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This thesis examines how the Narmada damming project in India is constituted and contested by the state, affected tribal peoples ( adivasis), and a transnational advocacy network led by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement). Based on ethnographic fieldwork, and employing critical anthropological perspectives on development and globalization, the power relations underlying dominance and resistance are mapped out. The conflicting discourses, strategies and practices of Narmada proponents and opponents are conceptualized within local, regional, national, and transnational sites and modalities. Further, the negotiation of state dominance and adivasi resistance is analyzed through contradictory practice and shifting political alignments. Lastly, this thesis delineates how the Narmada conflict is permeated by complex symbolic and moral mechanisms activated by both state authorities and activist resistors.