Growing feeling of regionalism is an important factor in generation of demand for a separate State. Discuss.

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Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Growing regional feeling is an important but not the only source of demands for separate states, supplying the identity while neglect, governability and politics supply the urgency. Andhra State (1953), Nagaland (1963) and Jharkhand (2000) all grew out of linguistic or tribal movements.

**Introduction**

Regionalism is a shared identity rooted in language, ethnicity, history or economic interest within one part of the country. The 2013 endorsement of Telangana, followed within weeks by renewed Gorkhaland and Bodoland agitations, showed how regional feeling and statehood demands feed each other.

**How Regional Feeling Generates Statehood Demands**

SKETCH: spectrum | Escalation of Regional Feeling
left: Cultural pride
right: Secession
- Language assertion
- Autonomy council
- Separate statehood
- Armed insurgency

1. **Linguistic identity**: Potti Sriramulu's fatal fast in 1952 produced Andhra State in 1953, and the Samyukta Maharashtra movement split Bombay into two states in 1960.
2. **Ethnic and tribal identity**: The Naga movement won Nagaland in 1963, and the Adivasi-rooted Jharkhand movement won statehood in 2000.
3. **Sub-regional identity**: Telangana's distinct history under the Nizam and grievances over jobs and water divided even one Telugu-speaking community.

**Other Factors Behind Separate State Demands**

1. **Administrative size**: Uttarakhand's hill people found Lucknow distant, and Uttar Pradesh's 2011 Assembly resolution to split the state into four cited governability.
2. **Economic neglect**: Vidarbha and Bundelkhand seek statehood mainly over agrarian distress, which regional feeling merely voices.
3. **Political entrepreneurship**: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi, founded in 2001, built its rise on the statehood demand.
4. **Constitutional ease**: Article 3 lets Parliament create states by simple law, so each new state, like the three of 2000, emboldens fresh demands.

**Conclusion**

Regional feeling is an important, though not the only, source of statehood demands: it supplies identity, while neglect, governability and politics supply urgency. Clear criteria for new states, possibly through a second States Reorganisation Commission, and balanced development can keep the Union strong.

Growing feeling of regionalism is an important factor in generation of demand for a separate State. Discuss.

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