Is removing citizens forever ‘national interest’? Arunachal’s Siang Valley simmers after crackdown

On the morning of October 23, men and women sat outside the closed shops of Yingkiong’s main market in Upper Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh, talking about ordinary things, even though life in the Siang valley has been anything but.

The market was deserted on account of a bandh, following weeks of unrest over the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project. Armed personnel in fatigues roamed the streets, and by the afternoon, the internet had been shut down in the entire district.

“It feels as if they are deploying armed forces against us by force; like fighting an enemy on the border,” said Katin Burang, 44, a paddy and orange farmer from Gosang, a village near Yingkiong, who was at the market that day. “That is the change.”

Hundreds of police personnel and paramilitary forces were deployed to the region since September 14, when residents called for a halt to all pre-feasibility studies towards the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project – a massive hydroelectric and flood-control dam projected to generate roughly 11,200 MW of power.

In early October, tensions escalated when four protesters were detained under the Arunachal Pradesh Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 2014. After a protest march demanding their release turned violent on October 23 – ending in damages to...

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