Name: Sandeep Kaur
Country: India

Year: 2025
Volume: Volume-16, Issue-1 (January-June)
Page Number: 73-80
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20701749

ABSTRACT
One of the biggest threats to India's federal structure, governance systems, and political stability is the country's inter-state water issues. State competition over river water sharing has escalated as a result of growing demands on finite freshwater supplies brought on by urbanization, population increase, agricultural expansion and climate change. Once primarily seen as a natural resource, water is now seen as a strategic political problem that affects center-state relations, regional identities, and electoral politics. Significant disputes like those involving the Cauvery, Krishna, Ravi-Beas and Mahanadi rivers show how water conflicts go beyond the distribution of resources to become tools of regional assertion and political mobilization.
This study looks at how interstate water disputes affect federalism, public policy and political decision-making in India. The study examines the legal and constitutional framework that governs water conflicts, including the Inter-Sta