Inter-state water disputes occur in federal political systems. They stand at the intersection of two branches of law: federalism under constitutional law, and water law – specifically river basin regulation. In India, constitutional federalism is the outcome of colonial history. River-basin regulation is the outcome of developments in capitalism within the social context of Europe and United States, later universalised as international law under the Helsinki Rules and the International Law Commission Convention on Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. When national law evolved in the historical context of colonisation, intersecting with international law evolved in the historical context of European capitalism, it reproduced imperial-colonial relations of super-ordination and sub-ordination in relation to water. It created an internal schism that locks the water sector into a developmental catharsis.