Building “India’s Future Powerhouse”: Discourses of ‘Development’ and Popular Resistance in Northeast India (original) (raw)

Abstract The policy of the Government of India (GoI) to turn northeast region of India, especially Arunachal Pradesh, into “India’s Future Powerhouse” by generating massive amount of hydel power from almost all its perennial rivers has led to widespread protests in the region. These protests are based on the apprehension that this new ‘development’ initiative of the government would spell disaster to the river ecosystem and the livelihood and cultural heritage of the people of the region. The protests are also informed by the fact that the region is highly seismic, geologically fragile, and ecologically sensitive. While in the hills of Arunachal Pradesh which constitutes the upper riparian areas of the rivers, the smaller tribal communities are restive about losing their traditional access to land, water and forest with the construction of the big hydel projects besides getting overwhelmed by the inflow of outsiders, in the plains of Assam which constitute the lower riparian, the trepidation among the communities is manifold including the change in the normal flow of water in the rivers, excess flow of water during monsoon, adverse impact on the wetland ecology and the livelihood of the people, and last but not the least a looming anxiety about the devastating impact of a possible dam break, given the known seismicity and geological fragility of the region. The conflict between government’s new logic of development in a region considered as a distant security frontier and the local people’s apprehensions and questions about the character of this development has unfolded an interesting but complex discourse enmeshed in the interplay of issues concerning development, environment, people’s rights and rule of law.