Exploring factors behind new states

August 18, 2014 11:55 pm | Updated August 23, 2014 11:46 am IST

Remapping India: NewStates and their PoliticalOrigins: Louise Tillin; OxfordUniversity Press India Pvt. Ltd.,YMCA Library Building, 1 JaiSingh Road, New Delhi-110001.Rs. 850.

Remapping India: NewStates and their PoliticalOrigins: Louise Tillin; OxfordUniversity Press India Pvt. Ltd.,YMCA Library Building, 1 JaiSingh Road, New Delhi-110001.Rs. 850.

What is the key reason for the creation of a new state? How many states does India need? The book offers great deal of substantive insights into these questions. What remains elusive is the definitive answers in this research which is why the study of state politics is a daunting challenge. The book thus does not give the magic number nor the single line causal argument that could be universally valid. What is impressive is that the author recognises this challenge, and also stretches her mind to the extreme horizon to reason this out.

This research began as an ambitious doctoral dissertation laying down the intellectual foundation for the book. After several years of further research, the author has been able to formulate arguments about some of the most formidable puzzles of Indian politics. No doubt, this is indeed a major intervention in the study of state politics, and we need many more. That would help build a good genre of writing on Indian politics that is seemingly somehow stuck in the publications of plethora of edited volumes of selected writings and readers of all kinds.

Case studies

Reading this book in the wake of the violent Telangana movement, and the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh is indeed a refreshing experience. It reminds us how drastically the political world has changed in which movements for separate statehood have taken place. The author suggests that borders of states mediate between competing versions of social, political and economic power in the context of the Indian federal structure. Using the case studies of three new states — Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand, she seeks to explain the unique nature of her argument against the other competing arguments. There are four specific academic and popular arguments: first is about the politics of cultural identity and regional deprivation as part of separate statehood movements; the second is the changed federal context in the coalition era since 1989; third is the political economy of India’s unique capitalism; and finally there is administrative logic of size for appropriate governance.

The author rejects each of these arguments systematically. In doing so, she recognises that these separate statehood movements are indeed very dynamic in nature; though their objectives remain identical, and the politics within and around changes rapidly making it hard to generalise an argument. Thus the variability for each case is nothing but natural. After the 2014 election, one would begin to doubt the coalition nature of Indian politics, though scientific evidence of its irreversibility is yet to emerge. But the signs of the changed political context is already there.

The major strength is the critical narrative that the author has developed in each chapter. Chapter two examines various approaches of the Indian governments to state reorganisation. Chapters three and four explain the emergence of the idea of statehood in the regions of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, and in the process offers interesting insights into their respective political history. Chapter five discusses how the separate movements gathered momentum in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, and what are the particular reasons for this. Chapter six moves further seeking to explain the political circumstances of the federal governments when these states were created. More specifically, it also attempts to answer why other demands for separate states such as Telangana and Vidarbha could not find a place in the priority list of the NDA government.

The concluding chapter that seeks to understand the impact of these decisions and argues that these new states are still contested spaces. The author is completely justified in saying that the intervening period from its creation to the closure of her study is not long enough to make any claim about the impact of statehood on development.

Louise Tillin has employed all possible sources, thus justifying the time she took to produce this book. She has interviewed dozens of people of all kinds, consulted government, and media reports to write her narrative. At the end, she tells us that the “act of state creation was the contingent result of multiple processes within India’s federal system.” Are these multiple processes random in nature? Or is there a pattern to it? Students of Indian state politics need to answer these questions.

Do political elites formulate the strategy for a new state out of fear, because asking for a new independent nation instead of a separate state is dangerous given the response of the state to secessionist movements. The Indian state has a harrowing record when it comes to unleashing coercion against such secessionistic voices.

Historically, Odisha together with Sindh was the first linguistic state to be created, mainly around the issues of culture and identity. Barrister Madhu Sudhan Das, who spearheaded the separate Odisha movement was a Christian, and ironically Odisha became the land of first major anti-Christian conflict in 2008. Some detailed analysis of this historical aspect of state movements would have added great value to the book as well.

It is only by showing the connection between the pre- and post-independent eras, that a comprehensive analysis can be made. Nonetheless, scholars interested in writing on this issue have things to learn from this research, both in terms of building narratives and methodology. Indeed, it is an invaluable addition to a scarce genre of writing on Indian politics.

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