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A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details RULE(S) OVER REGULATION: THE MAKING OF WATER REFORMS AND REGULATORY CULTURES IN MAHARASHTRA, INDIA Shilpi Srivastava Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Sussex October 2014 UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX SHILPI SRIVASTAVA PhD DEVELOPMENT STUDIES RULE(S) OVER REGULATION: THE MAKING OF WATER REFORMS AND REGULATORY CULTURES IN MAHARASHTRA, INDIA SUMMARY This research focuses on how water sector reforms are unfolding in the state of Maharashtra, India. In 2005, Maharashtra launched an ambitious reform programme with support from the World Bank to establish an independent water regulator and make water user associations mandatory for water delivery in the state. The establishment of the regulator, the first of its kind in the Indian water sector, invited much attention from policy makers and civil society organisations after which several Indian states followed Maharashtra’s footsteps. Celebrated for its ‘independent’ and ‘apolitical’ virtues, this model of regulation was designed to provide answers to inefficiency and political opportunism in the water sector. What gained immense traction in the regulatory discourse was the concept of entitlements and the possibility of introducing water markets for ‘efficient’ pricing and distribution of water. To date, however, this reform project has faced reversals, limitations and subversions which have been described as ‘evolution’ by pro-reformers and ‘failures’ by the resisting groups. This thesis shows how a seemingly ‘apolitical' initiative aimed to dilute the authority of the State in the water sector is subverted to shape and reinforce its control. Though the idea of independent water regulator is increasingly getting mainstreamed into water policy discourses in India, divergent framings and rationales have made regulation a deeply contested political process. In Maharashtra, the turf war between politicians, the water resources department and the water regulator coupled with cases of corporate water grab lie at the heart of rule-making for regulation. This has made the authority of the water regulator and the meaning of regulation ambiguous and blurred. This ambiguity in turn shapes the distribution of water entitlements. In the sugarcane belt of Western Maharashtra where farmers access water from different sources, entitlements are shaped by persistent inequities in water distribution. They take on different meanings as they are subsumed into struggles over water control between the irrigation officials and the farmers on one hand, and amongst different groups of the farmers on the other. This struggle over meanings and practices across the reform process constitutes what I call “regulatory cultures” in this thesis. Using anthropological methods to study policy processes, this work shows how water regulation is discursively shaped and becomes a deeply political practice embedded in networks of power. These networks are formed at the intersection of donors, different layers of irrigation bureaucracy, water user associations and prosperous sugarcane farmers. I argue that the architecture of the Indian State, embedded in these very networks, is central to understanding the politics and practice of water regulation in Maharashtra. For my parents and teachers i Acknowledgements Doing this PhD has been an extremely challenging yet adventurous journey. Flashback to 2010, and here I was in the UK, venturing out of my home country for the first time. And today, I look back and appreciate those countless intellectual and personal debts that I have accumulated over these years. A daunting task indeed and I regret any omissions. To begin with, I would like to thank my supervisors, Jeremy Allouche and Lyla Mehta for their unstinting support during the course of this PhD. Their support has extended much beyond the necessary intellectual inputs, from which I have benefitted immensely. They have been my personal and intellectual mentors throughout this process. In particular, I want to thank them for their warmth, care and support through the several phases of illness that I encountered during this PhD. For this, I will always be in their debt. I also want to thank my first academic mentor, Navroz K. Dubash, for encouraging me to “spread my wings and soar into the skies”. The ideas for this PhD germinated in one of his classes and he encouraged me to pursue it confidently. I gratefully acknowledge the financial help received from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (UK), which made it possible to pursue my PhD in the UK. I am also grateful to Angela Dowman at IDS for her meticulous administrative support. The staff at the BLDS Library ensured timely access of books and journals. Thanks to Karen Butcher who received countless book loan requests from me and made sure that I got them in time. The field study undertaken as part of this PhD would have been an impossible task had it not been for the generous time, help and hospitality of so many people. My knowledge about Maharashtra, before this field work, was quite akin to a tourist visiting the cities of Mumbai and Pune. Clearly, this time the task at hand was quite different. I wish to thank Prof. Philippe Cullet who was extremely instrumental in opening the doors of the policy bureaucracy in Maharashtra. Many thanks to all the government officers who took time out from their busy schedules and work commitments for our discussions during fieldwork. Since most of my respondents wish to remain anonymous, I cannot name them in person. However, I do want to gratefully acknowledge the help received from Mr. Suresh V. Sodal, Dr. Sanjay Belsare, Mr. D.R. Joshi and Mr.M.I Shaikh for ensuring my access to several respondents and places, which otherwise would have been out of bounds. Mr. Sekhar Arunachalam passed away when I returned to the UK after completing the fieldwork. He always wanted to see the final thesis. To him, I am grateful for providing me the first lessons on water policy and regulation in Maharashtra. I would also like to thank the senior officials and staff at the MWRRA office in Mumbai for their help and hospitality. It is here that I received useful advice and help in accessing government documents. ii In Jahot( where the local level fieldwork was done), I would like to thank the staff at the division office, for their help and hospitality. From cooking less spicy food to ensuring my safety at the guest house, these people truly went out of their way to ensure my well-being. For this, I will always be grateful. It was always refreshing to meet friends in the evening after the long hours of field study. Thanks to Rani for introducing me to the chilli effect in the Marathi cuisine and to Ram for our interesting evening discussions on the politics in Maharashtra. I extend my sincere gratitude to all those residents of Jahot, whom I met during the course of fieldwork. They welcomed me into their houses, fields and lives with warmth and affection. I hope that I have provided a fair representation to their worlds in this study. For research guidance during fieldwork, I thank: Joy and Seema Kulkarni from SOPPECOM; Prof. Subodh Wagle, Sachin Warghade and Mandar Sathe from Prayas; Bharat Kaware from the Samaj Parivartan Kendra (Nasik); and Prof. Pradeep Purandhare (Aurangabad). They liberally provided their time, gave valuable leads, and shared their research material, which have been extremely useful for this study. I also thank the staff members of the MWRRA library (Mumbai), Dhananjayrao Gadgil Library (GIPE, Pune) for allowing me to access their collection. Ravi Pomane, Sikandar Attar and Sachin Bhopal provided research assistance during fieldwork and for transcription of interviews. I thank them for their help. This research has benefitted from the intellectual and generous support of several academics. Priya Sangameswaran, Philippe Cullet and Bronwen Morgan provided useful comments on my research proposal. Their insights kept me academically grounded whilst I prepared for fieldwork. Priya graciously shared manuscripts of her forthcoming (and now published) work on water reforms in Maharashtra. I really appreciate her kindness. A preliminary analysis of this work was also presented at IDS in a work-in-progress seminar (July 2013). Ian Scoones, Alan Nicol, Deepta Chopra, Jim Sumberg, Adrian Ely, Melissa Leach and Synne Movik provided valuable feedback which helped me sharpen my analysis as I prepared for the final phase of writing up the thesis. I thank them all. My friends across two continents have provided the necessary emotional and intellectual scaffolding to keep me going. I was fortunate to be welcomed into a budding community of PhD researchers, working on water related issues, in my first year of PhD. I thank Phemo Kgomotso, Maria Teresa Armijos, Katharina Welle and Tim Karpouzoglou for their friendships and for easing me into the life of a PhD student at IDS. Though they all completed their PhDs before I returned from fieldwork, they have continued to provide valuable insights and wealth of advice during the writing up of this thesis. I have missed having them around. Thanks to Ricardo Santos, Ana Solorzano, Juan Loera, Machiko Tsubura, Tamahi Kato, Jennifer Pollex, Titiksha Shukla, Wenching Ting, Pin Hsien, Cemre Erciyes, Roxana Mihaila, Eric Kasper and Inka Barnett for their support and love.