Sacred waters, broken systems: community experiences of traditional water body renovations in Braj, India

Abstract Traditional Knowledge Systems and community participation have historically sustained water management practices across the Indian subcontinent for centuries. Communities developed sophisticated methods rooted in cultural practices while addressing practical requirements. However, colonial interventions and post-independence policies have systematically marginalised local knowledge and community participation in water management decisions. Replacing them with centralised technocratic approaches that prioritise technical efficiency over cultural continuity. In the Braj region of India, Traditional Water Bodies (Kunds) serve as both cultural anchors and ecological resources, embodying practical knowledge and spiritual meaning within sacred geography. Today, many of these Kunds are facing degradation due to pollution, encroachment, and state-led renovation interventions. That often destroys their essential socio-ecological qualities. This research investigates how communities remember and value traditional water management systems, navigate tensions between religious significance and physical degradation of transformed water bodies, and reveal unintended consequences of development interventions in culturally significant water systems. This study involves field observation, semi-structured interviews, and thematic analysis across the Braj region. This research documents the lived experiences of communities whose traditional water management systems have been altered by state-led development interventions. Findings reveal a fundamental contradiction between official narratives celebrating renovation success and communities' experiences of environmental and cultural degradation. The water that once embodied purity and reverence has become brackish and undrinkable due to deep boring accessing saline aquifers, yet communities continue performing ritual practices requiring direct water contact. Community memories preserve sophisticated ecological knowledge about natural water purification and adaptive management, but contemporary interventions prioritise standardised technical solutions while systematically excluding local knowledge from decision-making processes. This research contributes to understanding how high modernist development projects encounter and transform complex local systems, revealing gaps between development aspirations and everyday experiences of environmental change.