Travelling along the Narmada river we come into contact with the villages of the Adivasis, their elementary schools, their battle and the monsoons that wreaks havoc every summer. The Narmada is one of India's seven sacred rivers. Controlled by five large dams across its course and 3000 small ones along its tributaries, the river has been harnessed by one of India's most ambitious hydroelectric power plants ever built and is part of a project that has displaced hundreds of thousands of families. Work on another, even larger, even more controversial dam, Sardar Sarovar, has begun. On completion, it, too, will have displaced numerous families. Standing out among the testimonies is that of Sanjay Mitra. Recounting his past experience as naxalite militant defending the cause of the Adivasis of Jharkhand, he invites us to learn from them the rules of self-respect practiced in harmony with the environment and nature.
