THISPLACE
Thisplace is a play on the word ‘displace’, formed by combining the words this and place.
Although fictional, ‘Thisplace’ touches upon very real concepts such as forced displacement, development and our understanding of it, and the consequences of uprooting people whose identity is deeply tied to the ecosystems they inhabit. This particular story deals with a hydro-electric power project and the people that are about to be displaced by it. I approached people from Adivasi communities to understand displacement from their perspective, such as people from the Mala Arayan and Urali tribes displaced by the hydel project of Idukki-Kulamavu reservoir.
As rightly put by many a scholarly work, displacing people and destroying their identity has physiological and psychological effects that continue to affect them generations later. Even at the global level, indigenous communities have been exploited and continue to be exploited and the rich knowledge of the land, the climate, the ecosystem that they possess is often dismissed and destroyed.
