Gayatri Ramanathan: Conscience keeper

BACKSTAGE

Even as the government struggles to get its act together on raising the height of the Narmada dam to 121.93 metres, and the consequent displacement of 35,000 people, Medha Patkar and her band of firebrands continue their hunger strike. As the original trio's health deteriorates, they have been joined by four JNU students and a professor, Kamal Mitra Chenoy, and several villagers determined not to be turned out of their ancestral lands.

More sympathisers continue to flock Delhi's ubiquitous protest venue Jantar Mantar, where the protestors are camping. Intrepid bloggers, in addition to the usual crowd of scribes and activists, are also thronging the venue, broadcasting on the web every move of the protestors. Even the UNHCR has turned up in support after last Thursday's lathi-charge.

For Patkar, lead strategist of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, it has been a long journey since her Tata Institute of Social Sciences days, where she was all set to complete her PhD. But that was before the plight of the villagers of MP who would be affected by the Sardar Sarovar dam caught her attention, way back in 1985. Once she plunged into the Narmada protest movement there was no looking back. And the rest, as they say, is history.

It is almost as if hunger strikes, police locks-ups and beatings have become common place for this 52-year-old activist. She has been arrested numerous times by the Gujarat police for obstructing construction work at the dam site. She almost died after a 22 day-long hunger strike in 1991. Her presentation at the World Bank, laced in equal parts with emotion and facts that the government had neglected to mention, had the bank reconsider its funding for the dam. Even now, as she lies on the hospital bed after 17 days of protest, the light of battle shines in her eyes. The welfare of the villagers whose homes and lands will be submerged by the raised dam, has become a religion to her.

Many a Delhi-ite has been awed by the sight of this icon of Gandhian non-violent protest hailing an auto outside Vithalbhai Patel House or sitting on the pavement outside the INS Building at Rafi Marg drafting a petition, or just sharing piping hot chai with friends and sympathisers.

But she may make history yet again. She told a visiting journalist about her plan to make the government really sit up and take notice of the way poor villagers have been losing out to corporate and political greed. If all goes to plan, she plans at the next meeting of National Alliance of People Movements to unveil her next move: Invite thousands of people from all over the country to come and camp in Delhi indefinitely. "We will not move, we will do satyagarha. Let them come and kill us. This will be a do-or-die struggle. You can't take the people of India for granted anymore," she said.

The roughly plaited white hair, the khadi sari a long-sleeved blouse and a constantly hoarse voice have become the symbol of a much-needed social conscience, a beacon of hope for India's dispossessed.