Social designs: tank irrigation technology and agrarian transformation in Karnataka, South India

319 Pages·2010·19.41 MB·English

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2003-05-26
Social Designs:
Tank Irrigation Technology and
Agrarian Transformation in
Karnataka, South India
Esha Shah
Propositions
1. The world inscribed in the object (artefact) is the world
described by it.
(Akrich 1992)
2. It is easier for dominant sections of farmers to accomplish
water distribution in their favour through the design of the
tank irrigation technology than by drafting a rule or crafting an
institution, (this thesis)
3. It is largely accepted among national and international policy
makers that the Indian state agencies failed to appropriately
manage and maintain many thousands of irrigation tanks. They
affirm that only communities have managed and maintained
irrigation tanks despite the fact that the state has claimed
proprietary rights. The policy makers have thus resolved to
attempt the development of a community-based approach to
tank management in order to return tanks to communities
because tanks have always remained with communities.
Communities are considered better managers of tank irrigation
resources not because they are better managers, but because
history hasn't yet taught us how to manage them otherwise,
(this thesis)
4. Modernity requires nothing more than a philosophical rupture
with the past and thus it is unending, forever opens onto the
unknown. (Amin, Samir. 2000. Economic globalism and
political universalism: conflicting issues? Journal of World Systems
Research 3 (fall/winter): 581-622)
5. One needs reason to counter the fallibility of reason.
6. In The Republic — a Platonic Dialogue — Socrates conversed to
ultimately argue that justice exists out there and needs to be
uncovered through reason. During one of the conversations,
Thrasymachus — a Sophist — became impatient and countered
Socrates, " I declare that justice is nothing else than that which is
advantageous to the stronger." (Stoneman, Richard, eds. 1992.
Plato: The Republic. London: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd. p - 14.) In
today's world, Thrasymachus would have called "good
governance" the advantage of the stronger.
7. The virtual reality of the World Wide Web produced two
connotations of the key word "tanks". It presented information
on "tanks" — one of the many remarkable achievements of science
and technology that can efficiently and economically kill. The
other "tanks" are sites where ideas are accumulated and are called
"think tanks". The future of humanity demands that wars are
fought only with ideas on the sites of "think tanks"; that
"irrigation tanks" for agricultural production are promoted; and,
that "tanks" for mass destruction are completely eliminated.
Propositions attached to the thesis
Social Designs:
Tank Irrigation Technology and Agrarian Transformation in Karnataka, South India
Esha Shah
Wageningen University, 12 June 2003
Social Designs:
Tank Irrigation Technology and Agrarian
Transformation in Karnataka, South India
Esha Shah
CENTRALE LANDBOUWCATALOGUS
Promotoren:
Prof.Dr. F. von Benda-Beckmann, Professor of Agrarian Law.
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany
Prof. L.F. Vincent, Professor of Irrigation and Water Engineering,
Wageningen University
Co-promotor.
Dr. Peter P. Mollinga, Associate Professor, Irrigation and Water
Engineering Group, Wageningen University
Samenstelling promotiecommissie:
Prof. Dr. Paul Richards, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
Prof. Dr. Nirmal Sengupta, Madras Institute of Development Studies,
India
Dr. David Mosse, School of Oriental and African Studies, U.K.
Dr. Frank van Steenbergen, Arcadis-Euroconsult, The Netherlands
Social Designs:
Tank Irrigation Technology and Agrarian
Transformation in Karnataka, South India
Esha Shah
Proefschrift
ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor
op gezag van de rector magnificus
van Wageningen Universiteit,
prof.dr.ir. L. Speelman
in het openbaar te verdedigen
op maandag 12 juni 2003
des namiddags te 14:00 uur in de Aula
Social Designs: Tank Irrigation Technology and Agrarian
Transformation in Karnataka, South India. Wageningen University.
Promotor: Prof.dr. F. von Benda-Beckmann and
Prof. L.F. Vincent, co-promotor: Dr. P.P. Mollinga. - Wageningen:
Esha Shah, 2003. - p. 297 + xiv
ISBN: 90-5808-827-8
Copyright © 2003, by Esha Shah, Bangalore, India
This thesis will also be published by Orient Longman, Hyderabad,
India in the Wageningen University Water Resources Series with
ISBN 81-250-2509-X
Contents
List of Tables W
List of Figures vti
Glossary & Abbreviations ix
Preface xiii
1. Social Designs 1
2. Paddy Cultivation and Tank Designs
ContmtaiesandDisoontinmties 32
3. Tank Irrigation Policy
New Agrarianismand the State 62
4. Paddy Cultivation and Tank Designs
Diverse Trajectories 95
5. "Are all Farmers Equal?"
A Tank IrrigttirgPaddy and Semi-dry Crops in the
Mixed Region 160
6. "Either all or None?"
A TanklrrigaUngTransplantedPaddyin
192
7. "Tail-Eenders First"
A Tank IrngatingPaddy and Garden Crops in the
WetRegion 212
8. "Tale of Two Paradoxes"
A Tank IrrigatingDry Crops in the Dry Region 232
9. Summary and Discussion 258
276
Tables
3.1 Planwise provision of investment for surface
water minor irrigation schemes in Karnataka 77
4.1 Districtwise distribution of tanks and potential
irrigation created in Karnataka as in April 1992 107
4.2 Agro-climatic and historical background of
selected districts 110
4.3. Diversity of tank designs and cropping
pattern in Karnataka 112-115
5.1. Landholding pattern in the localized atchakat
of the tank 171
6.1. Landholding pattern and rotation rules for
paddy cultivation in the atchakat 207
7.1. Number of landholders in the tail end,
middle and head reach of the tank 221
8.1. Number of landholders using different
sources of water 251
ii
Fibres
1.1. The technical principle of tanks (not to scale) 2
2.1. Map showing south India as south of
Krishna-Godavari watershed 36
2.2. A tank and its long embankment 38
2.3. Leveling of paddy fields 46
2.4. Shutter or gated type of sluice 48
2.5. An engineering line diagram of plug and pole
type of sluice (not to scale) 53
4.1. Geographical regions of Karnataka 97
4.2. Spatial distribution of tank irrigation in Karnataka:
NIA by tanks to total NLA in state 102
4.3. Spatial distribution of tanks by average
size of atchakat 103
4.4a Spatial distribution of tanks: Bijapur taluk
of Bijapur district 104
4.4b. Spatial distribution of tanks: Hospet taluk
of Bellaiy district 104
4.4c. Spatial distribution of tanks: Chintamani taluk
of Kolar district 105
4.4d. Spatial distribution of tanks: Shimoga taluk of
Shimoga district 106
4.5. A sketch of Saulanga tank atchakat (not to scale) 117
4.6. A sketch of Chinnikatte Taverekere
atchakat (not to scale) 118
4.7. A sketch of Kumsidoddakere atchakat (not to scale) 120
4.8. A sketch of Sorturuhosakere atchakat (not to scale) 121
4.9. A sketch of Kurgepalli atchakat (not to scale) 140
4.10. A sketch of Venketeshsagara atchakat (not to scale) 140
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