ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the backdrop for a fuller analysis of significance of the Narmada movement, a social movement which links local actions against the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) with the 'discourse' of development at a macro level. However, collective actions over development projects often involve actors other than the affected people themselves; external actors tend to link local issues to wider political goals and visions, for example, against colonialism in Mulshi or regional self-determination in the Hirakud. The wider issue involved the exercise of democratic right to information with regard to all aspects of the SSP in particular, and development projects in general, and obligation of the government to establish clearly the 'public interest' of such projects. As the struggle against the SSP began to crystallise, the movement was seen to be one against a development model manifested in the SSP and similar projects.
