Demands for smaller states
Topic: Challenges of Nation Building: Partition, Princely States and Reorganisation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Challenges of Nation Building"
Meaning
Demands for smaller states are ongoing movements for new states to be carved out of existing ones. They are based on regional identity, tribal identity or a sense that a region has been neglected. These demands have continued after the formation of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand in 2000 and of Telangana in 2014. The debate weighs better and closer government against the cost of new states, whether they could pay their way (viability), and new fights over river water and shared property.
Example
NCERT names three demands:
- Vidarbha in Maharashtra.
- Harit Pradesh in western Uttar Pradesh.
- A new state in northern West Bengal, covering the Gorkhaland and Kamtapur demands.
Other demands include Bodoland, where an accord was signed in 2020, and Saurashtra. In 2011 the UP Assembly passed a resolution to split Uttar Pradesh into four states. NCERT asks: "the US has 50 states; why can't India have 100?"