Summary Of In The Belly Of The River

TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

BOOK : IN THE BELLY OF THE RIVER
TRIBAL CONFLICTS OVER DEVELOPMENT IN THE NARMADA VALLEY
BY : AMITA BAVISKAR

SUBMITTED TO : DR SOHINI SEN GUPTA
BOOK REVIEW BY : BHAWNA (M2014CODP004)

INTRODUCTION
The book In The Belly Of The River is written by Ms Amita Baviskar in 1995. This book is based on tribal conflicts over development in the Narmada valley. Baviskar is a professor in Department of Sociology at Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. She got many awards in Research and Academic and she wrote many books and journal articles.

The book talks about the opposition by a tribal community to the certain kind of act done by the Government. Those people are basically from the Bhilala tribes of a village

Though the village Anjanvara is egalitarian in nature so there are no farmers without land and there are no waged laboures. Author talks about the Anjanvara 's strong we feeling with the neighbouring villages and clans. In the politics of Bhilala community the common sharing of labour that is called laah plays a vital role. Though Anjanvara is egalitarian society where all the people will get the same things and opportunity so the members from Bhilala community get the reputation and power by gathering of symbolic capital. Author studies this situation with the Weber 's argument which indicates or states that the people from the similar class group doesn 't always have the similar status group. weber 's theory helps to understand the desire of the members of the Bhilala community to build up their status, goodwill and honor.
Baviskar views that the religious practices and the activities done by the Bhilalas with the nature and the natural resources are not always good or sustainable for the nature. For giving an understanding about the Bhilalas, Author talks about the indal pooja, which is one of a ritual of Bhilalas, in which the Bhilas worship the earth and the rain through which they get the production of grain. Author is in support that one doesn 't make any perception about the adivasi 's lifestyle without

From the beginning of the Narmada Bachao Andolan the conflict between the state and the adivasi raised and through this andolan sangath were not only talking about for free access to lands and forests but they also started to talk about the unfriendly development done by the state. This andolan also helped the Bhils and the Bhilalas to work collectively, women played a very vital role and even the wealthy landowners (patidars) were the origin of resources and income for andolan. At last World Bank got influenced by the popularity of the andolan to look into it and finally it was decided by World Bank to stop the work related to Narmada dam.
However it is a very famous environmental movement but yet the andolan somewhere clashed because of the unclear objectives. The representatives of this andolan had different objectives at local, Sangath and the Andolan level. The main objective of andolan was to demoralize the industrial developments that affect the livelihood of those people who depends on the natural resources. The author points out the non fulfillment of the government 's aim to bring social equality as well as author says that state always highlights that the projects of high price are better investments.
CRITICAL