Gendered Geographies of Resistance Movements

People’s resistance—struggles, protests, movements, revolutions—are usually representative of people’s critique or opposition of the existing development paradigm or as a means to achieve desired change, that is, people-centric development. The book Subaltern Movements in India: Gendered Geographies of Struggle against Neoliberal Development studies three struggles by Adivasis, fishers and farmers against proposed development projects in different parts of Gujarat, in the context of gender geographies and neo-liberal India. These struggles have been termed as subaltern movements. The first struggle studied in this book is against seven harbours in Kutch district (north Gujarat) by the Machimar Adhikar Sangharsh Sangathan (MASS). The second struggle is against the linking of rivers (Par–Tapi–Narmada) project in Dharmapur block (south Gujarat), Valsad district by the Nar Par Adivasi Sangathan. The third struggle is the farmers’ struggle against Nirma Cement factory in Mahuva block (western Gujarat) by the Khetiwadi Paryavaran Bachao Samiti.

In the beginning, this volume mentions, “Gujarat is an important case to examine … around two issues … the success story of development and the massacre of Muslims in 2002” (p 2). The research questions are elaborated as:

In the current neo-liberal conjuncture, why and how were these struggles able to succeed? What protest repertoire contributed to their success? How are these struggles gendered? What light do these struggles shed on development and democracy in India? What insights do they provide for scholarship on development, social movements, and gender? (p 2)