''Wira Pdika'' (or, in
Odia
Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to:
* Odia people in Odisha, India
* Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family
* Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...
, ''Matiro Poko, Company Loko'', both meaning 'Earth Worm, Company man') is a 124-minute 2005 film independently produced and directed by
Samarendra Das and
Amarendra Das, characterised by the reviewer Subrat Kumar Sahu as 'a milestone in terms of authenticity in documentary filmmaking'.
It is in the
Kui language and documents the struggles of
Adivasi
The Adivasi refers to inhabitants of Indian subcontinent, generally tribal people. The term is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. The term ...
people in
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
against
mining of bauxite in their region. The documentary sits in the work of Samarendra Das alongside his academic book, co-authored with
Felix Padel, ''Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel'' (to which it also provides the image on the cover).
Contents
The film includes no narration—only footage of people from the communities of the
Dongria Khonds and Majhi Khonds in the
Niyamgiri
The Niyamgiri is a hill range situated in the districts of Kalahandi and Rayagada in the south-west of Odisha, India. These hills are home to Dongria Kondh indigenous people. The hills have one of India's most pristine forests in the interior ...
region of
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
. Interviewees discuss the impact on their lives of
bauxite
Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(O ...
mining by a number of companies (among them
Vedanta Resources
Vedanta Resources Limited is an Indian diversified mining company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest mining and non-ferrous metals company in India and has mining operations in Australia and Zambia and oil and gas opera ...
) that began in the 1990s, and their resistance to these activities. In the assessment of Kalpana Wilson, 'the film does not make claims to present an ‘unbiased’ view of events; on the contrary, it is an example of politically committed filmmaking seeking to produce work which can be widely used as a tool in the struggle. A key theme of the film is the interviewees' view that the mining discussed is not achieving
economic development
In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and o ...
of their communities but plundering them, and that they instead seek
sustainable development
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...
. Meanwhile, the documentary differs from some other media coverage of the struggle over mining in the Niyamgiri hills in avoiding stereotyping the Adivasi people involved as
noble savages.
Influence
The movement which the film documents managed in 2013 to stop Vedanta's mining of Bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills, costing the company as much as $10bn (US dollars). However, as of 2017, indigenous people's struggles against the corporation in India and elsewhere continued.
Clips from the film have a prominent place in the Icelandic documentary ''
Draumalandið'', about aluminium smelting in Iceland.
Interviews in the documentary are cited as primary sources by a number of scholars.
[Felix Padel,]
How Best to Ensure Adivasis’ Land, Forest and Mineral Rights?
, ''IDS Bulletin'', volume 43, no S1 (July 2012), 49-57.
References
{{reflist
External links
Video of Samarendra Das discussing the filmSong from the documentaryExcerpts from the documentary
2005 films
2005 in the environment
Indian documentary films
2005 documentary films
Adivasi