Regionalism is an issue that the India has faced even before the time of independence and will have to keep on facing. The latest issue to bring up the issue of regionalism is the Hogenakal drinking project, just some kilometers away from Bangalore, over whitch the two affected parties parties, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka came to literal blows. The dispute emerged from the log standing dispute over the sharing of the Kaveri River.
This issue is among a long list of issues that have started to highlight the sharp divide among regional states of India where the overall national interest has been reduced to a secondary status.
Indian regionalism has come in three varieties, regionalism, parochialism, and secessionism.
The emergence for the need to forge out a regional identity based on language, religion, culture or region has been given rise to the tendencies of regionalism. Some of the cases where the Federal Structure of the Indian Constitution has been threatened by the regional aspiration including Kashmir also has worldly connotation. Also the demand for a separate homeland of Telengana in Andhra Pradesh has already threatened to turn messy.
Recently, many regional aspirations has resulted the creation of three new states in the form of Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, and no one is betting against that number increasing in the near future. For many years, there have also been calls for regional separation in the quest to chart their own course emanating from the North East states, part of the Seven Sister States, but the government hasn’t relented to their demands, yet.
The creation of states based on language did not, however, lead to the extinction of regional sentiments. This now expressed itself in the shape of asking for a better deal from the Centre. The pioneers here were the Tamils, who argued that the Central government was a captive of north Indian (and specifically Hindi-speaking) interests. The protests were loud, and successful; in 1967, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam became the first regional party to win power through the ballot-box. They were later emulated by the Akali Dal in Punjab, the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh, and the Asom Gana Parishad in Assam, all of whom won state elections by successfully claiming that they stood for the rights of their regions against the hegemonic domination of the Centre. These parties proclaimed themselves regional by their very names, but it is also possible to view the West Bengal unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) - at least during the period when it was led by Jyoti Basu and its finances taken care of by Ashok Mitra - as a regional party claiming to stand for the interests of Bengal and Bengalis against the Machiavellian designs of New Delhi.
Thus, regionalism in India has come in three varieties - regionalism properly so called, parochialism, and secessionism. The odd, and possibly unique, thing about the Ulfa is that it has simultaneously partaken of all varieties of regionalism. That is why the common people of Assam have never turned completely against the militants, for the sentiment of being left out, of being discriminated against, is pervasive among them too. They may not agree with the Ulfa's wish to forge a separate nation, or approve of its killings of migrant labourers, but they yet feel that their state has been treated with contempt and condescension by the rest of India. So too with Nagaland and Kashmir, the two other states where regionalism has been both violent as well as intractable, refusing to arrive at a compact with the Union of India.
If the politics of India continues to be played out on regional, regional or even a cultural plank, the regional aspirations of many will continue to be encouraged, and more and more demand of separation fired either by a Xenophobic belief or otherwise will continue to be threaten the secular and Federal fabric of our constitution.
Source:
indiatogether
4 comments:
Hey the writing was very well research and thoughtful...It is really very in depth writing. All the best!!!
hi i read ur views
mine are...
Isn’t it strange that ‘Regionalism’ has suddenly started gaining more prominence lately?
Don’t you feel that regional parties have become more powerful in holding the UNION at ransom?
Why is this happening so often?
Answer: I believe that it is human nature to follow what others do (if they are successful in achieving what they want).
My reasoning:
The congress didn’t take any action against the MNS till the elections were over, why?
Because the MNS was nullifying the Sena and so the Congress was at profit without doing something outrageous.
As soon as the elections are over, Congress wakes up and acts (suspension of the MNS MLA’s from the legislature) portraying that they are against any violence. Where was the Congress when there was far bigger violence happening on the streets of Mumbai (thrashing of the poor and the helpless)? Where was the ‘action’ then? So an example was set that one could get away by talking Regionalism.
The issue of Telangana has a long history of over 40 years. But why has the regional party TRS become so aggressive in pursuing it lately even though it was formed in 2001?
please read the full blog on The Indian Sky!!
do post ur comments!!
Well said Ajit. I agree with your thoughts completely and I wish for more like-minded people to come together and stop this eyewash. We should take the onus of preventing this farcical misuse of democracy that threatens the integrity of our nation.
Keep writing dude.
Your views on regionalism are very patriotic but at the same time I would like to point out that your assessment of the situation has not been new in any way. You sound like the mainstream media when you talk of Kashmir and North East ignoring the history of the political conditions of Kashmir's accession to Indian Union. India would have been better of without Kashmir and the North East and it was the stubborn iron fist approach of Vallab Bhai Patel that forged an artificial union rather than a natural union based on mutual interest and today India is paying the price. A country is not simply a union of geographic divisions but rather a union of people having a common history and a common vision for a united future. Nationalism cannot be forced into the hearts of people rather it should eminate from there. If all that I have said has hurt your patriotic feelings then I apologize but please look at the issue differently for once.
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