India’s map gets redrawn — is it just the start?

A country can’t escape its history, and so much of India’s history comes together in the just-announced creation of the new state of Telangana.

The decision of the national government led by the battered Congress Party to carve out a new state represents preparations for the general election due by mid-2014.

In the 2009 polls, Congress won 33 of the 42 seats in the big southern state of Andhra Pradesh, out of which Telangana is to be carved; the party desperately needs to hold most of those seats to stay in government. Congress leaders have done their arithmetic and calculated that there is more to gain than to lose in acceding to the demands of a section of Andhraites.

But while the creation of Telangana might be a desperate gamble by the Congress to improve its electoral fortunes, it has the potential of redrawing India’s map and significantly affecting the country’s federal structure.

NEGLECTED, IMPOVERISHED

The new state will occupy much of the territory of what was once the “princely state” of Hyderabad, the largest of the 550-plus princely states under British rule.

In 1956, most of the Hyderabad state was rolled into the new Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, a home for people who speak the Telugu language. Today’s Andhra Pradesh has a population of more than 85 million.

Neglect and deprivation of the Telangana area is the stated reason for the demand for a separate state, a demand that has risen and fallen since 1969. Advocates contend that the region has been impoverished and ignored by the richer, more populous coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh. The jewel in the crown of Telangana, the city of Hyderabad, has, they say, been developed with little thought for the poverty of its surroundings.

The creation of the new state has roused high emotion. Young people have committed suicide to demonstrate the intensity of their commitment to Telangana (a tragic gesture that draws inspiration from the 1952 death of a hunger striker which triggered the creation of Andhra Pradesh and the appointment of the States Reorganisation Commission which redrew state boundaries).

It needs to be emphasised, however, that the advocates of Telangana are demanding a state of their own within the Indian Union. Such a demand underlines the flexibility of the Indian federation and a growing belief that smaller states serve people better.

INDIA’S OVERSIZED STATES

The average population of an Indian state is more than 40 million people. The biggest, Uttar Pradesh, checks in at 200 million. In contrast, other federations have many fewer people in each of their units. An average American state has about six million people; a province of Canada, about four million. Using those examples as guides, India could do with 200 states.

Since independence, India has created new state units more than half a dozen times. The most recent major restructure was in 2000 when three smaller states, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, were carved out of larger units. Since then, most of the affected units seem to be better off.

Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, which lost Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh respectively, have been able to present themselves as developmental high achievers (from low bases); Uttarakhand, a hill state, has also shown notable advances in people’s well-being.

The evidence from Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand is more difficult to interpret. With large “tribal” or “indigenous” populations, both states are rich in resources but poor in social development. They have also become host to strong Maoist movements. Their governments are sometimes portrayed as being insidiously close to private interests keen to exploit natural resources.

THE FUTURE IS SINGAPORE

The creation of Telangana is likely to have a cascading effect. The agitation for a Gorkhaland carved out of the hill areas of West Bengal, home to the famous tea estates of Darjeeling, has gained fresh momentum. Several other statehood demands are itching to rear their heads. These include creating a Bodoland out of the north-eastern state of Assam and carving up the gigantic Uttar Pradesh into four parts.

There are some who believe that from the existing 28 states and seven Union Territories (smaller units governed under the central government), India should have at least 50 states. There is a legitimate demand too for a second States Reorganisation Commission to look into statehood demands comprehensively, rather than the government dealing with them individually.

The creation of Telangana also throws up questions about the future of urban India. Until 20 years ago, Indian governments made efforts to keep people in the countryside. But there has been growing awareness that the drift to cities is unstoppable, and cities have to be governed in ways to enable them to grow humanely and hygienically. The future is Singapore, not the kibbutz.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Robin Jeffrey and Ronojoy Sen are with the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore.