Women Resistance to Land Alienation

Mining and displacement in mineral rich Singrauli have deprived the women of their economic security since the colonial times. Indigenous Khairwar women are agitating against land alienation and organizing resistance movement against their exploitation.

This body of work focuses on the women from indigenous community (Adivasi), Khairwar of Majhauli Paath, Singrauli who are playing vital role in agitations against land alienation and organizing the resistance movement against their exploitation. The yearlong sit-down protest by Khairwars demands a fair compensation in exchange for their land. The Khairwars are showing their resistance in a Gandhian way with peaceful sit down protests and fighting lawsuits against the mining company in the Courtroom of Bhopal. Mining, industrialization and displacement in mineral rich Adivasi area have deprived Adivasi women of their economic security since the colonial times. Adivasis are cognizant of the fact that alienation from land forces their women into marginalized forms of labour as maids and servants, construction labour and even duped into prostitution.

This is an old story and a new story. This is a local story and a global story. Adivasi women have etched their names in anti-colonial struggle of India by showing extraordinary courage and determination to fight against the British. The extractive and exploitive system of structural violence by State established in the colonial period have continued in the present at an expanded scale. The energy needs and over-consumption of a capitalist system has led to environmental degradation and climate change.

Singrauli is known as India’s Energy Capital or Urjanchal (land of energy). Since 1857, it has been the site of active coal mining and an aggressive timber industry. Singrauli is also home to Adivasis, for whom the forest is dwelling and sustenance. Their lives have been inextricably altered by this extractive economy and they have been extracted themselves, sometimes relocated multiple times, to allow this industry to expand.

In 2022- 2023, I travelled to Singrauli alone as a woman, a journey that involved some risk, to meet and photograph local people and their environment. I found a community in a constant state of removal and survival, attempting to adapt to scarcity and trying to make sense of the catastrophic premature loss of family members, a way of life and a sense of home. I try to convey a sense of their narrative in the still silent image, as an index of their voice.

Admiration for the firmness of purpose and their faith in Gandhian ways of holding protests keeps taking me back to Singrauli. The grant will help me to continue my photographic work in rural and otherwise difficult to access parts of Singrauli and document the people and their environment. Since 2022, I have travelled, self-funded, to Singrauli and Myorpur district, re-visiting the sites to photograph impact of industrialization on the communities and their environment. In the past two years, I have built a report in the area with the community, Sarpanch of villages and the social activists working in the area. I work with local talent and help them to prepare citizen reports  for local online news portals. I wish to create a community and create a space for young adults to share and to investigate and to document the communities in Sonbhadra and Singrauli. The grant will also allow me to compensate my collaborators and local talents who take a leave from work and share their expert understanding of the area.

As a part of activism through photography, I often share my documentary photographs with village activists, non-profit, indigenous and non-government organizations to help them with their court cases.  Activists have reported progress in many pending cases regarding environment. 

This new work builds on my previous projects that focus on landscapes impacted by human
 consumption and activity. By arranging form, line and colour, my work aspires towards an aesthetics of transformation and a sustainable future, through facilitating the work of activists and inspiring a wider public to care.