DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL POLITICS IN INDIA: A STUDY OF COALITION OF POLITICAL PARTIB IN UHAR PRADESH ABSTRACT THB8IS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF fioctor of ^IHloKoplip IN POLITICAL SaENCE BY TABRBZ AbAM Un<l«r tht SupMvMon of PBOP. N. SUBSAHNANYAN DEPARTMENT Of POLITICAL SCIENCE ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALI6ARH (INDIA) The thesis "Development of Regional Politics in India : A Study of Coalition of Political Parties in Uttar Pradesh" is an attempt to analyse the multifarious dimensions, actions and interactions of the politics of regionalism in India and the coalition politics in Uttar Pradesh. The study in general tries to comprehend regional awareness and consciousness in its content and form in the Indian sub-continent, with a special study of coalition politics in UP., which of late has presented a picture of chaos, conflict and crise-cross, syndrome of democracy. Regionalism is a manifestation of socio-economic and cultural forces in a large setup. It is a psychic phenomenon where a particular part faces a psyche of relative deprivation. It also involves a quest for identity projecting one's own language, religion and culture. In the economic context, it is a search for an intermediate control system between the centre and the peripheries for gains in the national arena. The study begins with the analysis of conceptual aspect of regionalism in India. It also traces its historical roots and examine the role played by Indian National Congress. The phenomenon of regionalism is a pre-independence problem which has got many manifestation after independence. It is also asserted that regionalism is a complex amalgam of geo-cultural, economic, historical and psychic factors. These factors often interact and overlap each other. The development of regiional feelings in India goes back to British rule. The various acts of the British Government had planted and sustained the regional feelings. It could perhaps be traced to the centralisation of power during the British Empire and its consequent delegation to regional middle classes. The growth of pan-Indian forces also saw the growth of regionalism in India. The Indian National Congress which was the premier political party in India's struggle for independence is also held equally responsible for development of regionalism in India. The urge of the Congress to organise the country on linguistic basis since 1905 down to its 1948 Jaipur session made the growth of regionalism more easier. However, the trauma of partition of the country on the basis of religion restrained the Indian National Congress for the time being to held up the idea of linguistic states in the larger interest of the nation. The creation of first linguistic State of Andhra in 1953, after indefinite fast of Potti Sriramulu and his subsequent death for the creation of separate Andhra gave a new impetus to the regional movements in India In the said circumstances, the Indian National Corgress in its fifty-eighth session at Hyderabad in January 1953, recommended the division of India on linguistic basis. Accordingly the Government of India constituted the States Reorganisation Commission which submitted its report in 1955. However, the Government enacted and implemented States Reorganisation Acts to meet the regional aspirations of the people in due course. The study goes further highlighting the problem of regionalism in the southern part of India. The Dravidian movement which stems out of the differences, real and imaginary, between the North Aryan Brahminical culture and the southern Dravidian culture has been analysed. Dravidian movement witnessed various changes in its programme in the course of its agitational politics. The demands stretches from extreme posture of a separate sovereign republic to emancipate the Dravidian from the Brahminical domination, to more autonomy and less control by the Centre. The change in their style and tactics yielded positive results. There participation in the mainstream politics and their experience with the political power in the state gradually subsided the separatist tone of the movement. Unlike Dravidian movement, the Andhra regionalism never claimed as a separate nationality or an identification outside the national framework of India. Their regionalism is only a projection of the love for their language and opposition towards domination and big brother approach of Tamil speaking people. The Andhra regionalism was based on the cultural variables such as language and culture and aimed to acquire its due political place in India as the second biggest 'language grrup of people after Hindi'. As far as the Telangana movement is concerned, it was purely a case of sub-regionalism and intra-regionalism based on the fear of domination over them by more developed Andhras. The overall effect of this sub- regional assertion in regional politics added a new dimension to the already complex Indian politics, a dimension which rejected both region and language as the basis of political re-organisation and projected the significance of 'cultural uniformity' and 'historical identity' as the only criterion of a political existence. The regional aspiration and assertion in Punjab and Maharashtra has also been basically moved around the language. The regionalism in Punjab is based on ruthls-ss pursuit of self identity and self fulfillment by the Sikhs and is characterised as communal and ethno-centric. The Akali Dal, the sole representative of the Sikh community has played very profound role in achieving the objective of a separate state based on Sikh culture and religion. The creation of Punjabi suba in 1966 fmally set rest to regional aspiration in the state. The regional feeling in Maharashtra also grew primarily out of the demand fon.a unilingual Marathi speaking state. A number of organisations particularly Mahavidharbha Samiti, Samyukta Maharashtra Sabha and Samyukta Maharashtra Parishad worked very hard to achieve the said goal. These organisations were represented by both Congress and non-Congress leaders and intellectuals. After the defeat in 1957 general election, primarily in western Maharashtra districts, the leaders of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress became more outspoken and vocal. They strived to convince the party's central leadership to the necessity of formation of unilingual Marathi speaking state. Consequently the Bombay reorganisation bill was passed by the Parliament which gave birth to a separate Marathi speaking state in May 1960. However, a sense of fulfillment remained incomplete which consequently gave incentives to a new kind of regionalism in the form of Shive Sena ba^ed on the 'Sons of the Soil' theory. It was a protest '^y natives against their economic exploitation by the migrants which has not only hampered their own progress but also resulted in the cultural changes which they fear would cloud their own identity. The study also takes into account the problem of regionalism in North-East which is the offshoot of the 'Sons of the Soil' theory. Neither the Britishers nor the Indian Government paid due attention towards the tribal upliftment and integrating them into the socio-economic and political mainstream of India. The sheer negligence by the Central Government, non-recognition of their aspiration and their right to protect their own identity and heritage, the fear of being treated as inferior to the rest of India and too much interference by Indian Government in the affairs of these states are some of the important factors which can be attributed to the problem of legionaKsm in the N^rth-East. The suitable economic and political reforms for all round development and strict vigil over the border is perhaps the best remedy for the North-East malady. The study also includes the problem of regional aspiration and assertion in the Hindi speaking areas. The problem in this area has neither been a demand for an independent or separate state nor the sheer negligence by the Central Government. Basically the regionalism in this area is a movement by sub-regional elites for the assertion of sub-regional identity based on common history and grievances emanating from an under developed economy of the region and an anxiety for the proper share in the political power which has lead to upheavals and movements for separate states like Uttarakhand, Bundelkhand, Purvanchal in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Mithilanchal in Bihar Chhattisgarh, Baghelkhand and Gondwana in Madhya Pradesh and Brij Pradesh in Rajasthan. The problem of regionalism has posed a serious threat to the political stability in India. People's affiliation to the parties who aspire the interest of either their own region or community, has given the birth to many political parties. The emergence of regional parties can also be attributed to the fact that ai^er Jawahar La! Nehru, the Congress party failed to maintain a balance between different regions, community, castes, class and cultural groups. Though failure of Congress provided strong incentives for the emergence of different political parties who had their base in particular region. Ahhough political destablisation seems to be a recent phenomenon but its origin can be traced from the very beginning of the emergence of independent India. The Ind ian National Congress, which functioned as a broad based nationalist movement before independence, transformed itself into a dominant political party of the nation. We find all shades of ideological groups in the Congress. Every group have different approach towards the social and economic development of the nation. Under these circumstances, political contention was internalised and carried on within the Congress. The politics in the Congress more and more revolved around personality cuh and groups of factional politics because with no issue of substantial importance left after the departure of the Socialist and the defeat of the Hindu revivalist to fight about. Factionalism existed in the Congress before independence alongside a politics of issues. But after independence, politics of personalities and factions have come to dominate the internal affairs of the Congress.