Indian Water War-Mongering Strategies and Future of Regional Stability in South Asia

Abstract

World politics is revolving around the issue of water resources and conflicts over them. The transboundary flow of water further complicates the relevance of water sources to each conflicting state.
The fresh water resources including ground and surface fresh water have been facing immense
pressure due to the rapid industrialization, scarcity of fresh water resources, urbanization, and
growing population of the world. South Asia is the world’s most populous region having about onefourth of the world’s total population which requires a greater amount of fresh water and thus
prone to conflicts over water resources. The issue of interstate hydro politics is the most important
agenda among states. In the South Asian perspective, the partition plan was the root cause of water
conflicts. India is the most influential and powerful state of the region, constantly dominating other
South Asian neighbouring states i.e. Nepal and Bangladesh, over water whereas it is constantly
dragging Pakistan into water wars. This paper is an attempt to focus on the water conflicts between
South Asian states where India has the central position being the dominant state of the region, the
geopolitical dimension of the water conflicts, threats to regional peace and security, and the
possible role of SAARC in minimizing Indian Water mongering policies.