Regional imbalance
Topic: Regional Aspirations: J&K, Punjab, the North-East and Accommodation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 7 "Regional Aspirations"
Meaning
Regional imbalance means uneven development: some states or regions grow rich while others stay poor. NCERT lists it as one of the lessons from regional movements. Imbalance breeds a sense of being treated unfairly, demands for new states, and people moving from poorer regions to richer ones for work. It matters because many regional demands come from economic neglect, not only from identity.
Example
Feeling neglected inside large states helped drive the demands that led to Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh being formed in 2000. In Assam, anger that the state's oil, tea and coal brought little benefit to local people fed the Assam Movement (1979-85).
Don't confuse with
- Regionalism: a region standing up politically for its identity, culture or interests. Regional imbalance is an economic gap and is one of the causes of regionalism.
- Sons of the soil: demands that jobs and facilities go only to local people. These often grow out of regional imbalance, but they are a reaction to it, not the imbalance itself.