‘They’re going to close our river’: Manto’s 1950s story about the India-Pakistan water dispute

The Indian Government’s decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty in the wake of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22 brings to light, once again, the vexing issue of countries using water – always a scant natural resource – as a tool of war. However, in the context of India and Pakistan this is not new; during the India-Pakistan war of 1947-’48, the water rights on the river system were the focus of a dispute between the two countries.

The Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto turned it into a short story with Nehru as the mind behind “stopping” the waters to Punjab. In actual fact, it was the provincial government of Punjab on the Indian side that was behind the decision. Nehru was instrumental in the negotiations between the two countries that eventually led to the formalisation of a water treaty.

The Indus Waters Treaty is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, signed on September 19, 1960. The treaty governs the use of the Indus River system’s waters and aims to promote cooperation and the peaceful resolution of disputes. The treaty allocates the waters of the eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej) to India, and the western rivers (Indus,...

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