Governments and the masses have very rarely worked together successfully in modern India. In Madhya Pradesh, chief minister Digvijay Singh has managed to do that. The state government's watershed management programme in the district of Jhabua has married environmental regeneration with economic well-being. It has been successful because power was given directly to the people by the government. This clecentralisation was one important factor in the Congress's surprising victory in the elections to the Legislative Assembly in November.An analysis of the beginning and the success of this pohenomenon