Abstract
It is hard to disagree with Arundhati Roy, who provides the Foreword, that this is a seminal text. The result of a long collaboration between anthropologist Felix Padel and Samarendra Das, a film-maker and political activist, this is a highly ambitious work that takes the reader on a geographical and historical journey to analyse the connections between the aluminium industry, cartels, governments, banks, debt bondage, politics and their impact on the Adivasis (indigenous tribes) of Orissa.
Orissa is blessed with nineteen flat-topped mountains rich in biological diversity, forests and rivers. For the Adivasis, called Dongria Kond, these mountains are sacred; their religion rooted in an awareness that their entire life depends on water from the perennial stream and the bountiful forests that provide sustenance. But the rocks beneath contain bauxite. Using every machination possible, the state government has allocated these mountains to the mining corporations.
The authors tell of four industrial projects involving dam builders, bauxite mining companies and aluminium refineries in great detail. They outline the history of each development, the companies involved, the legal wrangles and the impact on the local villagers. Their narrative of the Adivasi resistance is authentic and powerful, often recounted through interviews and song. Such resistance is met with force: demonstrations are attacked by police, in some cases using live ammunition; thugs are also hired by the companies to intimidate and attack villagers; leading activists have been beaten to death and run down by vehicles. All inquiries into such incidents result in complete whitewashes, and public debate is silenced by an unholy alliance of police, mining companies, politicians and journalists.
What becomes evident is that Adivasis have little protection from the rule of law. The constitutional articles protecting tribal lands have been circumvented. Colonial laws are used to dispossess the tribal communities. The Supreme Court continually ignores the infringement of laws and regulations by companies. Local magistrates show complete disregard and contempt for the rights of the Adivasis. The requirement that consent should be obtained from village assemblies is ignored and villagers are excluded by the police from public hearings on industrial projects.
Not only do the corporations subvert the laws, they have shaped them after India’s ‘liberalisation’ to alleviate its debt crisis in the 1990s. The Special Economic Zones and the ‘new mineral policy’ were deeply influenced by the multinationals with the dilution of laws that protect human rights, land rights and the environment.
The scramble for the mineral wealth of Orissa has split society between those who see it as a quick way to riches and those against forced industrialisation, which sacrifices villages and the environment. The corporations flood the area with money, which increases what the authors call ‘briberisation’, whereby advance payments are made to ministers and other government servants, particularly those responsible for forest protection, to push through deals. The building of dams and transport infrastructure locks the government in debt, which then leads to further privatisation.
In considering gain and loss, the authors show how Orissa subsidises mines and factories by providing cheap water and electricity from dams. Meanwhile, it is wider society that feels the destruction of forests and mountains, the damming and polluting of water, the poisoning of the ecological system by toxic waste and displacement from the land. The authors rightly find absurd the attempts to commodify forests and biodiversity in monetary terms. They also argue that the Clean Development Mechanism, with carbon credits to reduce greenhouse gases, is a scam.
To legitimise their depredations, the companies use their PR machines to project aluminium as a recyclable ‘green metal’, hence providing a path to ‘sustainable development’. They adopt corporate social responsibility policies, which promote the illusion that they care for the people and the environment by donating to ‘good’ causes. But behind the glossy brochures of shiny offices and smiling Adivasis, the reality of coolie gangs digging the earth and carrying rocks in hazardous working conditions, overseen by gang masters, remains hidden. It is rapid industrialisation and privatisation that displace village communities and, having lost their means of production, food security is undermined, resulting in starvation and suicide. Overseas food aid and agricultural reform projects only ameliorate the symptoms, given their failure to tackle the systemic exploitation and power relations that perpetuate hunger.
Padel and Das excoriate the British Department for International Development and the World Bank for their policies of poverty reduction, community development and business partnerships. They see these as camouflage for corporate takeover and intervention. The rehabilitation and resettlement policies they promote contradict the requirement that people displaced from land should be compensated in land. Any cash inducement for dispossession falls prey to money grabbers and consumption. Displaced Adivasis are dumped into polluted settlements and eke out a precarious living as unskilled labourers. There is a powerful critique here, too, of the role played by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). While grassroots organisations play a significant role in supporting the resistance, the foreign NGOs tend to dilute the resistance, depoliticise issues and co-opt local activists with attractive financial packages.
‘Rural India’, write the authors, ‘is becoming like what rural Nepal was a few years back – a battleground of violent warfare between Maoists and the counterinsurgency forces’. The Adivasis are caught in the crossfire, although most of their resistance is non-violent. The state has mobilised private militias, paramilitary forces and special police units to counter the resistance, which is projected as ‘terrorist’. The authors put their faith in non-violent civil society movements, with a broad alliance across class and ideologies, combating the corporate takeover. An inspiring read.