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Event Report

This event is on a detailed discussion on the book titled Indus basin an Uninterrupted history of Territory and politics from Alexander to Nehru. The author of the book Dr. Uttam Kumar Sinha begins with a brief explanation of what the book contains. He speaks of the importance of historically studying the trans-border issues, particularly the Indus basin. He believes that all the rivers around the world carry history and so does the Indus River, around which the Indus valley civilization emerged. He mentioned the increasing politicization of the Indus valley basin. Along with this Dr. Sinha also mentions the Indo-Pakistan conflicts in recent years and the Indus valley treaty negotiations. He highlights the soviet union’s influence, the rise of the f USA, and the fading of British power as the determinators of the Indus valley treaty negotiation. He also adds to the numerous characters that have been involved in his book. Dr. Sinha emphasizes how the Indus civilization despite being 4000 years old has been successful in moulding legal norms, and institutional structures.

The book consists of narrating history and a methodological inquiry framework of storytelling through various characters. The author also stresses the point of how water management and political decisions have been interlinked since historical times and were more prevalent in the Indus civilization than others. Dr. Sinha gives a brief account of the continuity of water resources management and administration engagement through a historical trajectory. He also mentions that military tactics, administrative policies, and diplomatic prowess have been around the river issues in this region. The travellers who visited this region also hold an account of these developments. There is also a detailed discussion of the policies and governance pre- and post-independence in India around the rivers. The book engages in the events starting from the British rule till the independence of India.  He also criticizes the narrow-minded overview of the look at the treaty as a mere negotiation.

The book deals with the fact that rivers have been central to not just civilizations but also the conquest and the politics of territory making. It also explains the historical geographies and the dramatic stories about how various invaders tried to use the river for their conquests. The first section deals with an introductory account of politics being shaped by the ecology of the river. The second section deals with the colonialist territorialization of space. The third part of the book has a detailed account of the decolonized history of politics in terms of India and Pakistan partitioning. There is innate importance given to the Indus water treaty and water management diplomacy in this section. The repeated mention of the role of the civil engineers in the book is an important element. According to Dr. Srinivas that has always been a suppressed history. He also talks about the interstate water conflicts in India and the contributions made by the civil engineers in meeting the issues. The book also depicted Nehru’s personality as an internationalist and a great statesman. Dr. Srinivas comments that politics and technological narratives would have been extremely helpful for future research work.

Dr. Bishnu raj comments on how the foreigners can benefit from this book as they would be driven to a completely different dimension. The military tactics along with the building of the irrigation infrastructure is an exciting addition according to Dr. Bishnu in this book. This book is also a very right foundation for rethinking the new world order through the lens of water cooperation dynamics. Dr. Bishnu also believes that rivers are not only the water they have but the source of the main social-and political dimensions. He thinks that the water conflict and cooperation in the Indus water treaty is also the reservoir of knowledge that has been documented in this book.

In the end, Mr. Sanjay Gupta further gives a detailed critical note on the role of Nehru in the treaty. He discusses the issue of the construction of the farakka barrage. He also states that the treaty is a rigid wordplay. He expresses his concerns on the issue of climate change as well. He gives an overview of the hydrological factors of the Indus basin and suggests how the scholars instead of getting into the contested space of trying to amend the treaty should rather focus on additional agreements on climate change issues. Lastly, he points out that there can be a questionable role being played by a third party except for the two nations and the world bank. The book ends with the inference that how the Indus water treaty neither had an overriding political objective nor did it intend to be an exercise in peace-making but a classical lesson in international mediation.

Prepared by Somali Chowdhuri, Intern at NIICE, Nepal