The River Narmada, India's fifth-largest, traverses three of India's northwestern states: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, running to a total of roughly 1312 kilometres. In the 1970s, the Indian government proposed to build a series of dams along the river: 30 large dams, 135 medium dams and 3000 small dams. These were to provide, according to the government, potable water for almost 40 million people, irrigation for over six million hectares of land and hydroelectric power for the entire region. The largest of these dams, the Sardar Sarovar Project (or SSP), in the state of Gujarat alone, it was claimed, would irrigate almost 1.8 million hectares of land in Gujarat, and an additional 73,000 hectares in the mostly arid neighbouring state of Rajasthan. In 1985, the World Bank agreed to finance the SSP to the tune of approximately $450 million (Morse and Berger 1992, p. 2).

SSP has been the subject of agitation, controversy and bitter scientific–environmental, as well as state, battles since 1985. When complete, it will submerge roughly 87,000 acres of land, including agricultural land, forests, river beds and wastelands (Kothari and Ram 1994). Government estimates say at least 250,000 people will be displaced due to the dam; protestors put the figure closer to half a million. After sustained protests, the World Bank appointed an independent commission to look into the issues around Narmada, and the commission recommended that the bank withdraw from the project. World Bank funding consequently stopped in 1992. In 2000, however, the Supreme Court of India ruled in favour of the dam. During subsequent hearings of interlocutory petitions, the court also ordered the states to ensure that all ‘relief and rehabilitation measures have to be provided to the oustees in letter and spirit of the [Narmada Tribunal] Award and decisions of this Court’ (Order of 17 April 2006, Narmada Bachao Andolan vs Union of India). The major anti-dam campaigners – Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy and Baba Amte – have become celebrities themselves, whilst Bollywood celebrities like Aamir Khan have extended support for the Narmada Bachao Andolan (the Save Narmada Campaign). Films such as Ali Kazimi's (1994) Narmada: a valley rises, Anand Patwardhan's (1995) My Narmada diary have received critical acclaim, and inspired a greater interest in the valley's problems.