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Misplaced Knowledge: Large Dams as an Anatopism in South Asia

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Large Dams in Asia

Part of the book series: Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research ((AAHER))

Abstract

Even though South Asia accounts for a large proportion of the dams in the world, they have seldom been examined at the subcontinental scale, with most scrutiny confined to specific projects. Large dams are not merely functional technologies but come invested with a broad range of meanings. Using a Geography of Science approach, this chapter attempts to create a genealogy of the evolution of the meaning of dams and identify the ways in which they have been influenced by the spaces in which this technology developed. Going beyond a simplistic local-global opposition, I argue that large dams are technological attempts to recreate the landscape in the image of other idealised spaces. In many ways, this recreation is fundamentally at odds with local conditions and makes large dams an anatopism in South Asia.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A note on terminology is useful here, as there is a multitude of possible usages that are current, the most prominent being “Geography of Science” and the derivative “geographies of science” and the broader term “geography of knowledge”. This paper uses the nomenclature “Geography of Science” as a device to ensure consistency and ease of understanding, but it is intended to encompass the broader idea of “knowledge”. The implication of plurality is inherent when this term is used so broadly, and therefore, I do not use “geographies” as an additional rhetorical device.

  2. 2.

    A billboard from the late 1990s at the site of a dam project, under the headline “Sardar Sarovar Project: A gift to the nation”, states: “India must be self-sufficient in food to avoid going to the world with a begging bowl. Country needs many more dams to harness waters going waste to sea after disasterous damage of flood” (sic).

  3. 3.

    This practice has endured to the present day. In the 1950s Kapil Bhattacharjee was accused of being a Pakistani spy (Nandy 2001). In more recent times, many renowned activists like Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy have been called anti-national and alleged to have connections to unnamed foreign powers. This reaction is all the more interesting, because of the unquestioned identification of dams with the nation and of meanings given to dams that extend far beyond their function.

  4. 4.

    The original sexist language is retained here to reflect the phallogocentric nature of such positions.

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Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the Cluster of Excellence: Asia and Europe in a Global Context and the University of Heidelberg for the generous financial and intellectual support provided during the writing of this chapter. I must also thank Prof Nüsser for his mentoring and advice, Thomas Lennartz for contributing his valuable organisational skills and all my colleagues in the Department of Geography, South Asia Institute, for their encouragement and support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 330, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Ravi Baghel M.A.

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  1. Ravi Baghel M.A.
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Correspondence to Ravi Baghel M.A. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Heidelberg University, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg, Germany

    Marcus Nüsser

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Baghel, R. (2014). Misplaced Knowledge: Large Dams as an Anatopism in South Asia. In: Nüsser, M. (eds) Large Dams in Asia. Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2798-4_2

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