Gone are the days when the policy of freight equalisation allowed the mineral resources of united Bihar to serve outside interests without protest in Bihar. With unprecedented social empowerment in the state and its subsequent vivisection, there is now a reverse ‘cost and benefit analysis’ by the subaltern. Will the mammoth industrial edifice, located in one of the most backward regions of the country, go unchallenged by the displaced, in a situation when they are not benefiting from its fruit?

In Kahalgaon, what started as an unorganised movement later gave way to the formation of the Nagarik Sangharsh Samiti. The social base of this non-political movement was constituted by the lowest strata. The movement was led by faceless people. The bulk belonged to the Scheduled Castes, backward castes and Muslims. It also mirrored brilliant social cohesion, belying the scars left behind by the earlier communal conflagrations in the district.

This was indeed an authentic example of bottom-up empowerment. This was not a proxy political movement to destabilise the provincial government. The clamour was essentially for energy equity for those who were affected by the establishment of the power plant. The movement got further legitimacy, because the Union power minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, had earlier promised uninterrupted power supply in the surrounding areas. The maturity of the movement could be seen from the fact that when the ‘Bihar bandh’ was called on two successive days after the police firing on protestors, the locals did not join in the protest.

... contd.