ABSTRACT
This chapter relates the complex sequence of plural dissensions against the Sethusamudram canal project that began emerging since early 2007. Beginning with protests by Hindutva-oriented groups and Sangh-affiliated members, who brandished NASA satellite images as the ‘scientific’ proof of the existence of the fabled Ram Setu, to economists criticizing the unfeasible budgetary and savings estimates of the Sethu project, to environmentalist groups rallying around Hindutva-affiliated ideologies to form the Ram Setu Bachao Andolan, the Indian government and the Sethusamudram Corporation found themselves up against multipronged discursive sieges, ultimately leading them to enlist the support of the Archaeological Survey of India in a bid to establish the mythical nature of Ram Setu. While the religious protests against canalizing the Palk Strait was the most effective ground on which the Supreme Court of India would eventually order the Sethu project to be halted, independent economic estimates of the Sethu project argued that the canal would save much less time and fuel than what was estimated by the Sethusamudram Corporation. Besides, it was found that environmental factors and ecological sensitivities were bound to increase traffic tariffs and fuel costs in addition to escalating costs due to annual maintenance dredging in and around Adam’s Bridge. This chapter’s analysis reveals how the coalition of protestors against the Sethu project (and also the project’s proponents) came to constitute a political public theatre without necessarily engaging with the minutiae of scientific merits of the case for or against the construction of the canal. However, ultimately, what made addressing questions of national heritage status for Adam’s Bridge or the pursuance of the Sethu project at the old or an alternate location an almost inconclusive process was the Sri Lankan stand, which generally remained absent from the Indian public discourse.
