Grassroots resistance to sustainable development: lessons from the banks of the Narmada

Both those resisting and those defending the Narmada Valley Project use the language of social justice and sustainable development, and both lobbies have justified their stance with cost-benefit analyses and grassroots mobilization. The most effective opposition to the dams, however, has come from groups whose concern is not abstract rights and promises, but the survival of local cultures and the autonomy of communities. If grassroots groups can retain their localized, concrete concerns, while making alliances with other groups defending their own localities from destruction, these movements may gain the strength to resist the cultural damage of sustainable development. -Authors