ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 focuses on the Indian understanding of the Right to Water and describes that in India, the right to water is a post-independence phenomenon. While explaining the evolution, the chapter draws that in government’s documents, including constitutional provisions and legal and planning frameworks, the elements of Right to Water are discussed in narrow senses. The wider interpretations are noted in the initiatives of the Indian judiciary and civil society which mainly include intellectuals, water scholars, and non-governmental organisations. The chapter fundamentally argues that in India, the evolution of the idea is required to be understood in the reference of three undertakings: top-down, i.e. government’s documents; bottom-up, i.e. arguments of civil society, and undertakings that synthesise the two verdicts and statements of the Indian judiciary. The chapter emphasises that in the process of the evolution of the Right to Water, the judiciary has played the role of synthesizer, combining the government’s undertakings and the arguments of civil society.
