A Weekend and a Belonging

Another weekend goes by! My flat meticulously cleaned, plants watered, clothes rolled up and newspaper nicely folded, with all oped and editorial sections read thoroughly, important points highlighted in fluorescent orange marker. Smell of a tempting new book, light breeze through my balcony door and utter silence around me. There are no rains, but tea is in regular supply. The last three days workshop has made me mentally bankrupt. I am still trying to recollect what was new in the annual parade of discussions? I curse myself for being direct, sometimes indirect but am convinced of the utter wastage of my energies.

“Our Moon has Blood clots” makes a difficult weekend reading especially when I am looking for something more light to get rid of the dizziness that had set it.  But, I do not resist it, treading through every page that tells a story not heard very often. A book that reminds me of another side to every coin, which we very conveniently forget to turn. How can human beings be capable of such violence is something that I will always fail to understand. The reading definitely makes me think about the need for belonging to a territory, identify and being among group of people whom we call family, friends and relatives. From a combination of these things, we derive out identity and make memories. Brutal uprooting of people from this so called familiar territory, their own little world can cause mental trauma that is devastating. Being a “refugee” has its own toll and we as a nation haven’t developed the empathy to understand and relate to this.     

My thoughts wander to my own identify. I have lived in four States in the last twelve years. ‘Familiarity’ is different from ‘Belonging’. In a place, that I come back home every day, I can sense familiarity, but it does not allow my roots to grow deeper and stronger. It allows me four inch top soil to survive, but does not hold me on forever. What does it actually mean to belong, to be so strongly tied to the roots?  

Increasing demand for new States & failure of Balanced Regional Planning

Imbalanced regional development and improper allocations of resources within Indian States (both large and small) continue to impact on key social and economic indicators. Development projects largely remain influenced by political interests and not by actual need on ground. Revenue generating urban centres tend to receive more attention and continue to be islands of investments, if not excellence.

Image Source : http://www.niticentral.com/2013/08/01/the-list-grows-longer-112403.html

This inequity at State level coupled with issues of identity, culture and linguistic differences has often triggered vociferous demands for smaller administrative units. The demands tend to be largely proliferated by the political leadership, students and common citizens who take pride in their distinct regional identity. The claims are backed by disparity in sharing of infrastructure, water, power, roads and even government jobs. The process of carving new states is a tough one and is usually aided with frequent presence and support of police and paramilitary forces. Sentiments run high and are supported by self immolation bids that put undue pressure on the machinery. There is always a risk to buy in bias on boundary identification. It stems from political aspirations, economic gains and several vested interests.

 An article by Down to Earth states that demands are usually backed by issues related to disputes of sharing and utilisation of natural resources with mother states. It adds that linguistic and cultural reasons, which were the primary basis for creating new states in the country, have now become secondary in most of these cases.” 

However, from a regional planner’s perspective, there are a few items that gain utmost importance. Balanced regional development is a sentiment that has been echoed in Indian development planning since five year plans were attempted. The failure to do so has continued to show impacts in such inequitable distributions which gain a political magnitude. Further, lack of immediate answers also creates a lot of bitterness and competing sentiments in the people of same State. Thus, it is essentially the failure of planning machinery that triggers social, political and economic unrest in the first place. 

Decentralization and stake in participatory development have been promised on paper but still need to be translated to the lowest level. While a robust decentralised environment, could provide a more independent and participatory approach to development, failure to do so has ensured that pettiest decisions remain related to State clearances. While new investments remain a priority to provide for impressive growth rate by State governments, failure to prioritize new investments leads to development that does not relate to true aspirations of people. Even if it happens, it is not accountable to deliver mutually agreed performance levels. Investments continue without regular assessment and monitoring of the dividends that they are delivering at the smallest level. 

There are 53 urban agglomerations in India with a population of 1 million or more as of 2011 against 35 in 2001.Today about 43 percent of the urban population of India lives in these cities. As employment opportunities increase in urban centres, the migration of population in and out of these cities will continue creating pressure points that challenge the plans for balanced regional development. With smaller states, the political space will also get more crowded and less clear mandates with emerge at Centre. As elaborated in Down to Earth article,

“since 1984 not a single national party has formed government on its own. The 1980s and ’90s witnessed the electoral boom of regional political parties. Regional parties have been expanding both in number as well as in vote share. In the first Lok Sabha election in 1952, of the 55 parties that contested 18 were regional parties. The number went up to 36 in the 2004 election.

 In the 1984 general election the regional parties got 11.2 per cent of the votes; in 2009, their share went up to 28.4 per cent. In the past 20 years the share of regional parties in total votes has consistently increased. For the next elections in 2014, analysts estimate regional parties will contest in 150-180 seats where the two national parties may not be significant players.”

It will thus create a cocktail of political, social and economic aspirations that may be challenging to provide for.

Yeh Woh Sahar Toh Nahin

I have just started reading “India after Gandhi” by Ramachandra Guha and it has transported me in to an emotional 1947. The detailed insights by the author with reference to thinking prevailing in our leaders (Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah), the Governor Generals and Viceroys of British Raj and series of events that resulted in partition are indeed thought provoking and emotionally charged.

A more comprehensible reference to this tension is evident from several personal accounts including one by British Judge Cyril Radcliffe’s account. Radcliffe was entrusted the task of dividing Punjab and Bengal in five weeks with the help of four advisers (two Muslims, one Hindu and one Sikh). But he soon dispensed them as they fought on every point. His correspondence with his nephew reveals that he was well aware that nobody in India will love him for award of Punjab and Bengal and that there will be roughly 80 million people with a grievance who will begin looking for him. Naturally he didn’t want them to find him.  W H Hayden in his poem in a way tries to describe, what was on Radcliffe’s mind. The other reviews that are more critical of his role are described here  through a doctoral dissertation finding.

There is another interesting reference of Viceroy Archibald Wavell, who had a comparative phased out plan, which was not approved by London. His detailed analysis of plan is available here . For my interest, I draw attention to this Alice in the wonderland parody he wrote before the end of the Mission.

References similar to these and several other instill an ardent urge to seek in to further questions like if the partition by any means was avoidable? And if not who actually could be held responsible for instigating it? Who could be charged with turning it in to ill planned greatest mass migration in history with around ten million refugees on move from both sides? There are no easy answers. However, the author has supported the chapters with extracts from original speeches of colonialists, Indian leaders, journalists and task masters who actually designed and implemented the plans for partition. Reading through these accounts, it seems possible to recreate a virtual account of compulsions of each side under action and stop at that. Heavy price has been paid by both sides in terms of life lost and memory scarred.

At this point in 1947, while reading from the excerpts one feeling is very distinctly echoed from colonial players, on whether India can remain in one piece or will it fragment further. The choice of words to echo such sentiments range from “salad of confusion, of bungle, of mismanagement” to “idea of granting dominion status to India is not only fantastic in itself but criminally mischievous in itself”.

The pressure of dividing a vast country, its 524 million people with 15 major languages in use and conflicting religions and races can be easily sensed, both in their words as well as actions.  These conflicts that ran on several axes of caste, religion and language during 1947 seem to be very much issues being faced by modern India and Pakistan. Partition, in spite of its claims to carve out distinct physical territories based on religion and castes has not been able to bring peace either within the diversities of individual countries or within the region. The feeling is beautifully reflected in  Faiz Ambed Faiz’s  poem Subh-e-aazaadii  written in 1947

SUBH-E-AZADI (August 1947)

Ye dagh dagh ujala, ye shab-gazida sahar,
Vo intizar tha jis-ka, ye vo sahar to nahin,
Ye vo sahar to nahin jis-ki arzu lekar
Chale the yar ke mel-jaegi kahin na kahin