ABSTRACT
The processes at work during the period of water policy reform (1991-2005) were
multidimensional and multifaceted. The roots of their complexity reach far back
into India’s history and spread throughout many of the institutions that defi ne
India as a nation. In order to understand these processes fully, we must go back
to ancient times as well as travel through the era of British colonialism; we must
understand how India’s constitutional system shapes the context of water policy
development and implementation. We must also understand the institutions and
actors that shaped urban water policy, the National Water Policy of 1987, and
the external infl uences at work in shaping the National Water Policy of 2002, as
well as their impacts on state policies in general.
