As the Indus Waters Treaty collapses under the weight of arbitral boycotts and upstream infrastructure competition, South Asia’s river basins are fast becoming the region’s defining geopolitical flashpoint. For over six decades, the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 stood as a singular, almost miraculous anomaly in the turbulent geopolitical landscape of South Asia. Brokered by the World Bank after nine years of painstaking diplomacy, the treaty successfully withstood three major w

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day assertion last year that "Haq ka pani" will serve Indian farmers marks a decisive shift in India's approach to the Indus Waters. Far from being a departure, it is a long-overdue correction of historical restraint that has disproportionately disadvantaged India while enabling persistent misuse downstream. It signals that India will no longer allow its rightful share of water to go underutilised and wasted while its own farmers fa