Ishan Tankha
Ishan Tankha
‘A Peal Of Spring Thunder’
Photographic works
'A Peal of Spring Thunder’ concerns itself with the continuing and violent struggle between the Maoist rebels and the Indian state which has left thousands dead and many more displaced, in some of the most socio economically struggling regions. It attempts to highlight a region that is largely ignored by the government , for whom the regions vast natural resources seem to hold more importance than its residents. The images follow indigenous adivasis and Maoist soldiers as the negotiate inhabited, forested and barren landscapes profoundly affected by commercial and political prospectors.
Jal Satyagraha
How callous can a government be that the only way to attract its attention is to squat neck deep in water? These images were made in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh in 2012.
It’s not as if the ‘jal satyagrahis’ of Khandwa hadn’t exhausted other means. For over two decades, they have agitated on every available forum, asking merely that the government understand the consequences of its massive project of damming the Narmada.
The Indira Sagar Dam has the largest submerged area of any dam in the country. An area that covers 255 villages, forcing the displacement of almost three lakh people. Most people have been forcefully evicted with little compensation, despite the Narmada Valley Development Authority’s official policy, reinforced by a Supreme Court judgment in 2011.
The decision affects at least another 91 villages on the periphery of the current captive area. More will be affected, as the plan — indeed, not even the Central Water Commission — has no mechanism to calculate the impact of raising the dam’s height on the areas along the various large rivers that drain into the Narmada. It is this decision, like a similar increase proposed for the Omkareshwar Dam last year, that drove Khandwa’s villagers to risk serious illness by sitting in the dirty river water for days. Their protest is symbolic of the great irony of their tragedy: how water, the source of all life, is being used to bring about the destruction of theirs.
The mood in Khandwa was sombre. These are not firebrand activists fighting for an ideal, but villagers who stood up to the might of the State and lost. All they seek now is what they are due. These are men and women fighting as much to make ends meet as they are for justice. An oral promise by the state government not to increase the dam’s height finally put an end to the two-week agitation. But promises have been broken in the past. And the protesters expect nothing but a long, bitter struggle. As Atma Ram, one of the satyagrahis, put it, “It never ends, this slow destruction of our world.”
Location: Gallery MMB, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai
© Ishan Tankha
Ishan Tankha is an independent photographer whose images explore the relationship between social and physical environments. His work has focused on ecological degradation and the corresponding displacement and dispossession of indigenous communities, life in times of rising air pollution and the shifting shape of urban and rural life and landscape in the subcontinent. “A Peal of Spring Thunder” is a series on social life and environment in Chhattisgarh in East-Central India against the backdrop of a continuing and violent conflict between the state and armed guerillas.
‘A Peal Of Spring Thunder’
Photographic works
'A Peal of Spring Thunder’ concerns itself with the continuing and violent struggle between the Maoist rebels and the Indian state which has left thousands dead and many more displaced, in some of the most socio economically struggling regions. It attempts to highlight a region that is largely ignored by the government , for whom the regions vast natural resources seem to hold more importance than its residents. The images follow indigenous adivasis and Maoist soldiers as the negotiate inhabited, forested and barren landscapes profoundly affected by commercial and political prospectors.
Jal Satyagraha
How callous can a government be that the only way to attract its attention is to squat neck deep in water? These images were made in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh in 2012.
It’s not as if the ‘jal satyagrahis’ of Khandwa hadn’t exhausted other means. For over two decades, they have agitated on every available forum, asking merely that the government understand the consequences of its massive project of damming the Narmada.
The Indira Sagar Dam has the largest submerged area of any dam in the country. An area that covers 255 villages, forcing the displacement of almost three lakh people. Most people have been forcefully evicted with little compensation, despite the Narmada Valley Development Authority’s official policy, reinforced by a Supreme Court judgment in 2011.
The decision affects at least another 91 villages on the periphery of the current captive area. More will be affected, as the plan — indeed, not even the Central Water Commission — has no mechanism to calculate the impact of raising the dam’s height on the areas along the various large rivers that drain into the Narmada. It is this decision, like a similar increase proposed for the Omkareshwar Dam last year, that drove Khandwa’s villagers to risk serious illness by sitting in the dirty river water for days. Their protest is symbolic of the great irony of their tragedy: how water, the source of all life, is being used to bring about the destruction of theirs.
The mood in Khandwa was sombre. These are not firebrand activists fighting for an ideal, but villagers who stood up to the might of the State and lost. All they seek now is what they are due. These are men and women fighting as much to make ends meet as they are for justice. An oral promise by the state government not to increase the dam’s height finally put an end to the two-week agitation. But promises have been broken in the past. And the protesters expect nothing but a long, bitter struggle. As Atma Ram, one of the satyagrahis, put it, “It never ends, this slow destruction of our world.”
Location: Gallery MMB, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai
About the artist
© Ishan Tankha
Ishan Tankha is an independent photographer whose images explore the relationship between social and physical environments. His work has focused on ecological degradation and the corresponding displacement and dispossession of indigenous communities, life in times of rising air pollution and the shifting shape of urban and rural life and landscape in the subcontinent. “A Peal of Spring Thunder” is a series on social life and environment in Chhattisgarh in East-Central India against the backdrop of a continuing and violent conflict between the state and armed guerillas.