Regionalism in India

• The origin of regionalism is in India’s diversity of languages, cultures, ethnic groups, communities, and religions.
• For many centuries, India was the land of many regions, cultures, and traditions. The linguistic, tribal, religious, regional or their combinations, have remained the principal form in which regionalism in India has sought to express itself, historically as well as in contemporary times.
• The many empires that came and went in India had united and bifurcated regions over the years. The north and south divide is the prominent so is the east and west divide.
• During colonial times, the divide and rule policy were not only applied on religious lines but also on the sentiments of regionalism. They build and bifurcated the country according to their selfish gains. This territorial reorganization became the seed for a larger regional divide in the country.
• After Independence, the leaders tried to encourage a feeling among the people that they belonged to one single nation. The framers of the constitution wanted to achieve this by introducing single citizenship for all.
• But India is a complex country, and keeping given its vastness and diversity in culture and language, a strong sense of regional loyalty started appearing, and thus regionalism became inevitable.

Types of regionalism

1. Supra-state regionalism is a manifestation of the group identity of numerous states. In this form of regionalism, the group of states unites to make common views on the issue of mutual interest vis-à-vis another group of states or at times against the union.
2. Inter-state regionalism is coterminous with local territories and involves contrasting the identities of one or more states against another. This form of regionalism is issue-specific. For example disagreements between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the distribution of Kaveri water may be interpreted as inter-state regionalism.
3. Intra-state regionalism is a type of regionalism that signify that wherein a part of the state strives for self-identity and self-development and therefore, it is taken in a positive sense.

Instances of regionalism in India

• 1950-60: Intense (ethnic) mass mobilization occurred in south India. The demand for separate statehood for the Telugu-speakers out of the composite Madras Presidency led to the formation of the State Reorganization Act, 1956.
• 1970-80: The tribal uprisings in the North-eastern region for separation and statehood led to the formation of the North-eastern States Reorganisation Act, 1971, which upgraded the Union Territories of Manipur and Tripura, and the Sub-State of Meghalaya to full statehood, and Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh (then Tribal Districts) to Union Territories. The latter became states in 1986.
• The 1990s: Demand for Chhattisgarh out of Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand out of Bihar, and Uttaranchal out of Uttar Pradesh. Regional backwardness was the reason. In 2000 all three states were carved out of their parent state.
• 2014: The division of Andhra Pradesh, giving a separate state of Telangana.
• The reasons for regionalism are somewhat similar to that of communalism, and efforts from the ground level to the administrations level is needed to bring in the sense of unity among diversity in the county.