A history of water, water, water....

Received from an anonymous source...

Here is an interesting link to the tussle of almost 150 years over the Cauvery waters between what started out as Mysore and Madras presidencies and now Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Thanks to the last few rulers in the south and Tipu Sultan, the "Tamil" portions receded into the arid parts and Kerala and Karnataka received the more fertile parts, the only exception being the areas in the Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu borders.

The last 40 years have been especially fun, since Kannadigas have become more aware of their identity and started asserting it. The relatively obscure Mysore presidency became Karnataka and the political mismanagement of Tamil Nadu allowed it to ascend from a developmental standpoint by default. The presidencies themselves were not linguistically divided, hence the relative lack of malice among the various South Indian ethnicities. Tamil Nadu's economic demise is owned in part to it's own "kick them out" movement related to the educated upper class, many of whom are now settled in Karnataka and speak poor Tamil and bear the brunt of being Tamilians there.

The Hogenakkal dam is an absolute waste of money and would not be needed if all of South India were a single state. The maximum amount Karnataka seems to have released during drought times seems to be 19 TMC against a supreme court directive of 205 TMC. Even those were accompanied by torching Tamil Nadu related items or violence against ethnic Tamilians. Ofcourse the Hokkenegal dam is not needed if Karnataka releases the required amounts of water. But that is not going to happen as the water is diverted at very high costs to other parts of Karnataka and there are no votes to be gained by letting the water run its natural course. If the water ran it's natural course, Tamil Nadu will definitely get more that what Karnataka finds in its heart to release. But that is water under the bridge now. Dam it!

A dam in Tamil Nadu...a hissy fit in Karnataka...

The Cauvery river flows into Tamil Nadu and then back into Karnataka and then back again into Tamil Nadu in the stretch below.


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Karnataka's point seems to be that somehow the lines of the Cauvery river are the borders of Karnataka, especially at the points along the river here where they will end up with more land as a result. These lines have been drawn since independence, so the argument is absurd. Plus they would have to give back Belgaum to Maharashtra with such an argument. So the Kannadiga "nationalist parties" are definitely trying to have their cake and eat it too. They have gotten used to Tamil Nadu water sufferings and feel infuriated that Tamil Nadu can do something to solve the problem without "the annual begging" that goes on during droughts.

Plus they keep attacking Tamil movie theaters at any available opportunity, prompting a token hunger strike by the Tamil film stars. Upcoming elections in Karnataka compound the issue; Tamil bashing is one of the best ways to get votes in Karnataka for nationalist Kannadiga parties.