My Seditious Heart

by Arundhati Roy

  33.UNDP 2000, table 18, Aid and Debt by Recipient Country, p. 221. See also ENS Economic Bureau, “India Inching towards Debt Trap,” Indian Express, February 23, 1999. See also Economist Intelligence Unit, “India: External Debt.”

  34.WCD Report, p. 11 and table 1.2.

  35.See 29–30, above; WCD Report, table 1.1, Dams Currently under Construction, p. 10, and table V.1, Top 20 Countries by Number of Large Dams, p. 370; and the website of the International Commission on Large Dams, http://www.icold-cigb.org/home.asp.

  36.Modern Temples of India: Selected Speeches of Jawaharlal Nehru at Irrigation and Power Projects, ed. C. V. J. Sharma (Delhi: Central Board of Irrigation and Power, 1989), 40–49. See 25, 28, above.

  37.PTI News Agency (New Delhi), “India: Construction Begins on ‘Controversial’ Narmada Dam,” BBC Worldwide Monitoring, October 31, 2000; Vinay Kumar, “People Cheer as Work on Narmada Dam Resumes,” Hindu, November 1, 2000; “Violence Mars Gujarat Govt’s Narmada Bash,” Times of India, November i, 2000; and “Ministers Attacked, Cars Burnt at Narmada Dam Site,” Hindustan Times, November 1, 2000.

  38.WCD Fact Sheet, “Dams and Water: Global Statistics: India: 4,291 Large Dams and 9% of the World Dam Population.” See also Himanshu Thakker, “Performance of Large Dams in India: The Case of Irrigation and Flood Control,” paper presented at the World Commission on Dams Regional Consultation, Sri Lanka, December 1998.

  39.R. Rangachari et al., “Large Dams—India’s Experience: A WCD Case Study Prepared as an Input to the World Commission on Dams,” World Commission on Dams Country Review Paper, November 2000 (hereafter Rangachari et al., “Large Dams—India’s Experience”).

  40.Ibid., 25.

  41.Ashok Gulati, “Overflowing Granaries, Empty Stomachs,” Economic Times of India, April 27, 2000; UNDP 2000, table 4, Human Poverty in Developing Countries, p. 170.

  42.Gail Omvedt, “Editorial: Rotting Food,” Hindu, October 23, 1999. See also Shri Sriram Chuahan, Minister of States for Food and Public Distribution, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution, GOI, “Loss of Foodgrains,” press release, August 8, 2000.

  43.See 32, above; “Indian Govt to Protest World Commission on Dams Report,” Asia Pulse, February 5, 2001; Kalpana Sharma, “Misconceptions about Dams Commission,” Hindu, September 11, 1998; “Keshubhai Warns Dam Inspection Team May Be Held,” Indian Express, September 9, 1998; “Gujarat Bans Visit of ‘Anti-dam’ Body,” Hindu, September 5, 1998; Kalpana Sharma, “Damning All Dissent,” Hindu, September 21, 1998; WCD website, http://www.internationalrivers.org/; “Medium and Large Dams Damned,” Business Standard, September 23, 2000; “SC Wants Time Limit on Closure of Polluting Units,” Times of India, January 25, 2001; and Rangachari et al., “Large Dams— India’s Experience,” 116.

  44.Ibid.

  45.US Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, International Energy Outlook 1998; see 30, 65–67, above; and Rangachari et al., “Large Dams—India’s Experience,” 132.

  46.“The Human Cost of the Bargi Dam,” http://www.narmada.org/nvdp.dams/bargi/bargi.html; “Dam Ousters to Go on Hunger-Strike,” Statesman, August 13, 1997.

  47.WCD Report, 106–07; Sanjay Sangvai, The River and Life: People’s Struggle in the Narmada Valley (Mumbai: Earthcare Books, 2000), 28; and “Human Cost of the Bargi Dam.”

  48.See 44, above.

  49.WCD Report, 104–05; see 44, above; Robert Marquand, “Indian Dam Protests Evoke Gandhi,” Christian Science Monitor, August 5, 1999, 1; “The Sardar Sarovar Dam: A Brief Introduction,” http://www.narmada.org/sardarsarovar.html; Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), “Displacement, Submergence, and Rehabilitation in Sardar Sarovar Project: Ground Reality Indicating Utter Injustice,” http://www.narmada.org/sardar-sarovar/sc.ruling/Displacement.rehab.html; and Free the Narmada Campaign, India, “Who Pays? Who Profits? A Short Guide to the Sardar Sarovar Project,” http://www.narmada.org/sardar-sarovar/faq/whopays.html.

  50.International Rivers Network, “Confidential World Bank Evaluation Admits Future of Narmada Dam Uncertain,” press release, May 16, 1995; Office of Director-General, Operations Evaluation, World Bank, Memorandum to the Executive Directors and the President, March 29, 1995; MNC Masala, “The World Bank and Sardar Sarovar Project: A Story of Unacceptable Means towards Unacceptable Ends,” CorpWatch, n.d.; WCD Report, 26; and Morse and Berger, Sardar Sarovar.

  51.Celia W. Dugger, “Opponents of India Dam Project Bemoan Green Light from Court,” New York Times, October 20, 2000, A9.

  52.Free the Narmada Campaign, “Who Pays? Who Profits?”

  53.“The Maheshwar Dam: A Brief Introduction” and related links, http://www.narmada.org/maheshwar.html; Meena Menon, “Damned by the People: The Maheshwar Hydro-Electricity Project in Madhya Pradesh,” Business Line, June 15, 1998; Sangvai, River and Life, 81—84; and Richard E. Bissell, Shekhar Singh, and Hermann Warth, Maheshwar Hydroelectric Project: Resettlement and Rehabilitation—An Independent Review Conducted for the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Government of Germany, June 15, 2000 (hereafter Bissell Report).

  54.Mardana Resolution, http://www.narmada.org/maheshwar/mardana.declaration.html; NBA, “Hundreds of Maheshwar Dam Affected People Demonstrate at IFCI, Delhi,” press note, November 16, 2000, http://www.narmada.org/nba-press-releases/november-2000/ifci.demo.html; and Sangvai, River and Life, Annexure 4, 194–97, and Annexure 6, 200–201.

  55.Heffa Schücking, “The Maheshwar Dam in India,” March 1999, http://www.narmada.org/urg990421.3.html.

  56.Menon, “Damned by the People.”

  57.“S. Kumars Forays into Ready-to-Wear Apparel,” India Info, December 10, 2000, and “S. Kumars Ups Ads-Spend by 66% with Kapil Dev on Board,” India Express, July 8, 1999.

  58.Menon, “Damned by the People”; “Do or Die: The People versus Development in the Narmada Valley.”

  59.“German Firms Pull Out of MP Dam Project,” Statesman, April 21, 1999. See also Desikan Thirunarayanapuram, “Siemens Role in Dam Project Doubtful,” Statesman, June 30, 2000.

  60.Bissell Report.

  61.“Leaked Letter Shows German Company Quits Bid for Dam Credit,” Deutsche Presse-Agentur, August 25, 2000; “US Firm Pulls Out of Narmada Hydel Project,” Statesman, December 13, 2000.

  62.“PM’s Is Going to Be a ‘Power Trip,’” Indian Express, September 4, 2000.

  63.“Ogden Pulls Out from Maheshwar Hydel Unit,” Indian Express, December 8, 2000.

  64.Mark Landler, “Hi, I’m in Bangalore (But I Can’t Say So),” New York Times, March 21, 2001, A1.

  65.David Gardiner, “Impossible India’s Improbable Chance,” in The World in 2001 (London: Economist, 2000), 46.

  66.Prabhakar Sinha, “Tatas Plan Foray into Call Centre Business,” Times of India, October 7, 2000.

  THE LADIES HAVE FEELINGS, SO … SHALL WE LEAVE IT TO THE EXPERTS?

  1.Roger Cohen, “Germans Seek Foreign Labor for New Era of Computers,” New York Times, April 9, 2000, 1.

  2.Report at Rediff.com, http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/may/26pic3.htm.

  3.For data on poverty and illiteracy in India, see UNDP 2000, table 1, Human Development Index, p. 159; table 4, Human Poverty in Developing Countries, p. 170; and table 19, Demographic Trends, p. 225. Reports also available online at http://www.undp.org and at the site of the UNDP Program in India, http://www.undp.org.in/.

  4.Arundhati Roy, The Cost of Living (New York: Modern Library, 1999), which includes “The End of the Imagination,” published in Outlook and Frontline magazines in August 1998, and “The Greater Common Good,” published by Outlook and Frontline in May–June 1999. “Power Politics: The Reincarnation of Rumpelstiltskin,” appeared originally in Outlook, November 27, 2000. See http://www.frontlineonline.com and http://www.outlookindia.com/ Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (New York: HarperPerennial, 1998).

  5.UNDP 2000, table 19, Demographic Trends, p. 225.

  6.Ashok Gulati, “Overflowing Granaries, Empty Stomachs,” Economic Times of I
ndia, April 27, 2000.

  7.UNDP 2000, table 4, Human Poverty in Developing Countries, p. 170, and table 19, Demographic Trends, p. 225. See also Gardiner, “Impossible India’s Improbable Chance,” 46.

  8.Joseph Kahn, “U.S.-India Agreement,” New York Times, January 11, 2000, 4.

  9.Dev Raj, “Land Acquisition Bill Worse Than Colonial Law,” Inter Press Service, December 3, 1998; S. Gopikrishna Warrier, “India: NGOs for Including Relief, Rehab Provisions in Land Act,” Business Line, February 13, 2001.

  10.Associated Press, “Anti-dam Activists Vow to Protest India’s Supreme Court Ruling,” October 20, 2000. For more on the Sardar Sarovar Dam project, see “The Greater Common Good”; “The Sardar Sarovar Dam: A Brief Introduction,” Friends of the River Narmada, http://www.narmada.org/sardarsarovar.html, and related links; and Sangvai, River and Life.

  11.Frederick Noronha, “Dam Protesters Battle Police for Access to World Bank President,” Environment News Service, Global News Wire, November 13, 2000.

  12.See 32, above; Rangachari et al., “Large Dams—India’s Experience,” 116–17, 130–31. For additional information on Big Dams, see Patrick McCully, Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams, enlarged and updated edition (London: Zed Books, 2001), and the website of the International Rivers Network, http://www.internationalrivers.org/.

  13.For more information on displacement from Sardar Sarovar, see WCD Report, box 4.3, p. 104. See also Rangachari et al., “Large Dams—India’s Experience,” 116–17; Planning Commission, GOI, “Irrigation, Flood Control, and Command Area Development: Rehabilitation and Resettlement,” chap. 4 in Mid-term Appraisal of the Ninth Five Year Plan: Final Document (1997–2002) (Delhi: Planning Commission, 2000), 89, para. 68; see 33, above; Morse and Berger, Sardar Sarovar, 62; and GOI, 28th and 29th Report of the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (New Delhi: Government of India, 1988).

  14.“Indian Govt to Protest World Commission on Dams Report”; Sharma, “Misconceptions about Dams Commission”; “Keshubhai Warns Dam Inspection Team May Be Held”; “Gujarat Bans Visit of ‘Anti-Dam’ Body”; and Sharma, “Damning All Dissent.”

  15.WCD Report. See the WCD website, http://www.internationalrivers.org/; “Medium and Large Dams Damned.”

  16.Peter Popham, “Squalid, Disgusting, Toxic: Is This the Dirtiest City on the Planet?” Independent, October 27, 1997, E9; World Bank, “World Bank Says World’s Worst Slums Can Be Transformed,” press release, June 3, 1996, web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20011723~piPK:4607,00.html.

  17.GOI, Ministry of Environment and Forests, White Paper on Pollution in Delhi: With an Action Plan (New Delhi: Ministry of Environment and Forests, 1997), http://envfor.nic.in/divisions/cpoll/delpolln.html.

  18.WCD Report, p. 11 and table 1.2.

  19.“NBA Case: Supreme Court Adjourns Hearing on Gujarat Plea,” Hindu, July 30, 1999; T. Padmanabha Rao, “India: Supreme Court Unhappy with NBA Leaders, Arundhati Roy,” Hindu, October 16, 1999.

  THE ALGEBRA OF INFINITE JUSTICE

  1.Fox News, September 17, 2001.

  2.Marc Levine, “New Suspect Arrested, but Doubts Grow over Terrorists’ Identities,” Agence France-Presse, September 21, 2001.

  3.President George W. Bush, “September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks on the United States.”

  4.Elsa Brenner, “Hoping to Fill the Need for Office Space,” New York Times, Westchester Weekly ed., September 23, 2001, 3.

  5.Leslie Stahl, “Punishing Saddam,” produced by Catherine Olian, 60 Minutes, CBS, May 12, 1996.

  6.Tamim Ansary, “Bomb Afghanistan Back to Stone Age? It’s Been Done,” Providence Journal-Bulletin, September 22, 2001, B7.

  7.Thomas E. Ricks, “Land Mines, Aging Missiles Pose Threat,” Washington Post, September 25, 2001, A15. See also Danna Harman, “Digging up Angola’s Deadly Litter,” Christian Science Monitor, July 27, 2001, 6.

  8.Barry Bearak, “Misery Hangs over Afghanistan after Years of War and Drought,” New York Times, September 24, 2001, B3; Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Pamela Constable, “Panicked Afghans Flee to Border Area,” Washington Post, September 23, 2001, A30; Catherine Solyom, “Exhibit a Glimpse into Refugee Life,” Gazette (Montreal), September 21, 2001, A13; and Raymond Whitaker, Agence France-Presse, “Pakistan Fears for Seven Million Refugees as Winter Looms,” Independent (London), September 27, 2001, 4.

  9.BBC, “Aid Shortage Adds to Afghan Woes,” September 22, 2001, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1556117.stm.

  10.Ansary, “Bomb Afghanistan Back to Stone Age?”

  11.Paul Leavitt, “Maps of Afghanistan Now in Short Supply,” USA Today, September 18, 2001, 13A.

  12.Washington Post, February 7, 1985, quoted in Raja Anwar, The Tragedy of Afghanistan: A First-Hand Account, trans. Khalid Hasan (New York: Verso, 1988), 232; “Inside the Taliban: U.S. Helped Cultivate the Repressive Regime Sheltering bin Laden,” Seattle Times, September 19, 2001, A3; and Andrew Duffy, “Geographic Warriors,” Ottawa Citizen, September 23, 2001, C4.

  13.On the CIA connection, see Steve Coll, “Anatomy of a Victory: CIA’s Covert Afghan War,” Washington Post, July 19, 1992, A1; Steve Coll, “In CIA’s Covert Afghan War, Where to Draw the Line Was Key,” Washington Post, July 20, 1992, A1; Tim Weiner, “Blowback from the Afghan Battlefield,” New York Times Magazine, March 13, 1994, 6: 53; and Ahmed Rashid, “The Making of a Terrorist,” Straits Times (Singapore), September 23, 2001, 26.

  14.Scott Baldauf, “Afghans Try Opium-Free Economy,” Christian Science Monitor, April 3, 2001, 1.

  15.David Kline, “Asia’s ‘Golden Crescent’ Heroin Floods the West,” Christian Science Monitor, November 9, 1982, 1; David Kline, “Heroin’s Trail from Poppy Fields to the West,” Christian Science Monitor, November 10, 1982, 1; and Rahul Bedi, “The Assassins and Drug Dealers Now Helping US Intelligence,” Daily Telegraph (London), September 26, 2001, 10.

  16.Peter Popham, “Taliban Monster That Was Launched by the US,” Independent (London), September 17, 2001, 4.

  17.Suzanne Goldenberg, “Mullah Keeps Taliban on a Narrow Path,” Guardian (London), August 17, 1998, 12.

  18.David K. Willis, “Pakistan Seeks Help from Abroad to Stem Heroin Flow,” Christian Science Monitor, February 28, 1984, 11.

  19.Farhan Bokhari, survey in “Pakistan: Living in Shadow of Debt Mountain,” Financial Times (London), March 6, 2001, 4.

  20.Douglas Frantz, “Sentiment in Pakistani Town Is Ardently Pro-Taliban,” New York Times, September 27, 2001, B1; Rahul Bedi, “The Assassins and Drug Dealers Now Helping US Intelligence,” Daily Telegraph (London), September 26, 2001, 10.

  21.Edward Luce, “Pakistan Nervousness Grows as Action Nears,” Financial Times (London), September 27, 2001, 6.

  22.Angus Donald and Khozem Merchant, “Concern at India’s Support for US,” Financial Times (London), September 21, 2001, 14.

  23.Jeff Greenfield and David Ensor, “America’s New War: Weapons of Terror,” Greenfield at Large, CNN, September 24, 2001.

  24.Jim Drinkard, “Bush Vows to ‘Rid the World of Evildoers,’” USA Today, September 17, 2001, 1A.

  25.Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, “Developments concerning Attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center Last Week,” special defense briefing, Federal News Service, September 20, 2001.

  26.Robert Fisk, “This Is Not a War on Terror, It’s a Fight against America’s Enemies,” Independent (London), September 25, 2001, 4.

  27.George Monbiot, “The Need for Dissent,” Guardian (London), September 18, 2001, 17.

  28.Michael Slackman, “Terrorism Case Illustrates Difficulty of Drawing Tangible Ties to Al Qaeda,” Los Angeles Times, September 22, 2001, A1.

  29.Tim Russert, “Secretary of State Colin Powell Discusses America’s Preparedness for the War on Terrorism,” Meet the Press, NBC, September 23, 2001.

  30.T. Christian Miller, “A Growing Global Chorus Calls for Proof,” Los Angeles Times, September 24, 2001, A10; Dan Rather, “President B
ush’s Address to Congress and the Nation,” CBS News Special Report, September 20, 2001.

  31.Nityanand Jayaraman and Peter Popham, “Work Halts at Indian Unilever Factory after Poisoning Alert,” Independent (London), March 11, 2001, 19.

  32.Jack Hitt, “Battlefield: Space,” New York Times Magazine, August 5, 2001, 6.

  33.Colin Nickerson and Indira A. R. Lakshmanan, “America Prepares the Global Dimension,” Boston Globe, September 27, 2001, A1; Barbara Crossette, “Taliban’s Ban on Poppy a Success, U.S. Aides Say,” New York Times, May 20, 2001, 1, 7; and Christopher Hitchens, “Against Rationalization,” Nation 273, no. 10 (October 8, 2001): 8.

  34.Bush, “September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks on the United States.”

  WAR IS PEACE

  1.Alexander Nicoll, “US Warplanes Can Attack at All Times, Says Forces Chief,” Financial Times (London), October 10, 2001, 2.

  2.Noam Chomsky, “US Iraq Policy: Motives and Consequences,” in Iraq under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War, ed. Anthony Arnove (Cambridge, MA: South End; London: Pluto, 2000), 54.

  3.Slackman, “Terrorism Case Illustrates Difficulty of Drawing Tangible Ties to Al Qaeda,” A1.

  4.“Bush’s Remarks on U.S. Military Strikes on Afghanistan,” New York Times, October 8, 2001, B6; Ellen Hale, “‘To Safeguard Peace, We Have to Fight,’ Blair Emphasizes to Britons,” USA Today, October 8, 2001, 6A.

  5.“Remarks by President George W. Bush at an Anti-Terrorism Event,” Washington, DC, Federal News Service, October 10, 2001.

  6.Tom Pelton, “A Graveyard for Many Armies,” Baltimore Sun, September 18, 2001, 2A.

  7.Dave Newbart, “Nowhere to Go but Up,” Chicago Sun-Times, September 18, 2001, 10.

  8.Edward Epstein, “U.S. Seizes Skies over Afghanistan,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 10, 2001, A1.

  9.Steven Mufson, “For Bush’s Veteran Team, What Lessons to Apply?” Washington Post, September 15, 2001, A5.

  10.Donald H. Rumsfeld, “Defense Department Special Briefing Re: Update on U.S. Military Campaign in Afghanistan,” Arlington, VA, Federal News Service, October 9, 2001.