Causes of Regional Diversity in India and its negative effects

Introduction
 India is a land of “Unity in diversity”. The high mountain ranges, vast seas , large
river-irrigated lands, countless rivers and streams, dark forests, sandy deserts, all these have
adorned India with an exceptional diversity. 

Regional Diversity
The word ‘regional’ means any element belongs to a particular region, and the
feeling related to the people belonging to the particular region is known as ‘Regionalism’.
The term regionalism has two connotations: In the positive sense, it is a political attribute
associated with people’s love for their region, culture, language, etc. with a view to maintain
their independent identity. In the negative sense, it implies excessive attachment to one’s
region in preference to the country, or the state. While positive regionalism is a welcome
thing in so far maintaining as it encourages the people to develop a sense of brotherhood
and commonness on the basis of common language, religion or historical background. The
negative sense regionalism is a great threat to the unity and integrity of the country.

Causes of Regional diversity in India

Regionalism is a political ideology that focuses on the national or normative interests
of a particular region, group of regions or other subnational entity. The rise of regionalism in
India is due to diversity and variation in the India economic and social culture.

Historical cause
Historically, regional imbalances in India started from its British regime. The British
rulers as well as industrialists started to develop only those earmarked regions of the
country which as per their own interest were possessing rich potential for prosperous
manufacturing and trading activities. British industrialists mostly preferred to concentrate
their activities in two states like West Bengal and Maharashtra and more particularly to
three metropolitan cities like Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai. They concentrated all their
industries in and around these cities neglecting the rest of the country to remain backward.
The uneven pattern of investment in industry as well as in economic overheads like
transport and communication facilities, irrigation and power made by the British had
resulted uneven growth of some areas, keeping the other areas totally neglected.

Geographical cause
Geographical factors play an important role in the developmental activities of a
developing economy. The difficult terrain surrounded by hills, rivers and dense forests leads
to increase in the cost of administration, cost of developmental projects, besides making
mobilization of resources particularly difficult. Adverse climate and proneness to flood are
also responsible factors for poor rate of economic development of different regions of the
country as reflected by low agricultural productivity and lack of industrialization. Thus these
natural factors have resulted uneven growth of different regions of India.
Political cause
Another important factor responsible for regional diversity is the political instability
prevailing in the backward regions of the country. Political instability in the form of unstable
government, extremist violence, law and order problem etc. have been obstructing the flow
of investments into these backward regions besides making flight of capital from these
backward states. Thus this political instability prevailing in same backward regions of the
country are standing as a hurdle in the path of economic development of these regions.

Psychological Causes
It is wish of the most of the people that the progress and the achievement of their
region should be the maximum. The idea in itself is neither bad nor deniable, but when they
disregard the nation’s interest and those of the region for the attainment of this objective
then these feelings can be classified under regionalism.

Social Causes
In a country like India, marriages are preferred with the person of the same regional
background. Due to this, people belonging to one region avoid marriages in other regions.

Economic Causes
Due to economic problems such as lack of resources, unemployment etc. of a
particular region people from those regions often migrates to comparatively stable
economic region. Economic overheads like transport and communication facilities, power,
technology, banking and insurance etc. are considered very important for the development
of a particular region. Due to adequacy of such economic overheads, some regions are
getting a special favour in respect of settlement of some developmental projects whereas
due to inadequacy of such economic overheads, some regions of the country remained
much backward as compared to other developed regions of the country. Moreover, new
investment in the private sector has a general tendency to concentrate much on those
regions having basic infrastructural facilities.

Impact of Regionalism on India

 Rise of regional parties.
 Re-focus on regional issues.
 Regionalist tendencies often stir inter-state hostility as its spill-over effect.
 Regional movements often result in violent agitations, disturbs not only the law
and order situation but also have negative implications on the economy of the state as
well as the nation.
 Regionalism sometimes undercuts the national interest by being a hurdle in
international diplomacy.
 For instance- the opposition of regional/state parties of Tamil against the stand of
the central government had a direct implication on the relation of India with Sri Lanka.
 The disagreement of political leadership in West Bengal with the central
government over the Land Boundary Agreement and Teesta River Water sharing treaty
with Bangladesh resulted in increased tensions between the two nations.
 Regionalism can become a shield for militancy, extremism to create an internal
security threat. Kashmir militancy is an example of this type of regionalism.

Conclusion
India is subdivided into 29 states differing in terms of their productive potential and
the type of industry they can support. The realization of their potential holds the key to
increasing the competitiveness of the nation as a whole. Regional diversity in development
causes challenges like violent conflicts, unplanned and haphazard migration. The
sustainability of the growth rate and the goal of the country to achieve its development
target will be difficult to meet unless India develops as an integrated whole of regional
competency.