ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the government of India’s Watershed Guidelines in order to show how a capitalistic, managerial and scientific rationale is used which presumes that nature has only an economic productive value. As a capitalist enterprise, nature is only useful if it serves the livelihood needs of the populace and the economic rationale of the nation state. All other values (e.g. cultural, religious, aesthetic) are elided in favour of one overarching idea of productivity for the market. This productivity is sought to be harnessed through the twin ideas of proper managerial and scientific principles. The Watershed Users Association is premised on the principle of people being rational maximisers who will put aside their caste, gender, religious and class differences in order to transform the watershed into a productive entrepreneurial community enterprise. On the ground, people of course manage to subvert and resist these processes even as they acquiesce in the larger development plan.
