Dams, Displacement and Devastation: A Study of Na D’Souza’s Dweepa

Abstract

While other organisms merely adapt themselves with changing conditions, human beings are capable of adaptation with as well as alteration of their environment. The industrial revolution introduced artefacts that were irretrievable, changing the course of nature in ways that were beneficial for some but detrimental for others, human as well as non-human. Rivers have been harnessed by human since the birth of civilisation, but the construction of dams for irrigation, power generation, etc have also adverse impacted the ecosystem, not to speak of marginalized communities that lead a hand to mouth existence.

The proposed article critically engages with ‘Kannada submersion novelist’ Na D’Souza’s novel Dweepa to study the variety of effects which the construction of a dam on the river Sharavathi has on the life, property, family relations, profession and habitat of residents of the village Hosamanehalli in the Malenadu region.