Aug 11 , 2015
News
US scholar points out inter-provincial rivalries on water
Prof Dr Kamran criticises Radcliffe’s handing over Gurdaspur to India
INP
LAHORE – Focusing on the history of canal system in regions, American scholar and historian Prof Dr David Gilmartin – who is also an expert on South Asia – has highlighted the ways that partition of Indian subcontinent generated new conflicts about water after 1947, not only between Pakistan and India, but between centre and provinces on both sides of the border.
Addressing a seminar at the Pakistan Study Centre of the Punjab University here on Tuesday, Prof Dr Gilmartin of the North Carolina State University said that the BRB Canal on the Pakistan side and the Rajasthan canal on the Indian side embodied nationalist ideologies. But many of the new canals built after 1947 (and after the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960) came to be caught up in intense inter-provincial rivalries, he said.
The visiting professor said that the talk used the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal in India and the Chashma-Jhelum link canal in Pakistan to illustrate these conflicts. He said that the talk demonstrated the importance of historical analysis for understanding the ongoing water conflict in the Indus Basin region.
On the occasion, Punjab University’s Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran highlighted the un-healing wounds of the partition and the role of the British viceroys in that phenomenon. Criticising then British viceroy Sir Cyril Radcliffe’s plan and handing over Gurdaspur to India, he said that the British authorities basically sowed the seeds of unending conflict between the two neighbours in 1947.
He said that the Radcliffe plan provided India access to Jammu Kashmir which ultimately occupied it with its nefarious designs. He praised Prof Dr Gilmartin for a clear talk on the complicated issue. A lively question answer session followed the seminar. Pakistan Study Centre Director Prof Dr. Massarrat Abid, senior faculty members and a large number of students were present on the occasion.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk