Our region is notorious for its washing mania whose malignant roots are buried deep in ancient times. The mania points to an evidence of water in abundance which has been its sine qua non. Someone cannot indulge in washing unless they have something to wash with; the water. But water alone cannot cause mania or explain it because there are places in the world where there is a lot of water but no washing mania. Another factor could be weather which in summer is quite hot that makes the bath taking necessary once or twice a day for hygienic living. Both the factors mentioned can be necessary but not sufficient condition for the phenomenon to exist. Anthropologists and historians add another factor which is socio-cultural in its nature and played a crucial role in causing this longstanding obsession with washing. And it’s none other than the emergence of caste system in the aftermath of collusion/interaction between urbanised Dravidians of Indus Valley and incoming Aryan nomads from the North or North Westway back in time. The victor, in this case Aryans, defined new rules of social life which mandated segregation of people on the basis of colour of skin [Varn]. The new social code strictly insisted on the avoidance of physical contact between the victor and the vanquished [Dravidians]. But they had to co-exist and co-existence at times involved working together. And working together at times necessitated physical contact at workplaces between the fair-skinned and the dark-skinned irrespective of however undesirable it was regarded by the custodians of caste hierarchy. The best antidote to so-called contaminating touch was found in washing by Brahmin priests whose religious duty was enforcing ritual cleanliness in mixed population.Washing mania still lingers in the subcontinent in myriad forms because the caste biases are not dead as yet. Apart from its dehumanising effect it posed no existential threat to the very existence of human beings as long as we had plenty of water in our countless rivers, big and small.

But with the passage of time, climate changes and exponential population growth have created a situation where water, the vital source of life on our planet, is no longer as plentiful as it used to be once. Some of the rivers celebrated in the books have gone dry. The rest of the rivers carry dwindling body of water due to evaporating glaciers from which they originate while we see all vapid water management schemes flounder in the face of our increased water needs. The situation is further exacerbated by the people’s wasteful habits which are carry-over from the ancient past. An extremely sick notion of pollution ingrained in our collective psyche is mainly responsible for unimaginably great wastage of water. A cursory glance at our public and private life provides ample proof of how carelessly we spend what is most precious on things inconsequential and trivial. A natural resource carelessly used is a resource squandered. So we use water under the influence of a false notion which supposes that its supply is supposedly unlimited. How can supply of water, for that matter of anything, be infinite on a finite planet? Gone are the days when our earth seemed to be immeasurably vast.

On the one hand we face water scarcity and on the other we are not trained to use water frugally. Literally nothing is in place in the manner of planning to conserve this life-sustaining resource gifted to us by nature with which we haven’t learnt yet to live in harmony. We love to “conquer” or “exploit” as if co-existing with it is a sign of weakness. Visit any city of the Punjab. You will be horrified to see how water literally goes down the drain. Substandard municipal standpipes leak around the clock and look as if they are downpipes in monsoon. Water constantly gushes out of poorly fixed spigots in the streets. Inside the houses hardly anybody is pushed about the faucets that continue to drip day in day out. Excessive use of water for dish washing and laundering is common sight. Most of the houses of upper and middle classes at least partly are washed daily. Almost every auto vehicle is made to have a shower daily as if it’s a living being. All the roads in our cities close to auto showrooms are slushy and potholed due to unnecessary car washing. Some examples have been quoted just to demonstrate how we waste what needs to be used, to borrow a phrase from the immortal Che Guevara, “with artistic care” and conserved. In short our habits of wasting water have long and complex roots; they are deeply connected with ancient obsessions of contamination and pathology of cleaning rituals. Add to it the notion of infinite planet with unlimited resources and our sheer carelessness born of ignorance and arrogance. Another factor is that of geography. India being an upper riparian country controls the flow of some of the rivers vital to our existence such as the Jhelum and Chenab which needs to be sorted out in the interest of peace and stability of the region. As far as rivers are concerned, Pakistan and India are joined at the hip.