The Concept of Smaller States

The after effects of telangana in the rest of india is the growing demand of more smaller states. Taking this as an advantage some people are aggressively promoting the theory that now people of gorkhaland want a separate state from west bengal, Vidarbha from maharashtra, kokrajhar from assam and uttar pradesh into 4 parts. They say that india is getting divided as the essence of national integrity is lost. This feeling is specially prevalent among the people belonging to andhra and rayalaseema regions. I dont want to take potshots at them but merely want to remind everyone on what we learnt from our 6th class history text books.

 

In 1953, India was broadly classified into 4 categories, they are,

1) The former british provinces which had an elected governor and a state legislation.

2) Former princely states or groups of Covenanting states which was administered by princes or a rajpramukh.

3) Another set of former princely states administered by a chief commissioner

4) Union territories

 

The borders of these states, inherited from British India, were not suitable for easy administration. The internal provincial borders of British India were a result of historical events, as well as political, military and strategic planning by the British. The Government agreed that the reorganization of state borders was necessary, but the basis of reorganization was yet to be determined. One of the proposals was to reorganize the state on the basis of languages of India. This would make administration easier, and would help replace the caste and religion-based identities with less controversial linguistic identities.

 

Hence, new states were formed based on the language that people spoke. The SRC has divided India into 14 states in 1956. One point we need to remember is that the population of india was only 40 crore at that time and now it is more than 120 crores. The population of Uttar pradesh which is still the most populated state in india was 6 crore and now it is 17 crore.  

 

Administration has become very difficult due to various factors as this population was growing. As a result, 14 other new states have been formed between 1956 to 2013 for better governance. And most prominent of then are the ones which are making great progress i.e Gujarat, Rajasthan, Goa, orissa etc. For that matter, Bihar has becomes one of teh leaders in administartion only after it was separated from Jharkhand. And I hope Jharkhand will be another Bihar in the next 20 years to come, give it some time. Hence, it is not a crime to divide bigger states into smaller states. The SRC has also reiterated this fact that the smaller the state the easier the governance.

 

This has not go to do anything with national integrity. We are born and always remain as Indians. They have diviedd the country into smaller states in 1956 and into much smaller states until 2013 but our national integrity hasn't diminished but has become much stronger. This division is only in terms of the land but it is not the division of our spirit. I have great friends who belong to andhra region and irrespective of which state they belong to they would remain the same forever. The same is my integrity to my country and I hope it is the same with everyone. So it is bullshit to say that the division of a big state to a smaller state is like dividing the country.

 

PS : There is an empty piece of land. A newly married couple build a house with a single bedroom in it. Later they give birth to two children. As the children grow they divide the hall and make a small bedroom for the kids. these kids grow and beocme adults and another floor is built above the ground floor for the families of the two children. The good thing is that even though there have been new constructions or divisions in the same piece of land , the spirit and bonding remains the same between the family members. The same is the case with my country.