ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the significance of knowledge struggles in the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) and the role of the Narmada movement in them. Both sympathetic and critical studies of the Narmada movement consider rhetoric of ultimate significance. Whereas Hirschman recommended that project authorities should pursue the 'only feasible goal' of 'optimal rather than minimal uncertainty' assuming that hidden solutions will enhance project benefits, risk politics in the Narmada movement bring to the fore hidden uncertainties and risks and their distributional implications. The claims of the hydropower benefits of the SSP have been challenged by the Narmada movement on basis of low hydrological estimates and the NSP factor. A delay in completing the NSP upstream will cause a decrease of more than 25% in power generation at the SSP which depends on regulated release from the NSP.
