The resentment is driven by a feeling that big businesses are making a windfall even as local residents struggle to eke out a living.
Four years later, few people in the villages that dot the area believe the project has made their lives any better. Even many of those who have found employment in and around the project seem largely lukewarm to it, complaining that the jobs are poorly paid and exploitative, and that they were perhaps better off without them.
“When you go to Goa, you can see it’s the local people who have benefited from the tourism there,” said Chandrajit Sinh Gohil, a resident who owns a hotel in the area. “Here, everything has changed since the statue, but the local people, particularly the Adivasis, have not got any benefits from the tourism. All the big hotels, eateries, and shops are being run by agencies from outside.”
Land is at the heart of the discontment that pervades the villages near the statue, on either side of the river. While the statue itself is built on an island on the Narmada river, a host of complimentary infrastructure – hotels, state guest houses and the like – stands on what was once farmland.
This land dispute is closely intertwined with perhaps the most enduring symbol of infrastructure-induced displacement in modern India: the Sardar Sarovar Dam, which is around 2 km upstream from the Statue of Unity.
In fact, no additional land was acquired by the government for the Statue of Unity and its affiliate infrastructure. All of the land in the Adivasi villages that has been used for this complex.
Most Adivasi community leaders and politicians have strongly opposed the project. Chhotu Vasava, the leader of Bharatiya Tribal Party, which holds considerable sway among the Bhils of Narmada and adjoining Bharuch, has been a vocal critic of the statue. He has, on several occasions, called it the “Statue of Displacement”.
15/11/2022