Context
In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress has projected its leader Mamata Banerjee as the daughter of Bengal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the contrary, is overriding such localism and emphasising the equality of all Indians, thereby projecting a pan-Indian nationalism.
Why in news?
In the ongoing Vidhan Sabha elections in four states and one Union Territory, there is a debate about an insider and an outsider to a state. In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress has projected its leader Mamata Banerjeex as the daughter of Bengal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the contrary, is overriding such localism and emphasising the equality of all Indians, thereby projecting a pan-Indian nationalism.
Analysis
- This larger framework of constitutional citizenship is inadequate in explaining the contradictions and inherent localism and dualism of our nationhood which was noted even by Rabindranath Tagore.
- With the establishment of the three universities in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta in 1858, a new chapter in these contradictions got manifested.
- The University of Calcutta with its twin advantages — first, being in Calcutta which was also the capital of British India and second, its jurisdiction extending up to Visakhapatnam, Kabul and Rangoon — enabled its graduates to secure a disproportionate share of governmental jobs throughout India.
- As a result, the Bengali bhadraloks spread all over India because of their fluency in English. But this created serious tension between them and the local elite leading to considerable anti-Bengali feeling, which at times became violent, in Orissa, Assam and Bihar.
- In Assam, where migration was a significant feature in the state’s demography, a piquant situation was created with the emergence of two cultures, the Assamese-dominated Brahmaputra valley and the Bengali-dominated Barak valley.
- The Bongal Kheda movement became acute and has become a dominant facet of electoral politics in independent India.
- In Mumbai and Maharashtra politics, the rise of the Shiv Sena was a direct attack on outsiders — first on the Tamilians and then on Malayalis and others.
- The tussle for Belgaum between Karnataka and Maharashtra is well known. The subcultural hostility to outsiders assumed a different form in Tamil Nadu with the self-respect movement.
- Periyar contemplated separation and propagated a separate Dravidastan which was only modified by Annadurai, after the Indo-China War of 1962.
Historical Analysis
- Historically, the failure of the Indian Association led by a liberal Surendranath Bannerjee in 1876 was mainly because it was unable to earn confidence nationally.
- The reason for this was over centralisation with its central office in Calcutta. The founders of the Indian National Congress (1885) were well aware of this contradiction as well as the suspicion that each regional group harboured against the others.
- Hence, they deliberately chose to keep it a loose organisation with no central office, no constitution and with the stipulation that no divisive issue in the name of region, caste, language and religion would be entertained.
- But, in spite of such caution, the Aligarh Movement led by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, distanced itself from the Congress. His suspicion of the Congress was because of the existence of a permanent majority and a permanent minority.
- This was perceived to be a structural flaw. With the beginning of electoral politics, representation became a crucial issue.
- The Muslim elite realised that the electoral battle was unequal. It could not envisage a power sharing arrangement.