Algebra of Infinite Justice; by Arundhati Roy.

I read it first when it was published as a long article in a periodical in India, and thought it brought up and presented to general public many points that might have been known to scientists and authorities but certainly not to those people that were not dealing with any of the factors directly affected by the dams.

The article explained much, including far flung issues - for example the insurgency in Punjab that had taken most population of India by surprise. It obviously had a great deal to do with poverty and unemployment in rural areas and yet Pujab had been the most prosperous state, the most fertile, the famed land of happy well fed and very patriotic people, for as long as we can remember.

This work of Roy explained the root of the inexplicable opposite - when one put it together with the other part of the picture, the disfrachisement of tenant farmers and other poor landless farm workers by the much heralded machinary such as tractors that was ubiquitous in Punjab since a few decades, driving much of the population into a silent but desperate poverty.

Naturally the unemployed, especially those that were young and therefore were far more vulnerable to propaganda and other - well funded, including ablity to provide arms - attempts from those that would be happy to see India permanently in turmoil, or worse.

Much of Punjab has suffered in all this since then, much blood shed and it was all unnecessary, starting from innocent dreams of prosperity for all by using dams to generate power and provide irrigation by canals to all.

But it is neither so simple nor without price to disturb Earth and ecosystesm, and the ill effects have been seen not only in India but in US as well, in many ways. This work goes into it all and is well written for a layperson, writer as well as readership - not that any professionals will not benefit by reading it, too.

It is high time humans stopped in tracks of arrogance of controlling nature and doing anything to any part of nature they can think of - but such awareness is not prevalent and there is far more of a resistance from those that would benefit more directly, whether it is about red meat industry or about dams or industrial pollution affecting rivers and air.

And dams are still being constructed, without regard to the fragility of Earth and its ecosystems, or even effect on human lives.