Development and the changing face of Collective Action

While giving a presentation about the posco agitation in orissa, my only rational behind that was a question which has been bothering me since long, and only has grown stronger by coming across the news about the current pattern of growing public outrage against govt. In recent times there have been many such incidences which have been considered as large scale collective action by many social activists and common people. Few examples are Narmada bachao Andolan, Nandigram issue, KalingNagar issue and the Posco issue. But if we compare these movements with many other people centric movements of past, it wont be wrong to say that these are the movements where we can witness frequent occurrence of violence, loss of lives. I belong to state of Orissa and many often I come across a punchline, the poorest. Well ..many often I don’t take it as a derogatory comment rather consider as a fact. In the recent past orissa has continuosly been in limelight though not because of any good reasons, be it the case of Kalingnagar agitation against tata steel and posco agitation , these all have involved violence. But why so ? To get the answer of these questions we need to reconsider a phrase though very repetitive during all these days ,i.e. Displacement versus Development . Orissa being a state rich in natural resources have always attracted govt. to initiate many development project. This is probably one of the states which many often witness surplus electricity generation because of large number of dams, reservoirs and naturally created water resources. This, along with mineral resource base definitely provide a strong base for many industrial project. Perhalfs that is the reason why so many industrial houses look at this opportunity , be it world's third largest posco steel or Indian business giants Tata or Jindal. In the post independence era it was one state where dam construction was started in a very rapid and efficient manner with lots of promises to the common mass. It was a time when the slogan for the then govt. was that Dams are temples of modern India. Hirakud, Machakund, Duduma are few examples of those . In the urban areas we hardly find any power shortage now a days, nor the industries. We sell the power to neighbouring states. But if any one among us want to know the reality, then perhalfs the best way will be to get a picnic trip to the scenic koraput and other tribal districts. The areas where the dams have been constructed have become tourist spots. But if we look at the other side of the area, the people (tribals) who gave their lands to govt many decades back are still in the darkness, they are yet to come out of the dibi light (dibi- a 8-10cm tall tin box with kerosene and wick) to see a electric bulb. Many displaced were promised rehabilitation at that time but no one knows where they are now. They are still in darkness, still scantily clad, still hungry and poor. If this is the reality, then when did govt succeeded in fulfilling the development goal when it excluded the people who contributed in large to the whole process. This has been a trend of broken promises, injustice and inequality since long and not limited to one state. But this being the poorest of all and a state where 75% reside in the rural area have been really badly affected in true sense. Many people argue if not industrialization then what is the solution for development. Here, my argument is that development is a term that need to be clearly defined first to know what are the means and what are the ends. If in a state the so called process is excluding 75% of the population in one or other way, how could it be considered as development. And because of this continuous negligence, now when these poor, suppressed mass are coming forward to fight for their rights, when they are getting motivated easily by political forces, when they are breaking long waited silence, coming to the roads to agitate , when they are turning the collective action or people's movement into a violent agitation....then whom we need to blame? At least this time we should spare these victims of long fought war of Displacement versus Development.