This book is a collection of chapters that examine critical issues and debates surrounding the governance and management of water resources in India. Recent decades have seen several paradigmatic shifts in the management and governance of water resources in the country. Focus has shifted from predominantly technical and hydrological issues to emphasise the social, economic and managerial. New paradigms such as Integrated Water Resource Management have come to infl uence how water is viewed as a resource with several dimensions, even as concerns are voiced over the relevance of this paradigm and its operationalization in Indian – and South Asian – contexts. Gender mainstreaming has acquired new emphases, though the gap between rhetoric and practice has tended to persist. The debates on issues of water rights, equity and justice have acquired new dimensions; the imperatives to address these issues seem to have become stronger. Increasingly, water scholars have sought to explore the relationships between the technological, hydrological and social dimensions of water management.