Displacement and rehabilitation in India future perspectives : proceedings of a national workshop Jun 1-3, 1998

The Indian nation was chiefly concerned with development, particularly industrialisation, after independence. The importance that was laid on this sector could be felt from Nehru's, now famous, words describing industries as "the temples of modern India". The focus on industrialisation of the nation's energy and attention was so overwhelming that few cared for its fall outs. For example, the mega hydel projects, steel plants and factories came up on the land displacing millions of people. So enamoured was the country with these magnificent sights of development that the fate of those millions automatically took a back seat in the agenda of national priority. seat in the

The voice of the sufferer was, of course, weak. Further, the stray voices of protest were easily submerged in the cacophony of popular enthusiasm. Nobody could think of challenging the State's right to interfere and do what it felt would be for the good of the nation. Slowly, the ramifications of these developmental measures came to be noticed. It became evident that power politics had a lot of axes to grind with the process of development. It was clear that the sufferers, the displaced, the uprooted, the sacrificial goats, mainly comprised of the tribals and the most disadvantaged sections of the society. By a conservative estimate their number would be something around 25 million. We know very little about what actually happened to them. In all this, we must keep one thing in mind that the Indian Government did give top priority to the rehabilitation of the victims of partition. So it is not possible to argue that the Government was unaware of the trauma of displacement. But rather it does strengthen the feeling that the Government, perhaps, deliberately chose not to give priority to those displaced, at the altar of its own programmes of development.