Holy mountain, holy profits

Originally published in Himal Southasian, August '09

From Delhi to London, tribal forces have been gathering to protest the opening of an open-cast bauxite mine on Niyamgiri Mountain, Orissa. Slated for September by the British mining company Vedanta Resources, it has been opposed by the native Kondh tribe – backed by Western activists – as a threat to their animist culture and subsistence livelihood.

On July 27, demonstrators gathered outside Vedanta’s AGM in London to put pressure on shareholders – a group that includes the Church of England and numerous county councils. Several activists, including Human Rights campaigner Bianca Jagger, had – ironically – bought shares in Vedanta to secure themselves a hearing in the meeting itself. They argued that the mine will desecrate the local ecosystem and jeopardy the future of the 8,000-strong Kondh tribe, who depend on the hills for their water and agriculture. ‘The mine will damage the cultural and economic rights of the Kondh people,’ said Jagger, also invoking the spectre of climate change. Tribal activist Sitaram Kulisika – for whom the charity ActionAid bought a share in Vedanta, allowing him to attend the AGM – raised the pertinent point that ‘Vedanta directors promised not to mine without our consent.’

Moreover, Niyamgiri is sacred to the Kondh as the home of their tribal deity, Niyam Raja, who lends his name to the mountain. The potency of Niyam in protecting the Kondh over the millennia has been inextricably bound with the ‘wellbeing’ of the mountain. The issue is one of both material and spiritual welfare – hence why Kulisika appealed to the assembled shareholders to safeguard ‘our livelihood and our god.’ Meredith Alexander, head of trade and corporates at ActionAid, cast the Vedanta’s plans as a move to ‘flatten the heart of the Kondh's culture.’

In Orissa itself, protest has been rather less composed. In January this year, hundreds of Kondh carrying bows and arrows marched several kilometres in the Niyamgiri foothills; dancing, shouting slogans, and holding banners reading ‘Vedanta Quit Niyamgiri’ and ‘Vedanta Go Back.’ Violent protests across the mineral-rich state held up the Vedanta plant for months until August last year, when the Indian Supreme Court finally greenlighted the bauxite mine, intended to feed the refinery Vedanta had already built as part of its US $800 million project. In response, villagers routinely obstructed vehicles carrying construction material to the site and erected crude wooden gates as barriers.

Simultaneous to the London protest, Kondh demonstrators held a candle-lit vigil in New Delhi, to woo the sympathy of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the general support of Delhi-wallas. The Indian government, however, was unmoved; they stated that, although they had taken full account of Kondh grievances, they remained committed to the benefits in employment, infrastructure, education and healthcare that the Vedanta mine would bring to the Kondh community. They refused to obstruct the project and called on ‘NGOs to respect the decision of the legitimate authority in India, the world’s largest democracy.’ The onus, therefore, lies entirely with Vedanta and its shareholders – now very much under the spotlight.