A Hydrologically Fractured State? Nation-Building, the Hirakud Dam and Societal Divisions in Eastern India

Abstract

This article analyses how long-running, multilayered conflicts over water at the Hirakud dam underpin present-day societal divisions in Odisha state. There are four unresolved conflicts over this dam in the state: movements against displacement, movements for rehabilitation, struggles between agricultural and industrial water users, and, finally, disputes between federal states. These have generated societal ruptures from the announcement of the dam in 1946 to the present day. We argue that understanding the confluence and ingrained, overlapping character of these conflicts provide important vantage points for understanding the present uneasy constitution of subregional state fabrication in Odisha.

Keywords

Big dams; Hirakud dam; identity formation; India; nation-building; state fabrication; water conflict

Published in

South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies
2020, volume: 43, number: 3, pages: 429-445

SLU Authors

• Oskarsson, Patrik

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Economic Geography
Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Human Geography

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2020.1731662

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/105327