Water in Hyderabad and the Deccan: A History of Power and Elites from the 11th to 20th Centuries

Water in Hyderabad and the Deccan explores how water has shaped power, society, and the environment in the Deccan over nearly a thousand years. Moving beyond technical views, it adopts a hydrosocial lens to show how water and society co-produced each other. From celebrated reservoirs and sacred springs to monsoons, canals, and everyday bodily experiences, the book reveals how elites used water to assert authority while ordinary people relied on it for survival and meaning. It traces how rivers, rituals, floods, and infrastructure shaped governance, class, and culture while also exposing human fragility. A Postscript links historic water politics to today’s crises of depletion, privatization, and uneven access. Offering a long-term, deeply interconnected history, the book reframes the Deccan’s past through water, challenging conventional narratives and illuminating a region where power has always flowed through its waters. A compelling read, Water in Hyderabad and the Deccan will appeal to scholars working in history, environmental history, South Asian studies, urban studies, sociology, and development research as well as researchers of governance, resource politics, and human-environment interactions.