Civilisations whose agriculture was dependent upon large-scale waterworks for irrigation and flood control were described as hydraulic civilisations by German-American historian Karl A Wittfogel. Nile River System, Indus River System, Mesopotamia, Amazon System, and Dujiangyan Irrigation System in China are the classic examples of hydraulic civilisations. Although the writer has talked about hydraulic civilisations' peculiar development of water as lifeline and political power and how it created efficient bureaucracy and urban centres in the ancient times, one thing is certain that these rivers have sustained the life and culture of billions of people over multiple millennia. So, if Mr Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, thinks that the Indus Water System is a post-1947 phenomenon, he is living in a fool's paradise.

Egypt is an apt example of this argument. For over 5,000 years, Egyptian civilisation has been entirely dependent on the Nile's water. When Ethiopia, with the 'Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam' began asserting its developmental rights, Egypt formulated a layered argument. It invoked the famous Herodotus quote "Egypt is the gift of the Nile" to argue that its very identity, agriculture and archaeology are physically embedded in the river.

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) of 1960 is one of the most resilient water-sharing agreements in history, having survived two full-scale wars between India and Pakistan. India is attempting to escape the water allocation of the IWT, which gives Pakistan exclusive rights to the western rivers and India exclusive rights to the eastern rivers. India is also trying to question the very foundation of........

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