Contours of India - Nepal Relationship and Trans-Boundary Rivers Water Disputes

India and Nepal share about 1800 square kilometres of porous border, inhabit the majority of their members from the same religious group and have symbiotic interdependent on each other; yet they are engaged into disputes over many issues. It is always alleged by Nepal that India does not consider it as a sovereign country rather as one of its own administrative unit. The basis of this allegation is behaviour of Indian establishment and its epistemic community towards Nepal. The political tensions between the two countries have kept on surfacing at intermittent period and have influenced the water sharing arrangements between the two countries. Nepal alleges that as a powerful country, India exploits Nepal’s natural resources for its own benefit. As a result many of the transboundary river water treaties have not been activated, some have been sternly opposed by the people from the catchment areas, and a few’s future is hanging in the air. To overcome these problems and its dependency on India, many times Nepal has invited other countries to develop its hydropower sector. Amidst all existing differences the two countries share inextricable relationship because of geographical location and shared primordial identity. India and Nepal are linked by history, geography and economy. The two sovereign countries share a lot between them, still they have passed through various phases of tensed bilateral relationship. Even at the time of writing this paper the two countries are in quandary over the provisions related to Madheshis (an ethnic group) inserted in the constitution of Nepal promulgated in September 2015. Differences over the constitutional status of Madheshis have led to protests and blockade on India-Nepal border. Nepal feels that India has no right to interfere in its internal affairs, while India argues that it is pointing out constitutional injustice done to the Madhesis. A substantive number of Madhesis living in India1 are critical about the constitutional provisions for their group and engaged in building 1 As told by a few people from Nepal to whom the author met. Some of them were from Madhesh area but were very critical about the role of Indian government and fellow Madeheshis. The used the words ‘lobbyists’ ‘ traitors’ and phrases like ‘on the pay roll of Indian intelligence agencies’ for those who are supporting the causes of Madhesis from New Delhi and Kathmandu. 2 Journal of International Affairs Vol. 1, No. 1, 2016 public opinion in India over what they feel constitutional injustice. In such sort of relationship, a question emerges: How bilateral relationship between India and Nepal influences their water sharing arrangements/agreements/ treaties? This paper is an attempt to study water sharing issue between India and Nepal by taking into account their bilateral relationship. Besides introduction and conclusion, this paper examines relationship between India and Nepal; discusses the various water sharing agreements the two countries has; and constitutional provisions inserted in the new constitution to safeguard Nepal’s water resources. In this paper primary document compiled by A.S. Bhasin, draft constitution of Nepal, and documents of India-Nepal water sharing agreements have been widely used. India-Nepal Relationship: Unique but not stable India and Nepal has open borders for each other’s citizens, and people from one country is eligible for government’s job in other country; yet the relationship between the two countries have witnessed many phases of bad weathers. Historically, the pre-2008, monarchy under the Shah Kings of Nepal (1768-2008) traces their roots in Sisodia rajputs of Rajasthan. In Nepal, they first established state in area marked as Gorkha under Driya Shah in 1559 (Muni 2015). As a part of their project to turn India into their colony, the British also attacked on Nepal. The Anglo-Nepalese war went on for two years and ended with the imposition of Sugauli Treaty on Nepal in 1816. Under this treaty British got rights to put up their resident in Nepal and use the Gorkhas as soldiers in their Army. The soldiers from Nepal were used by the British to put down the rebellion of 1857. Their role during that made them to categorise as a part of martial race, who were sought after to fight imperial wars for the British crown. The male from the region were on high demand during the both World Wars. The recruitment agents had recruited almost all male members to fight Second World War. In many villages there were not a single male left to look after the agricultural activities, which were then taken up by the women. The term dukha meaning sorrow is being used to describe the position of women and also address those who were recruited to fight the war (Khan 2015; Onta 2014). Still, folklore depicting that situation is popular in Nepal from where soldiers are recruited in the British, Indian and Nepal Army. Later on as successor of British India, the Indian state used their service during the integration of Hyderabad in 1948, and when the situation precipitated