For decades after independence, Indian planning ignored the need for sustainability and equity in water resource development and management. There was just one way forward, that of harnessing the bounty in our rivers and below the ground, and this strategy had almost completely unquestioned acceptance. It was only in the 1990s that serious questions began to be raised on the wisdom of our understanding and approach to rivers. Around the same time, the sustainability of our strategy of groundwater development under the Green Revolution also began to be interrogated.