Despite strong and highly progressive constitutional and legislative measures upholding equity, discrimination on the basis of caste, class and gender remains a reality for many of India's 1.4 billion citizens. Major disparities exist in poverty levels, mortality rates, educational attainments and access to resources between urban and rural areas, regions, social groups and between men and women. India today is a country of stark contrasts and striking inequalities. The starting point for this chapter is a reflection on experiences in social inclusion in the context of the Indo-Swiss Participative Watershed Development Project, a development project implemented in three districts in the South Indian state of Karnataka, with which two of the authors were closely affiliated. The chapter analyses the everyday functioning of new institutional spaces, in this case project-supported water management committees, for understanding the evolving dynamics between different individuals, social groups and localities while collaborating and competing in development initiatives. The authors are particularly interested in what happens to such spaces beyond the scope of the project intervention – whether they continue creating opportunities, building confidence and political capabilities for contesting exclusionary social practices and public resource distribution, or whether they are captured by resurgent patronage politics. Through the use of an extended case study method, based on interviews conducted with families in 2004, 2005 and 2010, as well as project data and observations, the authors seek to understand these temporal dynamics.