Post Partition River and Language Concerns | Part 2 of 2

Here's Part 1 of 2.

And there were other compromises. Punjab was given minimal autonomy, and the Indian government took control of important power and irrigation projects in the region. “Punjab” means “The Land of the Five Waters,” in honor of its five rivers—Jhelum, Beas, Sutlej, Chenab, and Ravi—that traverse the region’s golden, rolling farmlands. The five rivers are the heart and soul of the agricultural industries in both India and Pakistan and like the land, the waters were also divided by 1947’s Partition. Three rivers flow through India’s Punjab, while the other two are in Pakistan.

The Indus Water Treaty of 1960, negotiated with the help of the World Bank, gave control of the three eastern rivers (the Beas, Ravi, Sutlej) to India and the three western rivers (the Indus, Chenab, Jhelum) to Pakistan. After the restructure of Punjab in 1966, India rerouted a staggering 76 percent of water from the Beas, Sutlej, and Ravi Rivers to provide drinking water and irrigation to Haryana and Rajasthan, reducing the rivers’ flow through Punjab to only 24 percent—much to the outrage of the Sikh community. To many Punjabis, especially the farming community who depend heavily on these waters for irrigation, this allocation seemed unjust and unnecessary.