Within the river: Collaboration and methodology

The solidarity rally through the Narmada river valley arrives at Nisrapur, a village of 10,000 people near the banks of the river. This village is one of 62 slated for submergence as a result of the construction of dams along the Narmada.... People throng the streets. The beat of drums and metal thalis [plates] is interspersed with the trilling of flutes.... Slogans rend the air as flower petals rain down. Women and girls rush to apply red and yellow powder tilaks [devotional marks] to our foreheads. Rallyists swallowed by the crowd are Swept along by the rhythm of the night, by the chanting, dancing, music-driven river of faces. The river swirls and eddies, flows forward and meanders. From the market square, long into the night, speeches, songs, and poems fill the air. Water is passed to slake our thirst. Like the Narmada river, it is water for life, not for the death that the dams will bring. A song of rebellion is taken up by the crowd and accompanied by rhythmic clapping... Within it flows a message to all those who would sit back and bemoan the plight of the dispossessed and displaced of the world without doing anything to challenge it. It is simple: "So that there is no darkness to fear, so that life is not drenched with tears.... That is why we choose the path of struggle."