\n\n<\/span>Regionalism in India<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\nRegionalism is a pre-independence phenomenon. It became predominant in post-independence period The politics of regionalism started with the implementation of constitutional reform under government of India Acts of 1909, 1919 and 1935. The establishment and role of Justice Party in Madras, and to a lesser extent, of Akali Dal in Punjab in pre-independence period are examples of emerging regionalism in India.<\/span><\/p>\nAfter independence there are four major landmarks in the development of regional politics.<\/span><\/h3>\n\n- After independence democratic form of government was established Its main aim was nation building on the principles of democracy, secularism, national unity and social justice. All parts of the country wanted a fair deal in nation-building. They started competing with each other for their development. Anything short of expectation led to disenchantment and it resulted in the emergence of regional politics.<\/span><\/li>\n
- There was integration of the Princely States. Small states were integrated with the big states. People continued to nurse loyalties to old territorial units. This was the most important factor for the success of Princes in elections. The Princes often received overwhelming support in their former territories in the newly created states and relatively much less in other parts of the same state.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Reorganization of states on linguistic basis also played a very vital role in the development of regional politics. Twenty eight states were reshaped and reduced to 14 states along with centrally administered territories. Later new states were created then for example Bombay was divided into Gujarat and Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana. But these states were not constituted entirely on linguistic basis. Many other factors like ethnic-cum-economic considerations: (Nagaland Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura), (Haryana and Punjab), language-cum-culture, (Maharashtra and Gujarat); historical and political factor, (U.P. and Bihar); integration of princely states in and need for viable groupings (M. P. and Rajasthan); language and social distinctiveness (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Mysore, Bengal and Orissa), have played a decisive role in the composition of the Indian federation.<\/span><\/li>\n
- In spite of all these considerations, language remained the most important factor in the reorganization of states. It became such an important force in the context of regionalism that linguistic regionalism gained ground in Indian politics.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Another factor which gave rise to regional and parochial tendencies in the country was the personal and selfish ends of politicians. Immediately, after independence the struggle for power started among some parties. For enhancing their own authority and prestige, the regional and state leaders did not hesitate to weaken the authority of the centre or in some cases of states. The creation of more states meant more governors, chief ministers, M.L.A.\u2019s etc. The professional politicians explored the narrow and sectarian sentiments of ignorant masses for fulfilling their personal and selfish ends. Keeping these landmarks in mind let us now examine the bases or regional and state politics.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Basis of Regionalism<\/span><\/h3>\nRegionalism is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Its bases are varied Here we well discuss the geographical historical cultural economic and politico-administrative bases of regionalism.<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Geographical Basis:<\/mark><\/strong>\u00a0Usually people relate their regional identity of certain specific geographical boundaries. After independence integration of Princely States resulted in the merger of small states into new big states. The loyalties of citizens were torn between old territorial boundaries and new territorial structures. As pointed our earlier this was the major factor responsible for the success of princes in elections particularly when they contested from their former territories in the newly created states. However, it would be wrong to over estimate the importance of geographical boundaries. It is true that memories of old geographical boundaries of princely states still haunt the people and are exploited by political leaders but it can hardly be denied that they are yielding place to new and bigger territorial identities like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Historical and Social Bases:<\/mark><\/strong>\u00a0Historical and social bases constitute the bedrock of the politics of regionalism. Several components in this category are not only important individually but also in conjunction with each other.<\/span>\n
\n- History supported regionalism with cultural heritage, folklore, myths and symbolism. The most striking example is that of Dravida Kazhagam and the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. But history cannot be considered as the most important basis of regionalism. Economic and political factors have combined with history to generate regionalism. This can again be seen in the change in the stand of DMK from secession to one of autonomy within the federal framework of the Constitution.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Language is perhaps the most important mark of group identification. Language expresses the shared life, thought structure and value patterns of people. It has the capacity to unite the people together and make them work to improve their common destiny. In this sense linguistic homogeneity strengthens a positive movement.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Establishment of State Reorganization Commission in 1955 was the result of demand for formation of regional units based in linguistic regionalism. SRC could not completely follow the principle of one language one state. This could not be treated as the sole criteria for the demarcation of state boundaries. Bilingual states like Bombay, Punjab, etc., were created However, splitting up of Bombay in 1960, Punjab in 1966, and Assam since mid-sixties into linguistically more homogeneous states gave further impetus to linguistic regionalism in Indian politics.<\/span><\/li>\n
- If language had been synonymous with region, the political aspiration of every linguistic group would have been satisfied or the formation of separate states. This, however, is neither a reality nor a foreseeable possibility. The first reason being that Hindi speaking people are distributed over a very large territory. Their number is over 200 million. One state cannot be created for them. They have been divided into six states U.P. Bihar, M.P. Rajasthan, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and a couple of Union territories. There has rarely been a demand for the formation of single state of Hindi-speaking people. On the contrary there have been demands for separate states comprising languages or dialects within this wider linguistic group. This can be found in the occasional demand for a Maithili or for recognition of Rajasthani, Haryanvi, etc., as scheduled languages in the Constitution.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Thus regionalism is closely associated with language but is not synonymous with linguism. Regionalism can take place inside a linguistic state for example creation of Marathi-speaking Maharashtra. The seven states of North East India refer to themselves as seven sisters. They have tided to form common bonds on the basis of their problems of development They have also tried to develop a regional identity. These seven states include Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. In other words language is not the sole generator of regionalism. It is one of the several bases of regionalism in India. In most cases of linguistic regionalism many inter-related factors are usually found to be working together.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Caste: <\/mark><\/strong>An important example of the caste factor providing impetus to linguistic regionalism can be seen in the case of Tamil Nadu. Tamil regionalism gained ground as a result of non-Brahmin movement Non-Brahmin castes of Tamil speaking region had been able to provide a powerful united thrust against Brahmins who had enjoyed unquestioned dominance in economy, society and polity.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Religion:<\/mark><\/strong><\/span>\n
\n- Religion like caste does not play a significant role except when it is combined with dominance and linguistic homogeneity as in Punjab fed on a sense of religious orthodoxy and economic deprivation as in Jammu and Kashmir.<\/span><\/li>\n
- If casteism reinforced and propelled linguistic regionalism in case of Tamil Nadu, the demand for the formation of Punjabi Suba though presented in linguistic garb had religious overtones. They were mainly responsible for evoking people\u2019s political loyalties on massive scale rather than their love for their mother tongue. It is difficult to qualify the mix of communalism and linguism in this particular case. But some studies make it very clear that demand for Punjabi language state was certainly reinforced by regular invocation of Punjab-speaking masses loyalty towards Sikh religion.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Taking into account these three factors i.e. language, caste and religion one can say that the study of regionalism in Punjab and Tamil Nadu makes it very clear that political movements for regional demands were carried out formally in the name of language but in reality they had substantive non-linguistic bases too.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Economic Basis:<\/mark><\/strong> Economic factor is the crux of regional politics. India is a developing country.The resources are limited while the demand for resources for the development of various regions is unlimited or disproportionate to resources. Economic policies have led to regional imbalances and wide economic disparities among various regions resulting in discontentment among them. It may be recalled that most of the demands for constituting new states were primarily based on allegedly unfair and unequal distribution of development benefits and expenditure in multilingual states. Movement for a separate Uttarakhand state in the hill districts of U.P., a Jharkhand state carved out of parts of Bihar, Orissa and a state of Bodo land comprising a part of Assam are examples of this type. The demands for separate states in these instances are mainly on the belief that these regions have been economically deprived by their respective states. Economic factors have usually assumed prime importance in regional politics.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Politico-administrative Basis: <\/mark><\/strong>The politico-administrative basis of regionalism is also important but politics as such does not create regionalism. It only accentuates regionalism. Politicians take advantage of the situation of regional discontentment and unrest. They convert it into movements for strengthening their individual and factional support bases. It is a known fact that fighting within Congress gave rise to Telangana agitation. Shiv Sena was able to flourish in Maharashtra because of the support of Congress bosses. Regional political parties like DMK (Tamil Nadu), Akali Dal (Punjab), and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Jharkhand) are surviving because of regional sentiments. Border disputes like the one between Maharashtra and Karnataka is also based on regional sentiments. Another important fact of politics of regionalism is the real or assumed charges of political discrimination among various regions by the central ruling elite.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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