ABSTRACT
The three struggles, the Sangathan, the Mahuva cement factory, and the OPG power plant, demonstrate a complex relationship between subaltern struggles, development, and democracy. To date, they have succeeded in preventing the construction of dams, ordering the dismantling of the cement factory, and pressuring the power plant to change its technology. Machimar Adhikar Sangharsh Samiti (MASS) was anchored by a community-based organization that was explicitly committed to gender equality and had ongoing relationships with women's movement organizations (WMOs) and included subaltern women and men in collective dialogues and meetings. Activists from all three struggles are currently participating in the state-level mobilization against the Special Investment Zone planned in Gujarat. Such mobilizations have not only raised awareness about the dispossession of subaltern communities, but also resulted in victories in other similar struggles in Gujarat. Part of the repertoire of all three struggles against the state was legalism from below, made possible, in part, by the changing legal architecture of the state.
