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Modern and material development in the name of progress has always hindered and displaced a few specific communities like tribal, Adivasis, or indigenous people in India. In a developing country like India, most modern projects are implemented following the Nehruvian model of development, often criticised as 'flawed.' Once constructed, while much fuss and hype are made about such 'Modern' projects, the sufferings and plight of the surrounding local communities are often neglected, and their voice remains unheard. Analysing Orijit Sen's graphic narrative River of Stories (1994, 2022), this article focuses on the 'visuality of inauspicious' in the form of constructing the Sardar Sarovar Dam in the country. The Dam displaced several Adivasis, and their society also 'dislodged from its ideal state' (Sen 2018, 110) and caused environmental degradation in the surrounding areas. This article underscores how the usurping of the villager's land in the name of modernity, development, and national progress evokes the process of colonisation and its associated violence. The article also explores the environmental movement in the form of 'Environmentalism of the Poor' that rose against this project, and while analysing the movement, I discuss in detail how the villagers adopted an eco-conscious and Gandhian non-violent approach.
Joydev Maity (Tue,) studied this question.