uproar over
sedition (anti-nationalist) charges on a few
students of Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Hannah Werner’s book The Politics of Dams
also deliberates over the same themes. The
author keeps the big dams at the centre of
the stage and attempts to analyse developmental
aims and objectives of the Indian state
post Independence, comparing them with
the development aims of the colonial state.
The author also studies the political choices
and the idea of development that promotes
big dams and the associated conflicts around
the same. Werner studies these contradictions
in detail by analysing the protests and
resistance movements against big dams. The
author uses the Tehri Dam as a case example
for detailing the nature, scope and articulation
of protests movements—pre and post
the Tehri Dam construction in Uttarakhand.
Werner uses an analytical approach, beyond
cost-benefit analyses, to assess the role of big
dams in the current development paradigm.
A broad historical overview, rich ethnographic
account and theory of social change can be
found in her style and approach of analysis.
Werner brings out some key philosophies
of development amongst Nehru,
Gandhi and other eminent thinkers setting
the base to the development discourse over
big dams in the country. The postcolonial
independent Indian state, as Werner suggests,
adopts the two ideologies from the past of
its colonial state: the approach of centralized
top to bottom management of water
resources and the reliance and promotion of
‘modern’ technologies as a path towards development
of the nation. Nehru, the first
Prime Minister and the architect of India’s
development model had immense faith in
the role of science and technology to develop
India. Visual landmarks were considered as
the modern symbols of development leading
to what is referred to as ‘development
monumentalism’. Nehru added an Indian
flavour to the aesthetics of modernity by calling dams as ‘temples’ of modern India. An
interesting review is conducted by the author
on the views of modernity and development
in the period, highlighting the contrast
between Mahatma Gandhi’s and
Nehru’s vision of development and modernity.
Gandhi called machines and technology
harmful if they replace man. His economic
philosophy was based on subsistence
and was intrinsically anti consumerist. While
Gandhi criticized the western models of development,
he claimed to ... Table of Contents >> |