Mine Your Own Business
Simon Chambers’ Cowboys in Indiais a dark tale of how our tribals are abused by mining firms
Simon Chambers’ Cowboys in Indiais a dark tale of how our tribals are abused by mining firms
The British journalist and filmmaker Simon Chambers’ documentary “Cowboys in India” was screened just over a week before its subject, Vedanta Alumina, hit the headlines. The Ministry of Environment and Forests had refused it permission for bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills in Orissa’s Kalahandi district. It held the mining conglomerate guilty of flouting the Forest Rights Act which mandates that the local tribals must be consulted before their land is used for ‘development’. Orissa saw this as a political conspiracy to stall its development. The media erupted with discussions on the development versus environment issue with the usual suspects saying the usual things.
When Chambers became interested in Vedanta, however, its alleged misdeeds were still just a smudge on the horizon. He came to the back-of-beyond Lanjigarh in the foothills of Niyamgiri where Vedanta’s refinery was located, with one question in mind. How far was this firstworld giant keeping its promise of development to the local tribals, said to be the poorest of the poor in India? He came illequipped to pursue the question. He did not know the place, the language, the people or the politics of development in India. All he had besides his camera and a hired car were Doya the driver and Satya the interpreter-guide, both equally clueless.
For quite a while into the film, the question in our minds is what’s going on? The film doesn’t appear to have a noticeable aim or structure. Satya and Doya also have their reservations. They expect Chambers to be like a BBC film-maker. Realising this, Chambers grabs the opportunity to stage a hilarious take-off on BBC style documentaries, purveyors of predigested information delivered in wellmodulated, authoritative voices. It is this scene that gives us a much-needed clue to Chambers’ aim and method and how we are to see his film. He is an observer and we are invited to observe what he observes, experience what he experiences.
The Vedanta refinery, its despoiled environs, the disorientation of the tribals and the impending possibility of mining in the Niyamgiri Hills which they hold as sacred, make it a disturbing experience. Lines of trucks rumble up the wide, new mud road to the imposing gates of the refinery leaving behind a menacing echo and a trail of dust that covers every bit of green in the vicinity. A man rants against the factory for taking his land but refusing him a job because he’s illiterate. A woman speaks matter-of-factly of how happy they were living off the forest which had given them all they needed. People whisper about a man who tried organising the tribals against Vedanta and died in an ‘accident’. Vedanta officials point smugly to a balwadi as their contribution to tribal welfare. It is a lone locked room with not a child in sight.
Doya and Satya suddenly stop reporting for work. Chambers waits for four days before visiting them to find out what happened. One complains of pain in the leg, the other of pain in the tooth. Later he discovers they have been threatened by Vedanta for escorting Chambers around.
Weaving through this dark tale, however, is the brighter one of Chambers’ relationship with Doya and Satya, which develops as a reverse image of Vedanta’s relationship with the tribals. He eats in their home and worries about the dangers his presence has exposed them to. They in turn grow to see him as more than just a source of income. Being with him sensitises them to what Vedanta is doing to the tribals. In a touching scene towards the end of the film, Satya strokes the head of a naked, dusty, child and says simply, “I am sad”. Finally Chambers gifts them a second-hand jeep which will be their future livelihood. The last scene shows the proud, grinning Doya and Satya garlanding the jeep which now has the words “Saimon Travels” inscribed on its front.