India, March 15 -- The Mulshi dam satyagraha may have ended over a century ago, but it lives on in the repercussions for Mulshi taluka's 52 villages that were sacrificed to it. A book of 70 essays commemorating the past and present struggle through essays, titled 'Sahyadri Che Ashru', was released early this year at the All Maharashtra Mulshi Parishad, ending in the poem 'Thamb' with the lines above.

"It is a matter of deep pain that the 52 villages that were the collateral damage for the Mulshi dam to supply power to Mumbai still have not received their basic land rights," said editor Anil Pawar. "They have no future left."

India's first anti-dam movement, the satyagraha began on April 16, 1921. A few years prior, in 1917, Tata Power h...