After 59 years, Revolutionary Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar's visionary thought existence Telangana a 29th state of India. As our nation grapples with the issue of re-organisation of states, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar book, "Thoughts on Linguistic States", written in 1955, might need an urgent revisit. His ideas were proved right and his assessment of the creation of new states in the federal polity is relevant in post-Independent India. Dr.Babasaheb seemed to have solutions to all such problems all written down 59 years ago. One of the most interesting proposals by Dr.Babasaheb in 1955 book was to split Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Maharastra and Uttar Pradesh. He recommended to the States Reorganisation Commission in 1955 for the creation of Hyderabad State consisting of Telangana region and creation of Vidarbha as a separate State. Further, he envisaged the division of Uttar Pradesh into three States (Western, Central and Eastern); Bihar split into two, with Patna and Ranchi as the capitals. (North and South or present Jharkhand); Madhya Pradesh into two (Northern and Southern); and Maharashtra into three (Western,Central and Eastern). He was for linguistic homogeneity of a State in the sense of ‘one State-one language’ and not ‘one language-one State’. He thus envisaged two Telugu speaking States, three Marathi speaking States and a large number of Hindi speaking States. One of his major proposals was to make Hyderabad the second capital of India because of the centrality of location, as a junction of North and South, and on defence considerations. After a good 45 years, the split came with the formation of Chhattisgarh out of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand out of Bihar in the year 2000. Now Telangana state in 2014. While arguing for smaller States, Dr.Babasaheb was guided basically by two considerations. One, no single State should be large enough to exercise undue influence in the federation. Drawing from the American experience, he thought that smaller States were in the best interests of healthy federalism. On this issue, his views were similar to those of K.M. Panikkar, set out in his note of dissent to the Report of the States Reorganisation Commission. Second, he thought that socially disadvantaged sections are likely to be subjected to greater discrimination in bigger States because of the consolidation of socially privileged or dominant groups. On splitting one-language states, he said, "Into how many States a people speaking one language should be cut up, should depend upon (1) the requirements of efficient administration, (2) the needs of the different areas, (3) the sentiments of the different areas, and (4) the proportion between the majority and minority." He said," India is not even mentally and morally fit to call itself the United States of India. We have to go a long way to become the United States of India. The Union of India is far, far away, from the United States of India. But this consolidation of the North and balkanisation of the South is not the way to reach it." Dr.Babasaheb, fresh after working on the Constitution of India (he was head of the drafting committee of the Constitution), came out with a vision for a reorganised India. He felt that a state should have a people of one language to have uniformity and to retain linguistic culture. At the same time, there could be two states where people spoke the same language. He proposed splitting single-language states. For instance, he wondered at Uttar Pradesh’s huge size (still it is the fourth-largest in India) and wanted to split it into three states. He had a special formula for Bombay, then a mixed-language province (including the present-day Maharashtra and Gujarat). He proposed ‘city state’ status for Bombay. He acknowledged the presence of people of multiple linguistic groups and their role in establishing Bombay. He proposed to split Maharashtra (he conceptualised it before the state came into existence) into three states. At that time, Maharashtra comprised several districts of the erstwhile Nizam’s Hyderabad. Dr.Babasaheb was responding to the report of the first State Reorganisation Commission (SRC) in 1955, through his book. Potti Sriramulu died on December 16, 1952, after a 58-day fast demanding a separate Andhra state for Telugu-speaking people (to be carved out of Madras Presidency). This prompted the central government to go for the SRC and triggered the formation of linguistic states. He ridiculed Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister: “The creation of a new Andhra province now being thought of is only a pindadan to the departed soul of Mr Sriramulu, by the Prime Minister.” The Andhra state issue never died down. The 1955 SRC recognised Andhra and Hyderabad (Telangana) as separate entities. By then Hyderabad as a separate state had elections in 1952 and a state government was in place. The clamour for a single-language state for the Telugus led to the merger of Andhra and Hyderabad states in 1956 with assurances to Hyderabad in a “Gentleman’s Agreement” that the cabinet will have 40 per cent representation from Hyderabad. There would be the post of deputy chief minister so that either the chief minister or deputy chief minister was from Hyderabad.The failure of the agreement led to the 1969 Telangana agitation, which too got settled by a six-point formula (between the leaders of the Andhra and Telangana regions), with equitable opportunities in education and employment. The size of the state for him had a special connotation. He wrote: “As the area of the State increases the proportion of the minority to the majority (communities/castes) decreases and the position of the minority (castes) becomes precarious and the opportunities for the majority to practise tyranny over the minority become greater. The States must therefore be small.” Dr.Babasaheb’s appropriate advice for our times: “The formation of Linguistic States, although essential, cannot be decided by any sort of hooliganism. Nor must it be solved in a manner that will serve party interest. It must be solved by cold blooded reasoning."
Reference: * Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches: English / Tamil Volume- 01.
Long Live Ambedkarism..........!!!!
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