By Liz Cohen-Scheer

On Monday, November 9, Haverford College welcomed distinguished Indian filmmaker Sanjay Kak to a screening and discussion of his documentary film, “Words on Water.” The film, released in 2002, chronicles the struggle of Indians from the Narmada Valley, whose lands are destroyed by a large government dam.

Kak, a government economist turned independent filmmaker, has long been interested in the nature of democracy as well as the necessary tensions that exist between individuals and governments. In speaking about is work, Kak claimed he “wanted to [create a] meditation on Indian democracy and to…explore the idea of non-violent protest.” “Words on Water” chronicles grassroots activism against the government-built dams in the Narmada Valley. Each year, these dams cause the Naramada river to overflow, destroying the homes and communities of people who live along the water’s banks. Images from the film are powerful and sad: “We have to nurture the crops, even if they drown,” a woman explains as she gathers vegetables from the murky mud that used to be her farm. She is one of the lucky ones: Most salvage nothing, and are forced to flee to high ground with no compensation for their losses.

Throughout the film, Kak condemns the Indian government’s “rhetoric of displacement;” Indian officials insist that victims of the flood are sacrificing their well-being for a “larger good.” “By what right and at what cost?” the film seems to ask, as rural communities are flooded out of existence. “Sometimes I think the whole family should just go to the dam, jump in it and drown,” a woman says to the filmmaker.

While "Words on Water” concerns itself with this single man-made disaster, the film seems to resonate beyond the particular. The themes that emerge speak to complex questions about culture and progress, the vital importance of dialogue and the power of peaceful protest. As the traditional song played at the end of the film reminds us, without an empathetic government, any country will deteriorate into a place where “every valley is ablaze, every valley is on fire.”

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