Interstate Disputes Over Krishna Waters: Law, Science and Imperialism

Adding a meaningful edge to the ongoing discourses on development, globalisation and imperialism, Interstate Disputes over Krishna Waters engages the larger issue of water conflicts in India. It anchors these discourses in the arbitrations of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) as a point of departure. Legal principles such as "equitable apportionment" and "dependable yield" are impugned in the contentious subject of water sharing by contiguous states in India. Radha D’Souza views the disputes themselves as related to key issues in development, issues that bear indelible marks of law, science and imperialism. Interstate Disputes over Krishna Waters is the first ever attempt to put river water conflicts in a larger context of India’s federal constitution and to critically examine the connections between the constitution and imperialism in the post-independence era. Law and science are theoretically reconfigured and pragmatically realigned with development issues in this study; so are a series of interlinking issues of the local and global that draw examples from or build on the history of colonialism and politics of independent India. The book urges us to consider why law, science and technology and space are as important constitutive elements for capitalism as they are for the foundational processes of imperialism. Rich in illustrative details, statistical information and handy charts, this book includes an insert and foldout maps of the Krishna basin and sub-basins respectively.