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