Srinivas Chokkakula | Centre for Policy Research (original) (raw)

Papers by Srinivas Chokkakula

This dissertation explores the evolving challenges of interstate water disputes in India. It exam... more This dissertation explores the evolving challenges of interstate water disputes in India. It examines how the transboundary geographies of these conflicts relate in turn to the politics of dispute emergence, recurrence, and mitigation. Both formal statist spaces of contestation, and informal political spaces of nonstate engagement, are considered in this way. In contrast to a geopolitical enframing of the disputes as 'water wars,' I offer the perspective of an 'anti-geopolitical eye,' providing an embodied view from the ground-up of the relational linkages, practices, and processes mediating the political ecology of transboundary water sharing. The study uses mixed qualitative research methods involving analysis of archival sources and government reports, interviews, and field research to study the politics of interstate water disputes in India. Besides a legal and political genealogy of disputes resolution in India more generally, the study also critically examines the empirical case of the Krishna river water dispute between the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. The analysis is informed by the theoretical traditions of critical geopolitics, political ecology, and postcolonial analysis as they relate to statemaking and democracy in India. Viewed through the lens of transboundary sharing of interstate rivers, this work describes the spatiality of the overarching postcolonial condition of India. This inquiry into the colonial present of contentious politics has led to several conclusions concerning political mobilization and the nexus between the politics of interstate water disputes and democratic politics; the particular nature of the political ecology of the disputes, and transboundary water conflicts generally; and state-making, interstate relations, and democracy in India. These conclusions offer lessons for informing interstate water dispute resolution policies: the need for reviewing the bar on the Supreme Court's jurisdiction over interstate water disputes, and for supplementing legal approaches with appropriate institutions, practices, and governance structures to respond to the enduring challenges of interstate water disputes in a more inclusive and dynamic way. Overall, the analysis of the political ecology of interstate water disputes also offers insights for advancing efforts to theorize transboundary water conflicts. i

Regional Environmental Change, May 2, 2018

The Telugu Ganga project in India supplies the Krishna river waters to meet drinking water needs ... more The Telugu Ganga project in India supplies the Krishna river waters to meet drinking water needs of the Chennai city in the state of Tamil Nadu, a nonriparian state. This has happened through an unusual historic accord between the riparian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The instance is often celebrated as the finest example of interstate river water cooperation in the history of independent India. This paper presents an alternative and a more complete and critical appraisal of interstate cooperation in the Telugu Ganga project focusing on transboundary political interactions to offer the following findings. One, the case of Telugu Ganga project showcases how and why cooperation and conflict coexist in transboundary water sharing. The celebrated interstate cooperation has turned into a source of conflicts eventually and is connected to the current shape and the state of the Krishna river water dispute. Two, it reveals a nexus of water provisioning politics and mainstream party politics in its making, and its subsequent contentious history. This nexus is a challenge to inter-basin transfer across territorial boundaries-an important drought coping mechanism. This challenge defines the character of politics of cooperation and conflict resolution in federal democracies, such as India. Three, India's interstate river water governance suffers from dormant policy space and absence of institutional models for interstate river cooperation. This makes it ill-equipped to address the adverse implications of politics or to channelize for progressive outcomes of cooperation. At a broader policy level, India has to reconsider its excessive reliance on dispute resolution, and shift its focus to enabling cooperation for a better governance of its interstate rivers. Keywords Interstate river water cooperation in India. Krishna river dispute. Telugu Ganga project. Transboundary river water conflicts. Federal river water governance

Routledge eBooks, Mar 21, 2023

ABSTRACT

Progress in Development Studies, Feb 1, 2017

South Asia-journal of South Asian Studies, Jan 2, 2017

Journal of International Development, Dec 18, 2011

… UNIVERSITY, LEICESTERSHIRE LE 11 3 TU …, 1996

Indigenous knowledge of water management. L Ferroukhi, S Chokkakula WEDC, LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY... more Indigenous knowledge of water management. L Ferroukhi, S Chokkakula WEDC, LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY, LEICESTERSHIRE LE 11 3 TU(UK)., 184-187. A typical characteristic of the precipitation pattern in semi-arid ...

This dissertation explores the evolving challenges of interstate water disputes in India. It exam... more This dissertation explores the evolving challenges of interstate water disputes in India. It examines how the transboundary geographies of these conflicts relate in turn to the politics of dispute emergence, recurrence, and mitigation. Both formal statist spaces of contestation, and informal political spaces of nonstate engagement, are considered in this way. In contrast to a geopolitical enframing of the disputes as `water wars,' I offer the perspective of an `anti-geopolitical eye,' providing an embodied view from the ground-up of the relational linkages, practices, and processes mediating the political ecology of transboundary water sharing. The study uses mixed qualitative research methods involving analysis of archival sources and government reports, interviews, and field research to study the politics of interstate water disputes in India. Besides a legal and political genealogy of disputes resolution in India more generally, the study also critically examines the empi...

India’s federal governance for long-term water security has not received its due attention. The d... more India’s federal governance for long-term water security has not received its due attention. The discourse about federal governance is generally dominated by that of fiscal federalism. The limited work about federal water governance is restricted to interstate river water disputes and their resolution. Poor indicators of national water resources governance do not inspire confidence about its long-term security. The chapter posits that this is an outcome of the federal constituents—the states and the union territories—assuming exclusive powers over water governance. They pursue inward and territorialized strategies for water resources management, leading to conditions akin to a collective action problem to pursue national development and long-term security goals. It is long recognized that the Centre has to play an anchoring role and work with states towards pursuing these goals. Does it have the required leverage to influence states? This chapter, perhaps a first, is a modest effort ...

VIDEO: 8:00 a.m. - 8:10 a.m. Welcoming Remarks Speakers: Charles Wilkinson, Moses Lasky Professor... more VIDEO: 8:00 a.m. - 8:10 a.m. Welcoming Remarks Speakers: Charles Wilkinson, Moses Lasky Professor of Law, University of Colorado School of Law Doug Kenney, Getches-Wilkinson Center SESSION ONE: The Challenge of Water Scarcity in Basins Around the World: An Introduction Moderator: Doug Kenney, Getches-Wilkinson Center Cases from North America 8:10 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. British Columbia (Canada): Oliver M. Brandes, University of Victoria 8:30 a.m. - 8:50 a.m. Columbia River Basin (Canada and US): Barbara Cosens, University of Idaho 8:50 a.m. - 9:10 a.m. Colorado River Basin (US and Mexico): Larry MacDonnell, University of Colorado 9:10 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Arizona (US): Amy McCoy, University of Arizona 9:30 a.m. - 9:50 a.m. Rio Grande (US and Mexico): Adrian Oglesby, University of New Mexico Some Other Cases From Around the World 10:20 a.m. - 10:40 a.m. Murray-Darling River Basin (Australia): Tony McLeod, MDBA, Murray-Darling Basin Authority 10:40 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Spain: Teodoro Estrela, Júcar River Basin Authority 11:00 a.m. - 11:20 a.m. São Francisco River Basin (Brazil): Vanessa Empinotti, Federal University of ABC 11:20 a.m. - 11:40 a.m. South Africa: Mike Muller, University of Witwatersrand 11:40 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. India: Srinivas Chokkakula, Centre for Policy Researc

Water International, 2013

ABSTRACT

Part of the Asian Studies Commons, Climate Commons, Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Environm... more Part of the Asian Studies Commons, Climate Commons, Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Environmental Health and Protection Commons, Environmental Policy Commons, Hydrology Commons, Law and Society Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons, Social Policy Commons, Transnational Law Commons, Water Law Commons, and the Water Resource Management Commons

India’s federal governance for long-term water security has not received its due attention. The d... more India’s federal governance for long-term water security has not received its due attention. The discourse about federal governance is generally dominated by that of fiscal federalism. The limited work about federal water governance is restricted to interstate river water disputes and their resolution. Poor indicators of national water resources governance do not inspire confidence about its long-term security. The chapter posits that this is an outcome of the federal constituents—the states and the union territories—assuming exclusive powers over water governance. They pursue inward and territorialized strategies for water resources management, leading to conditions akin to a collective action problem to pursue national development and long-term security goals. It is long recognized that the Centre has to play an anchoring role and work with states towards pursuing these goals. Does it have the required leverage to influence states? This chapter, perhaps a first, is a modest effort to address this question. It takes a closer look at the historical changes in budgetary allocations of the Centre and selects states for water resources governance towards an empirical assessment of this leverage. The chapter concludes that the federal water governance in India is weakly structured and poorly nurtured to pursue its national development and long-term sustainability goals.

Regional Environmental Change

South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies

Progress in Development Studies

Mirumachi, Naho. 2015: Transboundary Water Politics in the Developing World. Oxon: Routledge. 190... more Mirumachi, Naho. 2015: Transboundary Water Politics in the Developing World. Oxon: Routledge. 190 pp. £85.00 (Hardcover). ISBN: 9780415812955.

Economic and Political Weekly, Feb 21, 2014

Water International, 2013

ABSTRACT

This dissertation explores the evolving challenges of interstate water disputes in India. It exam... more This dissertation explores the evolving challenges of interstate water disputes in India. It examines how the transboundary geographies of these conflicts relate in turn to the politics of dispute emergence, recurrence, and mitigation. Both formal statist spaces of contestation, and informal political spaces of nonstate engagement, are considered in this way. In contrast to a geopolitical enframing of the disputes as 'water wars,' I offer the perspective of an 'anti-geopolitical eye,' providing an embodied view from the ground-up of the relational linkages, practices, and processes mediating the political ecology of transboundary water sharing. The study uses mixed qualitative research methods involving analysis of archival sources and government reports, interviews, and field research to study the politics of interstate water disputes in India. Besides a legal and political genealogy of disputes resolution in India more generally, the study also critically examines the empirical case of the Krishna river water dispute between the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. The analysis is informed by the theoretical traditions of critical geopolitics, political ecology, and postcolonial analysis as they relate to statemaking and democracy in India. Viewed through the lens of transboundary sharing of interstate rivers, this work describes the spatiality of the overarching postcolonial condition of India. This inquiry into the colonial present of contentious politics has led to several conclusions concerning political mobilization and the nexus between the politics of interstate water disputes and democratic politics; the particular nature of the political ecology of the disputes, and transboundary water conflicts generally; and state-making, interstate relations, and democracy in India. These conclusions offer lessons for informing interstate water dispute resolution policies: the need for reviewing the bar on the Supreme Court's jurisdiction over interstate water disputes, and for supplementing legal approaches with appropriate institutions, practices, and governance structures to respond to the enduring challenges of interstate water disputes in a more inclusive and dynamic way. Overall, the analysis of the political ecology of interstate water disputes also offers insights for advancing efforts to theorize transboundary water conflicts. i

Regional Environmental Change, May 2, 2018

The Telugu Ganga project in India supplies the Krishna river waters to meet drinking water needs ... more The Telugu Ganga project in India supplies the Krishna river waters to meet drinking water needs of the Chennai city in the state of Tamil Nadu, a nonriparian state. This has happened through an unusual historic accord between the riparian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The instance is often celebrated as the finest example of interstate river water cooperation in the history of independent India. This paper presents an alternative and a more complete and critical appraisal of interstate cooperation in the Telugu Ganga project focusing on transboundary political interactions to offer the following findings. One, the case of Telugu Ganga project showcases how and why cooperation and conflict coexist in transboundary water sharing. The celebrated interstate cooperation has turned into a source of conflicts eventually and is connected to the current shape and the state of the Krishna river water dispute. Two, it reveals a nexus of water provisioning politics and mainstream party politics in its making, and its subsequent contentious history. This nexus is a challenge to inter-basin transfer across territorial boundaries-an important drought coping mechanism. This challenge defines the character of politics of cooperation and conflict resolution in federal democracies, such as India. Three, India's interstate river water governance suffers from dormant policy space and absence of institutional models for interstate river cooperation. This makes it ill-equipped to address the adverse implications of politics or to channelize for progressive outcomes of cooperation. At a broader policy level, India has to reconsider its excessive reliance on dispute resolution, and shift its focus to enabling cooperation for a better governance of its interstate rivers. Keywords Interstate river water cooperation in India. Krishna river dispute. Telugu Ganga project. Transboundary river water conflicts. Federal river water governance

Routledge eBooks, Mar 21, 2023

ABSTRACT

Progress in Development Studies, Feb 1, 2017

South Asia-journal of South Asian Studies, Jan 2, 2017

Journal of International Development, Dec 18, 2011

… UNIVERSITY, LEICESTERSHIRE LE 11 3 TU …, 1996

Indigenous knowledge of water management. L Ferroukhi, S Chokkakula WEDC, LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY... more Indigenous knowledge of water management. L Ferroukhi, S Chokkakula WEDC, LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY, LEICESTERSHIRE LE 11 3 TU(UK)., 184-187. A typical characteristic of the precipitation pattern in semi-arid ...

This dissertation explores the evolving challenges of interstate water disputes in India. It exam... more This dissertation explores the evolving challenges of interstate water disputes in India. It examines how the transboundary geographies of these conflicts relate in turn to the politics of dispute emergence, recurrence, and mitigation. Both formal statist spaces of contestation, and informal political spaces of nonstate engagement, are considered in this way. In contrast to a geopolitical enframing of the disputes as `water wars,' I offer the perspective of an `anti-geopolitical eye,' providing an embodied view from the ground-up of the relational linkages, practices, and processes mediating the political ecology of transboundary water sharing. The study uses mixed qualitative research methods involving analysis of archival sources and government reports, interviews, and field research to study the politics of interstate water disputes in India. Besides a legal and political genealogy of disputes resolution in India more generally, the study also critically examines the empi...

India’s federal governance for long-term water security has not received its due attention. The d... more India’s federal governance for long-term water security has not received its due attention. The discourse about federal governance is generally dominated by that of fiscal federalism. The limited work about federal water governance is restricted to interstate river water disputes and their resolution. Poor indicators of national water resources governance do not inspire confidence about its long-term security. The chapter posits that this is an outcome of the federal constituents—the states and the union territories—assuming exclusive powers over water governance. They pursue inward and territorialized strategies for water resources management, leading to conditions akin to a collective action problem to pursue national development and long-term security goals. It is long recognized that the Centre has to play an anchoring role and work with states towards pursuing these goals. Does it have the required leverage to influence states? This chapter, perhaps a first, is a modest effort ...

VIDEO: 8:00 a.m. - 8:10 a.m. Welcoming Remarks Speakers: Charles Wilkinson, Moses Lasky Professor... more VIDEO: 8:00 a.m. - 8:10 a.m. Welcoming Remarks Speakers: Charles Wilkinson, Moses Lasky Professor of Law, University of Colorado School of Law Doug Kenney, Getches-Wilkinson Center SESSION ONE: The Challenge of Water Scarcity in Basins Around the World: An Introduction Moderator: Doug Kenney, Getches-Wilkinson Center Cases from North America 8:10 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. British Columbia (Canada): Oliver M. Brandes, University of Victoria 8:30 a.m. - 8:50 a.m. Columbia River Basin (Canada and US): Barbara Cosens, University of Idaho 8:50 a.m. - 9:10 a.m. Colorado River Basin (US and Mexico): Larry MacDonnell, University of Colorado 9:10 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Arizona (US): Amy McCoy, University of Arizona 9:30 a.m. - 9:50 a.m. Rio Grande (US and Mexico): Adrian Oglesby, University of New Mexico Some Other Cases From Around the World 10:20 a.m. - 10:40 a.m. Murray-Darling River Basin (Australia): Tony McLeod, MDBA, Murray-Darling Basin Authority 10:40 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Spain: Teodoro Estrela, Júcar River Basin Authority 11:00 a.m. - 11:20 a.m. São Francisco River Basin (Brazil): Vanessa Empinotti, Federal University of ABC 11:20 a.m. - 11:40 a.m. South Africa: Mike Muller, University of Witwatersrand 11:40 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. India: Srinivas Chokkakula, Centre for Policy Researc

Water International, 2013

ABSTRACT

Part of the Asian Studies Commons, Climate Commons, Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Environm... more Part of the Asian Studies Commons, Climate Commons, Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Environmental Health and Protection Commons, Environmental Policy Commons, Hydrology Commons, Law and Society Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons, Social Policy Commons, Transnational Law Commons, Water Law Commons, and the Water Resource Management Commons

India’s federal governance for long-term water security has not received its due attention. The d... more India’s federal governance for long-term water security has not received its due attention. The discourse about federal governance is generally dominated by that of fiscal federalism. The limited work about federal water governance is restricted to interstate river water disputes and their resolution. Poor indicators of national water resources governance do not inspire confidence about its long-term security. The chapter posits that this is an outcome of the federal constituents—the states and the union territories—assuming exclusive powers over water governance. They pursue inward and territorialized strategies for water resources management, leading to conditions akin to a collective action problem to pursue national development and long-term security goals. It is long recognized that the Centre has to play an anchoring role and work with states towards pursuing these goals. Does it have the required leverage to influence states? This chapter, perhaps a first, is a modest effort to address this question. It takes a closer look at the historical changes in budgetary allocations of the Centre and selects states for water resources governance towards an empirical assessment of this leverage. The chapter concludes that the federal water governance in India is weakly structured and poorly nurtured to pursue its national development and long-term sustainability goals.

Regional Environmental Change

South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies

Progress in Development Studies

Mirumachi, Naho. 2015: Transboundary Water Politics in the Developing World. Oxon: Routledge. 190... more Mirumachi, Naho. 2015: Transboundary Water Politics in the Developing World. Oxon: Routledge. 190 pp. £85.00 (Hardcover). ISBN: 9780415812955.

Economic and Political Weekly, Feb 21, 2014

Water International, 2013

ABSTRACT