Back in the 1920s, the peasants of Mulshi Peta, near Pune, India, had protested against the construction of a dam being built with government support by the industrial house of the Tatas. As a marker of the transition from an agrarian to an industrialised society, the Mulshi satyagraha anticipated many of the modern protest movements.
Rajendra Vora’s book ends with a fascinating chapter comparing the Mulshi Satyagraha with the Narmada Bachao Andolan.
The struggle was led by Pandurang Mahadev ('Senapati') Bapat, a socialist and nationalist who had been educated in England. Like Medha Patkar of the Narmada Andolan, Bapat was a leader of much charisma and courage. Like her, he identified completely with the peasants who fought to save their ancestral lands from being submerged.
Please find more about this book by Prof. Rajendra Vora in the following links.
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