Romila Thapar’s memoir: How the historian was made to retire from the Prasar Bharati board

Krishna Kumar, whom I knew in the context of educational problems in India, came by together with the social activist who worked among tribals, Medha Patkar, whom I admired for her work and whom I was meeting for the first time. She stated that tribal communities living in the area affected by the Narmada project require rehabilitation each time their settlements are submerged when the height of the dam was raised. This troubled her. She spoke with clarity and directness; nor were her objectives vague or confused. Clearly, she knew the people she was speaking for and their concerns. She argued that this rehabilitation requires that the people affected be settled on appropriately elevated fertile land. Somehow a rational decision of this kind seems distant.

She was meeting me specifically to ask about archaeological sites that were being submerged without being recorded. The submergence could not be reversed but at least what was there could be properly recorded. This seemed a sensible idea to me and so necessary. We discussed the possibility of salvaging archaeological artefacts and structures in the areas that were to be submerged by the Narmada Dam and to file a public interest litigation demanding an exploration before...

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