Every summer, until a few years ago, tempers would rise in the municipal corporation of Belagavi (formerly Belgaum), a city in northwest Karnataka. Armies of women fortified with kodas (water vessels) would barge into the mayor’s office, demanding water. They led morcha after morcha for water. Officials from the corporation, wherever they went, would be encircled by people demanding water.
Such heated protests have been petering out over the past 10 years. The city has revived a great many of its traditional wells, tanks and lakes, and there is water. . .