The Politics of Water in South Asia
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Abstract
Disputes over water are central to the political economy of development in South Asia. This paper looks at the way that the allocation of water is mediated by different kinds of state-society relations in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan by examining common property resource management issues from three different spatial scales: international, intra-national and intra-community. By doing so, we can begin to appreciate the complexity of problems in the management of water and the likely trends throughout the region. We do this by examining the contestations over rivers, canals, dams and groundwater. The role of agricultural change in contributing to the intensification of water usage in the rural areas is emphasised. Despite some diversification into non-agricultural activities in the rural areas and limited industrialisation in the urban areas, 70-80 percent of the region’s fresh water is utilised for agriculture at the present juncture.
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The Hindu Businessline (9 March 2005) "World Bank may help resolve Baglihar row".
Akhtar Bhatti, M. (2002) "Groundwater management in South Asia - A regional initiative" (Member, South Asia Coordinating Committee for WWE 3 and Member, SteeringCommittee of Pakistan Water Partnership - PWP) Presented at International Network of Basin Organisations, General Assembly Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, May 28 -30, 2002.
Ali, I. (2005) "Business, Stakeholders and Strategic Responses in Pakistan', UNEAC Asia Papers, No. 8.
Ali, I. (2004) "Historical Impacts on Political Economy in Pakistan" Asian Journal of Management Cases, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/097282010400100203
Ali, M & Byerlee, D. (2002) "Productivity growth and resource degradation in Pakistan's Punjab: A decomposition analysis", Economic Development and Cultural Change, 50(4). https://doi.org/10.1086/342759
Anwar, S. (1996) "Opposition slams Bangladesh water deal with India" Reuters News 14th December.
Banaji, J. (1994) "The farmers' movements – a critique of conservative rural coalitions" Journal of Peasant Studies, 21(3/4): 228-245. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066159408438561
Bandyopadhyay, J. (1995) "Water Management in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin: Emerging Challenges for the 21st Century", Water Resources Development, Vol. 11(4): 411-442. https://doi.org/10.1080/07900629550042119
Bardhan, P. (1984) The Political Economy of Development in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Bosshard, P. (2004) "World Bank: Lessons not learnt", accessed at
Boyce, J.K. (1987) Agrarian impasse in Bengal: institutional constraints to technological change. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
Brichieri-Colombi, S. & Bradnock, R.W. (2003) "Geopolitics, water and development in South Asia: cooperative development in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta", The Geographical Journal, March.
Chakrabarti A. & Cullenberg, S. (2003) Transition and development in India. New York and London: Routledge.
Corbridge, S. & Harriss, J. (2000) Reinventing India: Liberalization, Hindu Nationalism and Popular Democracy. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Gazdar, H. (26 February 2005) "Baglihar and Politics of Water", Economic and Political Weekly.
Haq, K. (2003) Human Development in South Asia 2002: Agriculture and Rural Development. Mahub ul Haq Human Development Centre, Oxford University Press.
Hossain, I. (1998) "Bangladesh-India Relations: The Ganges Water-Sharing Treaty and Beyond", Asian Affairs, 25(4). https://doi.org/10.1080/00927679809601449
Jacoby, H.G., Murgai, R. & Rehman, S.U. (2004) "Monopoly Power and Distribution in Fragmented Markets: The Case of Groundwater", The Review of Economic Studies, 71(248). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-937X.2004.00304.x
Kaviraj, S. (1998) "A Critique of the Passive Revolution" in Chatterjee, P. (ed.) State and Politics in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Khan, M. (n.d.) "The Political Economy of Industrial Policy in Pakistan 1947-1971", Working Paper, Department of Economics, SOAS, University of London.
Kochanek, S. (1993) Patron-Client Politics and Business in Bangladesh. Dhaka: University Press.
Kochanek, S. (1996) "The Rise of Interest Politics in Bangladesh" Asian Survey, 36(7), July.
Mansoor, H. (2002) "Water Wars: Sindh's struggle for control of the Indus" Himal, July.
Mukherjee, A. (2004) "Groundwater Markets in Ganga-Meghna-Brahmaputra Basin: Theory and Evidence", Economic and Political Weekly, July.
Nations, R. (1971) "The Economic Structure of Pakistan: Class and Colony", New Left Review, No. 68, July-August.
Noorani, A.G. (2002) "A treaty to keep", Frontline 19(8), April 13 – 26.
Osmani, S.R. (1999) "Social Security in South Asia", in Ahmad, E., Dreze, J., Hills, J. & Sen, A.K. (eds.) Social Security in Developing Countries. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, Indian Edition.
Quadir, F. (2000) "The political economy of pro-market reforms in Bangladesh: regime consolidation through economic liberalization?", Contemporary South Asia, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/713658731
Rawal, V. & Swaminathan, M. (1998) "Changing trajectories: agricultural growth in West Bengal, 1950 to 1996", Economic and Political Weekly, 33(40).
Rawal, V. (1999) Irrigation Development in West Bengal 1977-78 to 1995-96, unpublished PhD thesis. Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai.
Rogaly, B., Harriss-White, B. & Bose, S. (eds.) (1999) Sonar Bangla? Agricultural Growth and Agrarian Change in West Bengal and Bangladesh. Dhaka: University Press Limited.
Shahzad, I. (2002) "A Nation divided over water", Dawn 18th March.
Vaidyanathan, A. (2001) Water Resource Management: Institutions and Irrigation Development in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, Paperback Edition.
WCD Case Studies (2000) Tarbela Dam and related aspects of the Indus River Basin Pakistan Final Draft Report. World Commission on Dams.
World Commission on Dams (2000) Pakistan: The Tarbela Dam and Indus River Basin Final Paper, accessed at
World Commission on Dams and Asianics (1999) Review of the Performance and Development Effectiveness of Tarbela Dam in The Context of the Indus Basin Scoping Report (Islamabad and South Africa).
Wright, D. (2002) "The BJP and Bangladesh" South Asia vol. XXV. https://doi.org/10.1080/00856400208723508