Archives: Journal Articles

The 2024 Lok Sabha election marked an important moment revealing significant undercurrents shaping the contours of Indian politics. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remained the single largest party, its underwhelming performance against the expectations in the run-up to polls surprised political observers. Naturally, much of the analysis thus far has been to understand the factors that shaped the verdict. This special issue interrogates what the 2024 election tells us beyond the outcome: the shifting salience of social identities; the role of digital media in voter mobilisation and message control; the growing partisan polarisation in Indian politics; intensifying anxieties about the legitimacy of several key institutions; and the concerns over the evolving character of Indian democracy. By shifting the analytical lens from electoral outcomes to broader political dynamics, we suggest that the 2024 Lok Sabha election may be remembered less for who won and more for what it signalled about India’s future.

The European experience of river basin management (RBM) is often considered a template for many
emerging nations. Europe demonstrated the successful implementation of river restoration programmes
for some of its most complex and important trans boundary river basins, such as the Rhine and Danube.
Recent developments suggest that India too is inspired by the European river basin management model
and aspires for a paradigm shift in its approach to river management—by recalibrating its existing plans,
policies, and programmes to be responsive to the integrated needs of its river system.

The flagship Namami Gange Programme (NGP) under the Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) is one such
instance. However, few acknowledge the significant divergence that exists between the two regions in
terms of political economy, sectoral orientations, and the historical context of the institutions that are
engaged in water management.

The authors employ some key observations that emerged from research on the relevance and fit of the European experience of river basin management in India to highlight some key policy, institutional, and political processes that were pivotal to the European model, and locate them within India’s federal water
governance framework. The article argues that an examination of the structural differences in hydroclimatic conditions, socio-political context, institutional attributes, and water policy processes
between the two regions will be critical to identifying the key lessons from Europe that could strengthen
India’s river rejuvenation journey.

Piped water systems have become an increasing focus of global and national development goals. India is providing piped-to-premise water supplies to more than two million rural inhabitants every week. But rural piped water systems often operate intermittently and may not always provide water that is available when needed. This paper presents insights from a qualitative study that draws on 30 interviews and 11 focus group discussions investigating the extent to which piped-to-premise interventions have improved access to water supply in 6 rural hamlets in eastern Gujarat, India. Households with access to piped water revealed that the rigidity of the intermittent piped water schedules limited water availability, necessitating their use of additional water sources. Households that relied on handpumps or private wells described greater agency in how and when they collect water. Throughout the year, but particularly in monsoon season, participants reported that grid-powered and solar-powered piped water systems underperformed due to electricity blackouts (lasting as long as seven days) and cloudy weather, respectively. To mitigate the drawbacks of intermittently operated piped water systems, and to decrease the necessity for potentially harmful coping strategies, this study suggests that piped water system designs should enable operational flexibility, tailored to community needs, so that water is available when needed. To increase the resilience and reliability of rural piped systems, we recommend that systems design incorporate more storage and rely on robust and resilient energy sources.

The exuberance among the Congress party’s supporters has much to do with the baseline expectation, which had plummeted after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s thumping victory in December 2023 assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan. Despite an increase in seat count and vote share, the party continues to face significant structural challenges such as a very narrow social base. A detailed analysis of constituency-level data indicates that the party continues to lag behind in a head-to-head contest against the BJP, and its improved performance is largely in states where the party was a junior partner in the alliance.

The exodus of millions of domestic migrants from Indian cities during COVID-19 highlighted the failure of urban governance to address their vulnerabilities and reconfirmed that migrant integration is an intractable policy problem, where actors take oppositional and irresolvable positions. Drawing on frame analysis, which outlines agenda-setting aspects of complex policy issues, this paper explores the ideas, perceptions and beliefs of diverse governance actors – politicians, bureaucrats and civil society members – and questions whether the COVID-19 migrant crisis generated new directions in the urban governance of migration. Results show that the COVID-19 crisis generated framing contests around the role of cities in migrant inclusion that shaped new governance agendas regarding improving urban services and welfare delivery. However, owing to a persistent belief in rural sedentarism, COVID-19 failed to act as a tipping point for definitive policy towards improved urban governance of migration. The findings suggest that deeper analysis of policy frames can enrich literature on the governance of domestic migration and encourage theoretical convergences between domestic and international migration.

While the governance of global migration is a growing conversation in policy and academia, internal migration has remained under-researched and under-represented as an area of focus. The increased policy attention on internal migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity for examining the governance of internal migration. Drawing on a review of literature and two consequent rounds of an ex ante policy indexing tool—the Interstate Migrant Policy Index (IMPEX) 2019 and IMPEX 2021—this article focuses on policies formulated by Indian state governments that are prominent recipients of internal migrants in the pre- and post-pandemic period. We find that while the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the vulnerability of low-income internal migrants in India, it only partially translated into long-term policy measures. This article demonstrates that the complexity of migration policymaking governance in federal democracies like India is an important aspect of global migration governance. It argues that such a focus will enable a number of developing economies to refine labour and social protection policies toward sustainable economics and human development. The article motivates a research and policy agenda that can especially help developing countries improve labour mobility patterns for economic development as well as ensure fuller coverage of social welfare measures in response to climate migration.

Rather than the long-term rural–urban migration to metropolitan centres, India’s structural transformation process is characterised by complexified migrations and dispersed urbanisation. This article develops concepts of cities positioned in multiscalar power to propose a place-based, mobilities-sensitive approach and relational approach to urban theory that place smaller Indian cities within a broader narrative on migrant incorporation beyond the restrictive dichotomies of global and ordinary cities and domestic and international migration. Through two case studies, it shows how, despite low scalar positions on account of weak governance and informalised economies, smaller cities shape varied employment opportunities and generate spatially and temporally varied mobilities for domestic migrants. However, incorporation remains contingent on patronage-based social networks, creating differentiated experiences for those from different social locations; still more inclusive incorporation pathways are possible through expanding welcoming infrastructure and social fields for young migrants.

India boasts of a vast freshwater resource network (rivers, wetlands, and groundwater), which has unique ecological, social and economic values associated with it. Despite their importance for both people and biodiversity, its freshwater ecosystems (FWEs) are heavily impacted through multiple factors such as pollution, overexploitation, habitat loss/modification and climate change. India is also among the hotspots of water resource overuse that has caused a serious decline in freshwater availability.

Given that healthy FWEs lie at the centre for supporting the country’s ecology, health, economy, livelihoods and ultimately achieving multiple policy goals, it is crucial that holistic and focused efforts are made to protect, conserve, and restore all types of FWEs.

This paper calls for an urgent and a greater focus on implementing conservation actions for FWEs in India and suggest the following strategy to enhance focus on their conservation: (1) establishing a shared freshwater conservation vision at a national scale, (2) developing and including national freshwater conservation goals within global efforts, (3) conducting simultaneous conservation action planning at regional scales and (4) bridge planning to implementation gap by strengthening key enabling conditions: i) mainstream FWE conservation within key existing governance instruments, ii) secure sustainable conservation funding, iii) improve data access and knowledge translation; iv) create national awareness around importance of FWEs; v) facilitate collaboration among key actors.

The COVID-19 migrant crisis was a watershed moment for internal migration, driving home the importance of inclusionary frameworks and action. Despite the lack of an omnibus migration policy, several disparate policy initiatives have emerged at multiple levels of government, across various sectors and involving multiple stakeholder types. This article traces and analyses internal migration policy in India over time, particularly how the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped responses. In doing so, it builds on the idea of ‘mainstreaming’, a reflexive approach to policymaking that Peter Scholten proposed to address such complex policy areas as migration. The article argues that a nascent framework for migration governance is evolving in India and offers suggestions on how mainstreaming can help streamline research and policy design for enhanced migrant inclusion.