Regional Aspirations

Region and the Nation

• 1980s may be seen as a period of rising regional aspirations for autonomy
aspirations that concluded in negotiated settlements or accords between the central
government and the state government. The journey to the accord was always
tumultuous and often violent.
Indian approach
• The Indian approach was very different from the one adopted in many European
countries where they saw cultural diversity as a threat to the nation. India adopted
a democratic appr to the question of diversity that allows the political expressions
of regional aspirations and not look upon them as anti-national.
• Sometimes, the concern for national unity may overshadow the regional needs and
aspiration At other times a concern for region alone may blind us to the larger
needs of the nation.
 Areas of tension
• Immediately after Independence, India had to cope up with the issues of
partition, displacement, integration of princely states and reorganisation of
states i.e. Jammu and Kas issues political aspiration, North-East had no
consensus to be a part of India and Dravidian movement briefly toyed with
the idea of separate country.
• The issue of Jammu and Kashmir was not only a conflict between India and
Pakistan but it question of the political aspirations of the people of Kashmir
valley.
• Similarly, in some parts of the north-east, there was no consensus about
being a part of In First Nagaland and then Mizoram witnessed strong
movements demanding separation from In the south, some groups from the
Dravid movement briefly toyed with the idea of a separation country.
• In the north, there were strong pro-Hindi agitations demanding that Hindi be
made the o language immediately.
• From the late 1950s, people speaking the Punjabi language started agitating
for a separation State for themselves.
 Jammu and Kashmir issue
• Jammu and Kashmir comprised of three social and political region
namely Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh region.
• The Jammu region is predominantly inhabited by the Hindus.
Muslims, Sikhs and people of denominations also reside in this region.
• The Kashmir region is inhabited mostly by Kashmiri Muslims with the
remaining being Hind Sikhs, Buddhists and others.
• The Ladakh region has very little population which is almost equally
divided between Bud and Muslims.
 Roots of the Problem
• Before 1947, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) was a Princely State. Its ruler, Maharaja
Hari Singh to have an independent status for his state.
• The people of the state themselves thought of themselves as Kashmiris above all.
This issue regional aspiration is known as Kashmiriyat.
• In October 1947, Pakistan sent tribal infiltrators from its side to capture Kashmir.
This force Maharaja to ask for Indian military help.
• India extended the military force and drove back the infiltrators from Kashmir valley,
but after the Maharaja had signed an ‘Instrument of Accession’ with the government
of India.
• It also agreed that once the situation normalised, the views of the people of J&K will
be ascertained about their future.
• Sheikh Abdullah took over Prime minister of J&K (the head of the government in the
State was then called Prime Minister) in March 1948. India agreed to ma the
autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir.
 External and internal disputes
• Externally, Pakistan has always claimed that Kashmir valley should be a part of
Pakistan.
• Pakistan sponsored a tribal invasion of the State in 1947, as a consequence of
which one part of the State came under Pakistani control. India claims that this
area is under illegal occupation. Pakistan describes this area as ‘Azad Kashmir’.
• Internally, there is a dispute about the status of Kashmir within the Indian Union.
• Kashmir was given a special status by Article 370 in the Indian Constitution that
gives greater autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir compared to other States of India.
The State has its own Constitution.
• All provisions of the Indian Constitution are not applicable to the State. Laws
passed by the Parliament apply to J&K only if the State agrees.
 Politics since 1948
• During most of the period between 1953 and 1974, the Congress party exercised influence
politics of the State. In 1974, Indira Gandhi reached an agreement with Sheikh Abdullah and he
became the Chief Minister of the State.
• After the death of Sheikh Abdullah in 1982, the leadership of the National Conference went to
his son, Farooq Abdullah, who became the Chief Minister. But he was soon dismissed and a
breakaway faction of the National Conference came to power for a brief period.
Insurgency and After
• In 1987, the Assembly election took place. The official results showed a massive victory for
National Conference – Congress alliance and Farooq Abdullah returned as the Chief Minister it
was widely believed that the results did not reflect popular choice, and that the entire election
process was rigged.
• By 1989, the State had come in the grip of a militant movement mobilised around the cause
separate Kashmiri nation. The insurgents got moral, material and military support from Pakistan.
• Throughout the period from 1990, Jammu and Kashmir experienced violence at the hands
insurgents and through army action.
 2002 and Beyond
• Finally, fair election was held in 2002 in Jammu and Kashmir. National Conference
failed to win a majority and was replaced by People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and
Congress coalition government.
• The president rule was imposed in the state in July 2008. Another coalition
government (composed of NC and INC) came into power headed by Omar Abdullah
in 2009.
• In 2014, a coalition government led by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed of the PDP came
into po with the BJP as its partner. After Mufti Mohammed Sayeed died, his daughter
Mahbooba Mufti became the first woman Chief Minister of the state in April 2016.
• The President’s rule was imposed in June 2018 after BJP withdrew its support to the
Mufti government.
• On 5 August 2019, Article 370 was abolished by the Jammu & Kashmir
Reorganisation Act and the state was constituted into two Union Territories, viz.,
Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
 Punjab issue
• The decade of 1980s also witnessed major • It was in this context that during the 1970s a
developments in the State of Punjab. section of Akalis began to demand autonomy
• The social composition of the State changed the region.
first with Partition and later on after the carving • The Anandpur Sahib Resolution was passed
out of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. at the conference of Akali Dal at Anandpur
• The Akali Dal, which was formed in 1920 as the Sah 1973 to ascertain regional autonomy and
political wing of the Sikhs, had led the to redefine centre-state relationship. It had a
movement for the formation of a ‘Punjabi suba’. limit appeal and Akali government was
dismissed in 1980.
Political context
• Afterwards, the movement launched by Akali
• In Punjab, after the reorganisation, the Akalis Dal took the form of armed insurgency and
came to power in 1967 and then in 1977. On the resolution became controversial. The more
occasions it was a coalition government. extreme elements started advocating
• The Akalis discovered that despite the secession India and the creation of
redrawing the boundaries, their political ‘Khalistan’.
position remained precarious.
 Cycle of Violence
• The militants made their headquarters inside the Sikh holy shrine, the Golden Temple in
Amritsar and turned it into an armed fortress.
• In June 1984, the Government of India carried out ‘Operation Blue Star’ code name for arm
action in the Golden temple in which the government could successfully ush out the
militants.
• In this operation, the government could successfully ush out the militants, but it also da the
historic temple and deeply hurt the sentiments of the Sikhs.
• The Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984 outside residence b
bodyguards.
• As a result, in Delhi and in many parts of northern India violence broke out against the Sik
community.
• Twenty years later, speaking in the Parliament in 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
expressed regret over these killings and apologised to the nation for the anti-Sikh violence.
 Road to peace
• In 1984, the new Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi initiated a dialogue
with moderate Akali leaders and in July 1985 a peace agreement was
signed between Rajiv Gandhi and Harchand Singh Longowal (the then
President of Akali Dal). The agreement known as Rajiv Gandhi-
Longowal Accord of the Punjab Accord.
• The cycle of violence continued nearly for a decade and peace
returned to Punjab by the m of 1990s.
• The alliance of Akali Dal (Badal) and the BJP scored a major victory
in 1997, in the first normal elections in the state in the post militancy
era.
 The North East Issue
• The North-East region now consists of seven States, also referred to as
the ‘seven sisters’.
• The region has witnessed a lot of change since 1947.
• The entire region of North-East has undergone considerable political
reorganisation. Naga State was created in 1963; Manipur, Tripura and
Meghalaya in 1972 while Mizoram and Arun Pradesh became separate
States only in 1987.
• Three issues dominate the politics of North-East: demands for
autonomy, movements for secession, and opposition to ‘outsiders’.
 Demands for autonomy
• Demands for political autonomy arose when the non-Assamese felt that the Assam
govern was imposing Assamese language on them. There were opposition and
protest riots through the State.
• The reorganisation of North-East was completed by 1972 but it did not end the
autonomy demands i.e. Bodos, Karbis, Dimasas demanded separated state in
Assam and issues were resolved with the grant of some autonomy to these issues.
Even ‘Assam Accord’ was signed the issue of ‘Outsiders’ in Assam in 1985.
Sikkim’s Merger
• At the time of independence Sikkim was a ‘protectorate (A state that is controlled
and pro by other) of India. Chogyal was its monarch.
• In 1975, Sikkim was merged with India and it became the 22nd State of the Indian
Union.
 Secessionist movements
• After Independence, the Mizo Hills area was made an autonomous
district within Assam.
• Some Mizos believed that they were never a part of British Indiana and,
therefore, did not belong to Indian Union.
• But the movement for secession gained popular support after the Assam
government failed to respond adequately to the great famine of 1959 in
Mizo hills.
• In 1986, a peace agreement was signed between Rajiv Gandhi and
Laldenga.
• As per this accord Mizoram was granted full-edged statehood with
special powers and the MNF agreed to give secessionist struggle.
• The story of Nagaland is quite similar to Mizoram. A section of Nagas
under the leadership Angami Zaphu Phizo declared Independence from
India way back in 1951.
 Movements against outsiders
• The large scale migration into the North-East gave rise to a special kind of problem
that pitted the local communities against people who were seen as outsiders or
migrants.
• These latecomers either from India or abroad are seen as encroachers on scarce
resources like land and potential competitors to employment opportunities and political
power. This issue has taken political and sometimes violent form in many states of the
North-East.
• The Assam movement from 1979 to 1985 is a solid example of such movements
against ‘outsiders’. The movement was combination of cultural pride and economic
backwardness was against outsiders to maintain cultural integration and poverty,
unemployment also prevent exploitation of natural resources like oil, tea and coal.
• With the successful completion of the movement, the AASU and the Asom Gana
Sangram Parishad organised themselves as a regional political party called Asom Gana
Parishad (AGP came to power in 1985 with the promise of resolving the foreign
national problem as well a build a ‘Golden Assam’.
 Accommodation and National Integration
• First lesson is that regional as aspirations are very much as part of democratic politics.
• The second lesson is that the best way to respond to regional aspirations is through demo
negotiations rather than through suppression.
• The third lesion is about the importance of power sharing. It is not sufficient to have a
formal democratic structure. Besides that, groups and parties from the region require to be
given in power at the State level.
• The fourth lesson is that regional imbalance in economic development contributes to the
feeling of regional discrimination. Regional imbalance is a fact of India’s development
experience.
• Finally, these cases make up appreciate the farsightedness of the makers of the Indian
Constitution in dealing with questions of diversity.
• Therefore, regional aspirations are not encouraged to espouse separatism. Politics in India
succeeded in accepting regionalism as part and parcel of democratic politics.
Thank you