A macrohistorical geography of rural drinking water institutions in India

Abstract

India has a long history of policies that aim to improve rural drinking water services, through various combinations of state support and decentralization that face deeply rooted institutional challenges. These include debates about: the duty of the state to provide rural drinking water supply; tension over the role of central, state, and local governments; and frequent changes in policy and senior public officials that disrupt long-term implementation. Some water governance theorists have described policy-making in this context as a pragmatic process of bricolage, that is, of piecing together practical opportunities for improvement where possible. This paper takes a macrohistorical geographic approach to these institutional problems, with an emphasis on northern India. It shows that ancient sources dating back to the Arthashastra have underscored the role of the state in developing water supplies for the people. Subsequent regimes have advocated various combinations of centralized and local responsibility to fulfill drinking water needs. We show that frequent rotation of senior public officials was actually systematized in the sixteenth century Mughal empire. Changing roles of India’s five levels of center, state, district, block, and village government have a half-millennium-long history, evolving through the dramatically different Mughal, Maratha, colonial, and post-colonial contexts. Devolution policies were frequently changed in the colonial period. Independence in 1947 and a constitutional amendment in 1993 increased emphasis on devolution to Panchayati Raj Institutions at district, block, and village levels, but without resolving the functional and structural relations among them. This macrohistorical geographic perspective on water institutions offers insights into current issues and prospects for drinking water reform in India.