From Natural Floods to Engineered Inundation:A Policy Analysis of Flooding, Infrastructure Failure, and Agrarian Distress in Haryana

 

-Ramphal Kataria

When Roads Become Dams: Flood Governance, Infrastructure Planning, and Compensation Failure in Haryana

Abstract

` This paper analyses the shifting paradigm of flood disasters in Northern India, with particular reference to Haryana’s transition from episodic riverine flooding to chronic, systemic, and largely manmade inundation. Using the 1995 floods as a historical benchmark, the study examines how Haryana’s bowlshaped topography—especially in Central Haryana—has interacted disastrously with unplanned linear infrastructure such as National Highways, State Highways, and railway embankments, constructed without rigorous hydrological appraisal. The paper critically evaluates the prevailing reliefcentric compensation framework under the Haryana Revenue and Disaster Management Department, highlighting its inadequacy, exclusion of agricultural labourers, and procedural bottlenecks under the Kshatipurti portal. It argues for a paradigm shift towards costofproductionbased compensation, mandatory hydrological audits for all infrastructure projects, integrated drainage planning, and a fundamental reorientation of crop husbandry practices. The paper is intended as a policy submission to statelevel departments and commissions concerned with disaster management, agriculture, planning, and finance.

1. Historical Genesis: From Natural Cycle to Developmental Crisis

Historically, floods in Northern India were seasonal hydrological events governed by Himalayan snowmelt and the SouthWest Monsoon. These floods were integral to agrarian sustainability, recharging aquifers, flushing salts, and depositing fertile alluvium across the IndoGangetic plains. Traditional settlement patterns and agrarian systems evolved in harmony with this natural cycle.

This equilibrium began to erode with largescale canalisation, embankments, railways, and post1990s infrastructure expansion. Floods gradually transformed from regenerative phenomena into destructive disasters due to the constriction of floodplains, obstruction of drainage paths, and intensification of land use.

1.1 The 1995 Floods: A Defining Benchmark

The floods of 1995 constitute the most significant hydrological event in Haryana’s recorded history, affecting almost the entire state. The event exposed two structural vulnerabilities:

External Sourcing: High inflows from the Yamuna, Ghaggar, and Markanda systems.

Internal Drainage Failure: Inability of the Najafgarh Drain system and Drain No. 8 network to evacuate local precipitation and canal spillover.

Subsequent flood events over the last decade are not primarily the result of higher aggregate rainfall but of High Precipitation Events (HPEs) in the Himalayas and Shivaliks, generating sudden runoff surges that Haryana’s obstructed plains are structurally incapable of dispersing.

1.2 Recurring Flood Zones

Recent monsoon events have seen flooding in low-lying districts (Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad) along the Ghaggar, and chronic urban flooding in Gurugram and Rohtak. In Hisar, over 180 villages reported waterlogging due to river breaches and deficient drainage, damaging crops and infrastructure. The Times of India

2. Causative Analysis: Natural and Anthropogenic Drivers

2.1 Natural Hazard Components

Himalayan Instability: Increased frequency of landslides in upper catchments temporarily dams rivers, producing flash floods upon breach.

Minimal Topographical Gradient: Large parts of Haryana exhibit slopes as low as 0.2 metres per kilometre, severely restricting gravitybased drainage.

2.2 Anthropogenic Drivers: The Infrastructure Paradox

The dominant drivers of contemporary flooding in Haryana are anthropogenic.

(a) Highways as Hydraulic Barriers

Major corridors developed in recent decades—including the TransHaryana Expressway (Ambala–Narnaul), KundliManesarPalwal (KMP) Expressway, Panipat–Dabwali Expressway, and multiple elevated National Highway stretches—have been constructed on raised embankments. In many cases, the number, size, and placement of culverts and syphons are grossly inadequate, effectively converting highways into linear dams that arrest lateral water movement.

(b) Railway Embankments

Both legacy and newly upgraded railway lines frequently lack adequate crossdrainage works. Water stagnates on the upstream side for prolonged periods, submerging agricultural fields and accelerating soil salinisation.

(c) Choking of Natural Channels

Statutory drains and traditional watercourses are routinely encroached upon or clogged with silt, plastic waste, and construction debris. The failure to ensure drain clearance before the onset of monsoon—ideally by 30 June each year—precludes gravitybased evacuation of rainfall.

(d) Urban sprawl replacing agricultural/green land, blocking natural watercourses

(e) Agricultural tilth and water-intensive cropping

3. The “Bowl of Haryana”: A Regional Hydrological Crisis

The most critical floodprone region is the Central Haryana Depression, a natural bowl where drainage outlets are limited and groundwater levels are already high.

3.1 Spatial Extent

Core Depression: Safidon (Jind) to Narnaund (Hisar), encompassing Baas tehsil, Julana, Meham, Kalanaur, Beri, and Jhajjar.

Eastern Sink: Mudhal to Charkhi Dadri belt in Bhiwani district.

3.2 Consequences

In these areas, chronic waterlogging has sharply reduced the soil’s effective waterholding and drainage capacity. Continuous saturation has triggered a waterlogging–flood–salinity spiral, rendering thousands of hectares either marginal or completely unproductive.

4. Infrastructure Development Without Scientific Appraisal

4.1 Highways and Expressways

Major road projects such as the Trans-Haryana Expressway (Ambala–Narnaul), Dwarka Expressway (NH-248BB), Sohna Elevated Corridor, and Panipat–Dabwali Expressway have been constructed to improve connectivity and economic activity across the state. Wikipedia+2Wikipedia+2

However, these developments often proceeded without thorough hydrological impact studies. Roads and embankments raised above natural ground interrupt pathways of stormwater runoff. Link roads and highway embankments on Yamunanagar–Panchkula highway, for example, were cited by local farmers as blocking rainwater outflow, exacerbating flooding and inundation in agricultural blocks. The Tribune

4.2 Urban Highway-related Waterlogging

Urban highways like NH-8 in Gurugram regularly flood during moderate monsoon events due to blocked drains and absence of adequate stormwater capacity, turning major roads into temporary lakes and paralysing traffic — a sign that road-first planning has neglected drainage design. The Economic Times

5. Unplanned Urban Development: Gurugram and Rohtak

5.1 Gurugram’s Waterlogging Crisis

Rapid expansion of Gurugram’s real estate has led to massive infill of natural canals and putting up of construction in low-lying catchment areas and former wetlands. Once numerous natural drainage channels were reduced to a handful, dramatically decreasing the city’s absorptive and conveyance capacity, with heavy rain swiftly leading to street floods. India TV News

Encroachments along stormwater drains, such as around the Bajghera underpass on the Dwarka Expressway, exacerbate water stagnation by blocking stormwater inlets, leading to chronic flooding during rains. The Times of India

5.2 Rohtak Urban System Failure

Rohtak suffers similar issues of clogged drains and dysfunctional stormwater networks, with chronic waterlogging reported annually in Meham and other low-lying areas due to inadequate drainage maintenance and planning failures. The Times of India

These urban examples highlight systemic neglect of hydrological integration in urban planning, where residential and commercial development took precedence over natural drainage preservation.

6. Urban Flood Mechanisms: Scientific Insights

Urban floods operate differently from rural, riverine floods. Surface impermeability, obstruction of natural channels, and insufficient drainage capacity convert even moderate rainfall into urban inundation. Scientific research shows that urban flood impacts extend beyond water height to transport network disruption, long travel times, and economic losses, especially in cities with uncoordinated infrastructure planning. arXiv

7. Current Management and Compensation Frameworks in Haryana

7.1 Disaster Response vs. Preventive Planning

Haryana’s flood mitigation remains reactive, emphasizing embankments, ad hoc drain cleaning, and emergency relief without comprehensive basin analysis or predictive modelling.

7.2 Compensation Under Revenue + Disaster Management Rules

The existing compensation regime provides nominal relief based on fixed category norms, unrelated to actual cost of production and investment. Agricultural labourers are systematically excluded despite livelihood losses. Mechanisms like Kshatipurti portal allow self-assessment but are procedural burdens with multiple administrative inspections often reducing assessed scales.

8. Critique of Compensation Policy and the Kshatipurti Portal

8.1 Revenue Department Norms

Compensation under Haryana Revenue and Disaster Management Department instructions is categorised as exgratia relief, not as restitution.

Inadequacy: Current caps (often around ₹15,000 per acre) fail to cover even basic input costs.

Structural Exclusion: Agricultural labourers receive no compensation for loss of employment or mandays, despite complete dependence on farm activity.

8.2 Kshatipurti Portal: Procedural Bottlenecks

While the portal introduces transparency in principle, in practice it is:

Sluggish, due to multilayered verification (Patwari → Kanungo → Tehsildar → SDM → DC).

Subjective, with systematic downward revision of loss percentages, pushing affected farmers outside eligibility thresholds.

9. Proposed Scientific Framework for Reform

9.1 CostofProductionBased Compensation

Compensation should be indexed to the Actual Cost of Production (Cₚ):

Cₚ = S + T + I + L + Int

Where:

S = Seed / nursery cost

T = Tillage and field preparation

I = Inputs (fertiliser, insecticides, micronutrients)

L = Labour costs

Int = Interest on working capital and crop loans

9.2 Integrated Water and Infrastructure Management

Mandatory Hydrological Audits for all highways, railways, and urban expansion projects.

Retrofitting of Existing Infrastructure (e.g., NH9, NH44) with additional culverts designed for 100year flood return periods.

Subsurface Drainage (SSD) and vertical recharge wells in bowlshaped regions to lower water tables.

9.3 Crop Husbandry Transformation

Gradual exit from paddywheat monoculture in waterlogged zones.

Promotion of floodtolerant rice varieties, fodder crops, aquaculture, and alternative livelihoods through a Diversification Subsidy Regime.

9.4 Institutional & Planning Reform

Hydrological Impact Assessment for all major infrastructure (highways, expressways, urban projects) before approval.

Drainage Master Plans integrated with GIS and flood modelling.

9.5 Engineering and Drainage Redesign

Redesign of stormwater systems based on climate projections and topography.

Convert disrupted old water channels into stormwater corridors.

9.6 Urban Planning Reform

Preservation and restoration of natural water bodies and historic drainage features.

Mandatory surface runoff plans and retention basins for all new residential and commercial projects.

9.7 Agricultural Policy Integration

Crop zoning based on flood and waterlogging risk.

Incentivisation for flood-tolerant and less water-intensive cropping.

9.8 Compensation Overhaul

Move to production-cost based compensation, including seeds, inputs, labour, interest on capital.

Include agricultural labourers in compensation structures.

Use remote sensing and GIS data for damage assessment to reduce subjectivity.

10. Conclusions and Actionable Recommendations

1. Compensation Reform: Link Kshatipurti selfassessment directly with satellite and GIS validation, reducing discretionary field verification.

2. Infrastructure Accountability: Make hydrological clearance legally binding for all linear infrastructure.

3. Labour Protection: Establish a State Disaster Labour Fund for direct income support to landless labourers during flood periods.

4. Drainage Governance: Constitute a statutory State Drainage Board with enforcement powers and penal provisions for nonclearance.

Without these structural reforms, floods in Haryana will continue to reproduce agrarian distress, fiscal stress, and social instability year after year. Without integrating hydrology, urban planning, infrastructure and agriculture into a unified climate-resilient policy, floods will remain a recurring burden—disproportionately impacting farmers, labourers, and urban populations. This submission advocates a preventive, science-grounded, and human-centric policy package to transform flood governance in Haryana.

References

1. Central Water Commission (2022). Northern India Flood Hydrology Report.

2. Haryana State Gazetteer. Topographical and Drainage Profile of Haryana.

3. Journal of Hydrology (2023). Impact of Linear Infrastructure on Surface Runoff in SemiArid Plains.

4. ICAR–CSSRI. Waterlogging and Salinity Studies in Central Haryana.

5. Haryana Revenue and Disaster Management Department (2021). Notification No. 12/2021RDM on SDRF Norms.

6. Official gazette instructions on compensation (Haryana Revenue & Disaster Management Department) (subject to specific citation if available)

7. Times of India; flooding in Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad (2025) news report. The Times of India

8. Times of India; Bajghera underpass waterlogging on Dwarka Expressway. The Times of India

9. Economic Times; Gurugram flood urban failures. The Economic Times

10. India TV/other reports on Gurugram drainage failures. India TV News

11. Wiki on Trans-Haryana Expressway, Dhaka Panipat, Dwarka Expressway, Sohna Elevated Corridor (infrastructure references). Wikipedia+3Wikipedia+3Wikipedia+3

12. Academic research on urban flood dynamics and flood severity modelling. arXiv+1

 

 

 

Endogamy, Hindutva and the Return of Social Death:Why Ambedkar’s Caste Theory Explains Contemporary India

-Ramphal Kataria

How Hindutva Normalised What the Constitution Forbade

Abstract

This article revisits B.R. Ambedkar’s seminal 1916 essay Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development to examine the persistence of caste in contemporary India. Ambedkar’s central proposition—that caste is reproduced through endogamy as a form of social closure—offers a more robust explanation than theories based on occupation, ritual or culture. The article situates Ambedkar’s early anthropological insights in relation to his later political writings, particularly Annihilation of Caste, and analyses how caste has adapted rather than declined under conditions of economic growth and constitutional democracy. It further examines the rise of Hindutva and the ideological invocation of Sanatan Dharma as processes that culturally legitimise caste while denying its material and social consequences. Using region-specific evidence from Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, the article demonstrates that caste violence, social ostracism and gendered control remain structural features of Indian society. The paper argues that without confronting endogamy itself, caste will continue to reproduce inequality, rendering political democracy socially hollow.

 

More than a century ago, B. R. Ambedkar offered what remains the most rigorous explanation of caste in his seminal paper Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development (1916). Rejecting racial, occupational, and ritual explanations, Ambedkar identified caste as a system of social closure, sustained through a single, decisive mechanism: endogamy.

His proposition was uncompromising:

“The superposition of endogamy on exogamy means the creation of caste.”

In contemporary India—marked by economic growth, constitutional democracy, and the political ascendancy of Hindutva—this insight is not obsolete. It is urgently relevant. Caste has not withered under modernity; it has reorganised itself, gained ideological confidence, and acquired political protection.

 

Caste as a Closed Door from the Inside

Ambedkar argued that Indian society was once culturally homogeneous but matrimonially exogamous. Caste emerged when certain groups, beginning with the Brahmins, closed themselves reproductively, fragmenting a unified social field into hereditary, self-reproducing units.

This made caste fundamentally different from class systems elsewhere. Caste:

Regulates reproduction, not merely labour

Makes social mobility illegitimate

Converts birth into destiny

Ambedkar therefore described caste as an “enclosed class”—a formulation that explains why economic advancement does not dissolve caste stigma. The door of caste is not locked from outside; it is kept shut from within.

Brahmanical Closure and the Logic of Imitation

Ambedkar’s most unsettling claim was historical responsibility. Caste did not arise accidentally. The Brahmins, seeking to preserve ritual supremacy, first imposed strict endogamy. Other groups—Kshatriyas and Vaishyas—followed, recognising endogamy as a status-preserving social technology.

Caste then spread not merely through coercion but through imitation. Excluded groups internalised caste logic and reproduced it among themselves, leading to extreme fragmentation among Dalits and Shudras. This explains why the most oppressed sections remain divided into thousands of sub-castes.

Ambedkar warned early that imitation without power only entrenches hierarchy. The tragedy of caste is that it is sustained not only by the oppressor, but also by the structural compulsion imposed on the oppressed.

Gender: The Central Enforcement Mechanism

Caste cannot survive without controlling women.

Ambedkar was among the first thinkers to show that practices such as Sati, enforced widowhood, and child marriage were not religious accidents but functional institutions designed to maintain endogamy by managing surplus men and women within caste groups.

While these practices are legally abolished, their underlying logic persists:

Honour killings for inter-caste marriage

Khap-sanctioned violence

Dowry deaths and domestic abuse

Sexual violence against Dalit women as caste punishment

Women remain the primary casualties of caste preservation. Control over marriage and sexuality continues to be central to maintaining caste boundaries.

Hindutva and the Political Rehabilitation of Caste

The rise of Hindutva has not dismantled caste; it has relegitimised it culturally while denying it politically.

The invocation of Sanatan Dharma is not ideologically neutral. Historically, “Sanatan” signifies:

Eternal hierarchy

Varna-based social order

Birth-determined duties

Hindutva’s project of Hindu unity rests on cultural homogenisation without social equality. Ambedkar explicitly warned against this. Unity without annihilation of caste, he argued, would only consolidate Brahmanical power.

The symbolic appropriation of Ambedkar—statues, commemorations, slogans—coexists with the rejection of his core demand: the destruction of endogamy and Brahmanism as social systems.

Atrocities as Structure: Regional Realities

Caste violence is not episodic; it is structural, and its regional manifestations confirm Ambedkar’s theory.

Haryana

In Haryana, where Dalits constitute around 20% of the population, land ownership among them remains negligible. Villages remain spatially segregated, and khap panchayats openly police marriage norms.
Cases such as Mirchpur (2010) and Bhagana (2014) revealed how Dalits asserting dignity or women resisting sexual violence faced collective punishment, including forced displacement.

During the Jat reservation agitation (2016), Dalit localities were among the first targets of violence—despite having no stake in the movement—illustrating how dominant-caste conflicts routinely descend upon the most vulnerable.

Maharashtra

Maharashtra presents an Ambedkarite paradox. Despite high Dalit political consciousness, caste violence persists. The Bhima Koregaon violence (2018) exposed how Dalit assertion of historical memory provoked organised backlash.
The Maratha reservation movement framed Dalits as undeserving beneficiaries, confirming Ambedkar’s warning that caste grievance among dominant groups is often redirected downward.

Gujarat

Gujarat’s celebrated development model has not dismantled caste hierarchies. Dalits remain disproportionately concentrated in sanitation and informal labour, while manual scavenging persists despite legal prohibition.
The Patidar agitation followed a familiar trajectory: economic grievance transformed into caste mobilisation, with Dalits portrayed as beneficiaries at others’ expense.

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh records among the highest numbers of reported atrocities against Dalits annually. Political mobilisation has altered electoral equations, but village-level social power remains intact. Endogamy is rigid, social boycotts common, and violence frequently follows Dalit assertion.

Punjab

Punjab, often imagined as casteless due to religious egalitarianism, has one of the highest proportions of Scheduled Castes (over 30%). Yet Dalits remain largely landless, socially segregated, and excluded from leadership. Separate gurdwaras and cremation grounds persist, reflecting what Ambedkar described as graded inequality without spectacle.

Caste as Social Death

Beyond physical violence, caste operates through systematic social ostracism—denial of interaction, exclusion from community life, and economic boycott. Contemporary psychology terms this social death. Ambedkar grasped this long before it was theorised.

Dalits and Adivasis experience:

Chronic exclusion

Loss of dignity and belonging

Psychological withdrawal and alienation

Caste thus functions not merely as economic deprivation, but as existential negation.

Economic Growth Without Social Mobility

India’s economic liberalisation has not dismantled caste. It has reconfigured it.

Despite constitutional safeguards:

SCs and STs remain underrepresented in higher bureaucracy, judiciary, academia, and corporate leadership.

Land ownership among Dalits remains negligible.

Access to quality education remains structurally unequal.

What has emerged is upper-caste economic egalitarianism, not social equality.

Reservation Politics and Scapegoating

Agitations for reservation by dominant castes—Jats, Patels, Marathas—reveal a consistent pattern: Dalits become scapegoats. Violence against Dalit communities frequently accompanies these movements, even though Dalits receive only population-proportionate representation, largely confined to lower-level employment.

Ambedkar warned that political democracy without social democracy is a contradiction.

Why the State Will Not Annihilate Caste

Caste persists because it serves power:

Political parties depend on caste blocs

Institutions remain socially exclusive

Religious orthodoxy is protected

Radical reform threatens elite interests

The rhetoric of “36 biradari” does not signal unity; it preserves managed hierarchy.

Conclusion: Ambedkar’s Uncomfortable Truth

Ambedkar’s theory of caste as endogamous social closure remains the most powerful lens through which to understand contemporary India.

Under Hindutva, caste has not weakened. It has:

Gained cultural confidence

Acquired political protection

Been reframed as civilisational continuity

Until endogamy itself is confronted, caste will persist—in families, marriages, villages, institutions, and the state.

Ambedkar gave India a diagnosis.
India chose symbolism over surgery.

References

1. Ambedkar, B. R. Castes in India (1916/1917)

2. Ambedkar, B. R. Annihilation of Caste (1936)

3. Ambedkar, B. R. States and Minorities (1947)

4. Jaffrelot, C. Religion, Caste and Politics in India

5. Shah et al. Untouchability in Rural India

6. Thorat & Newman. Blocked by Caste

7. Teltumbde, Anand. Republic of Caste

8. NCRB, Crime in India (various years)