Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is a journalist with over 20 years experience in print, radio and television, the last two years of which have been with Television Eighteen. Paranjoy anchors the India Talks discussion and interview show on ABNi. The show has been on air since ABNi was launched on November 27, 1995, and completed 400 episodes on 17 June 1997.
During his career, Paranjoy has been employed by a number of leading publications including Business India, Business World, The Telegraph, India Today and The Pioneer. He has contributed to many other Indian publications.
He has also worked in documentary films and produced radio programmes.
Paranjoy has studied at La Martiniere School, Calcutta, St. Stephen's College, Delhi and the Delhi School of Economics.
http://www.asianage.com/presentation/columnisthome/paranjoy-guha-thakurta.aspx
India is coming apart at the seams. The patchwork of states hobbled together by threats, force, police action, armed intervention, fake articles of accession, instigated revolts, assault, brute force and propaganda of imminent collapse---"Indian Union", is now coming apart at the seams. Lest we forget, it is a "union" of many different states which have now decided that the contract with Delhi isn't working and they want out. “Hum Pakistani hain”: Syed Ali Gilani Kashmir Hurriyat leader
[caption id="attachment_20149" align="alignleft" width="376" caption=""India" was never one country. For hundreds of years it has remained many small states--that is the natural state of "India"--about 570 states--Extent of British control in India. Yellow areas represent territories under the indirect rule of the British while the pink areas denote direct rule. "]
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The conglomeration of more then 114 different linguistic groups, literally hundreds of castes, scores of nationalities, various races, religions and ethnecities-- is imploding. Telangana splitting up India: Back to the future: —Return to 560 independent states that existed during Company Raj, British Rule, Mughal era & before
[caption id="attachment_2203" align="alignleft" width="367" caption="'India is no more a country than the Equator'.Winston Churchill "]
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Bharat (to use its constitutional name) is Balkanizing like Yugoslavia and exploding like the USSR. Those who didn't see it coming, may have been living in a cave or not reading Rupee News!
[caption id="attachment_4205" align="alignleft" width="275" caption="Naxalite insurgency spreading like wildfire in Bharat. Hindustan's Maoist insurgency map. There are secessionist movements in almost every state in "India" encompasisng more than 200 districts. The Naxals have been supported by the Maoists in Nepal. With the Maoist victory in Nepal the Naxals and Maoists of Bharat are increasingly more assertive. There were a 1,591 incidents of Maoist violence resulting in 721 killings; this year until August there had been 1,405 incidents, resulting in 580 deaths spread over 11 states. The situation in the northeastern parts of the country, the prime minister warned, was far from comfortable. "In two of the states, Manipur and Assam, current levels of violence give us cause for concern. According to home minister P Chidambaram, they had presence in 17 states and were responsible for 90 percent of the violence in the country. Bharat Verma says New Delhi and the state capitals have almost ceded the governmental control over 40 % of the Union’s territory to the Naxalites. CNN-IBN reported on Nov 26th 2009 that at least 7000 armed Maoists have spread out across the West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura district in West Bengal along with East Singhbhum in Jharkhand. Naxals collude with north-east insurgents. Clearly, the Maoists are preparing for a new surge. This time their target is West Bengal and their increased alliances with north-east insurgent groups of India will make it more difficult for the security forces to fight the Red terror. In Bengal, they are being assisted by hard-core rebels from Manipur's insurgent group, People Liberation Army, who are training tribal villagers living inside these forests. "]
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40% of Bharati territory is not in control of the Central Government--the Naxalite Maoists own it. It is ironic that Hyderbad, and other states that were forced into the "Indian Union" now are most vocal in their demand for autonomy. But of course like Yugoslavia, its not just about autonomy, and perks from the central government. Many of the demands for "statehood" are actual demands for complete independence from "the Indian Union". Assam, Kashmir and a vast swathe of territory from Nepal to Andhara Pradesh is pretty much independent.
[caption id="attachment_5183" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="The militancy is spreading through the Indian Union and engulfs more than 20 states now"]
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This cobbled group of countries is now headed towards it inevitable decentralization. Before the British came, there were more than 570 independent states in South Asia. After independence 560 were forcibly taken over by Delhi.
India's 29th state
could lead to many more
The central government decides to give in to demands to create the state of Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh after a hunger strike by a regional politician. Activists in other regions are piping up.
 Anti-Telangana and pro-Telangana advocates quarrel as police try to stop them on the premises of Andhra Pradesh High Court. (EPA) |
Reporting from New Delhi - The surprise announcement this week that India would create a new state has sparked what advocates of the status quo have long feared: a host of other regions clamoring for statehood.
The catalyst for the decision to create the new state of Telangana out of southern Andhra Pradesh state was an 11-day fast by a struggling regional politician who had vowed to starve himself to death if India didn't redraw the map.
[caption id="attachment_2229" align="alignleft" width="468" caption="Pre Independence map of British "India". This is the political map of South Asia. The Muslims always saw South Asia as a conglomeration of 570 states--they never saw it as one country. "Akhand Bharat" never existed except in the minds of the Hindu mhasabah bigots. There was no partition. The states on the banks of the Indus decided to continue to live together. "]
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The all but desperate move by K. Chandrasekhar Rao was meant to evoke the strategic fasts of the last century by Mohandas Gandhi, father of modern India, to protest British colonial oppression and contain religious violence.
Rao's fast quickly hit a chord, sparking clashes between authorities and college students and a general strike that crippled Hyderabad, the state capital and one of India's high-tech centers. Then in a surprise to almost everyone, probably even Rao, the ruling Congress Party in New Delhi acceded to his demand to create India's 29th state.
[caption id="attachment_4200" align="alignleft" width="117" caption="Lord Clives 1760 British Empire map of India. CLice controlled a very small part of South Asia. Most of the territory was in the hands of small states"]
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"The government panicked," said Kuldip Nayar, a political commentator. "Gandhi fasted for long periods and seldom threatened death, but this man was dramatizing with all this. Now people will think all you have to do is fast and you can get your own state."
On Friday, the Gorkha community, ethnic Nepalis, called for an indefinite strike in West Bengal state demanding a "Gorkhaland" to safeguard their heritage.
Activists in Bundelkhand quickly followed suit, threatening a 180-mile march to highlight their demands for their region. This is one of India's most backward areas, straddling the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
In Maharashtra, the western state that includes the business hub Mumbai, advocates demonstrated Friday for a new state for Vidarbha, another impoverished area.
And on it went, with similar calls from those in favor of a "Harit Pradesh" state carved out of western Uttar Pradesh, Rayalaseema state out of Andhra Pradesh as well as a proposed division into Upper and Lower Andhra Pradesh.
[caption id="attachment_4208" align="alignleft" width="468" caption="India map shepherd 1923. Before independence British Raj was limited to about 40% of the territory. About 60% was never under direct control of the Crown--they states enjoyed various degrees of sovreignty with the biggest states like Hyderabad were pretty much sovreign like Canada and Australia is today. Kashmir, Bhopal, and even some smaller states like Rampur, JUnagarh, Manvadar were pretty much independent"]
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Since independence in 1947, India has walked a tightrope between central control and the drive for greater recognition by its diverse regions, castes, tribes and ethnic communities.
Statehood offers several benefits, including more direct funding from the capital, more high-prestige political and bureaucratic positions for bigwigs, recognition of local identity and an ability to steer economic policy more effectively.
[caption id="attachment_19646" align="alignleft" width="468" caption="The fire of secession is engulfing the failed state called "India""]
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After Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh were formed in the late 1960s and early '70s out of a much larger Punjab state, they prospered and now are among India's richest states.
The unexpected announcement that Telangana might soon be strutting its independent stuff after a nearly 40-year quest struck some analysts as less a result of a well-thought out policy than a desire to avoid political turmoil.
But the decision angered opponents of the idea. More than one-third of the lawmakers in the 294-member Andhra Pradesh state assembly resigned in protest Thursday and Friday. The resignations have not yet been formally accepted by the speaker.
The standoff then spilled into the streets Friday as thousands of people, both for an and against, marched across Andhra Pradesh, leading to the shutdown of businesses and public transportation.
Rao's regional Telangana Rashtra Samithi party, which had campaigned on the statehood demand during spring elections, was trounced at the polls and his career and the issue seemed dead.
[caption id="attachment_13775" align="alignleft" width="467" caption="The Sikhs want their own country called Khalistan. The dream is alive. http://khalistannews.com/"]
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The Telangana initiative may be part of a trend, observers said. In the first few decades after independence, Indian states were formed largely along linguistic lines, said Swapan Dasgupta, a political analyst. But with the creation of Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand states in 2000 and now continuing with Telangana, the focus has shifted to a redrawing along economic lines.
"Sooner or later we could see a new round of state creation as power becomes more decentralized," Dasgupta said. "The socially explosive part, however, is if ethnicity or religion and backward economics combine."
Rao's success could embolden agitators, Dasgupta said. "You could see a sort of bargain basement statehood," he said. "It sounds a bit cruel, but they should have force-fed him a bit."
[caption id="attachment_3979" align="alignleft" width="386" caption="Ladakh has a Muslim majority map. Kashmir valley map shows the Muslim majority areas. Kashmiris want to be part of Pakistan. they share the same culutre, language, religion, history as the rest of Pakistan--they share very little with Bharat"]
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But statehood for Telangana is far from a done deal. Its creation would require the approval of the Andhra Pradesh assembly and India's Parliament. Moves to create states have been delayed for years amid political wrangling.
It is still unclear whether Hyderabad, home to the Indian headquarters of Microsoft and Google, would be part of the new state.
"This has opened a hornet's nest," said Nayar, the journalist. "At the same time, we must thank the nation's founders. While it may seem like the country is coming apart at the seams, at least no one is thinking about tanks on the street. That's a positive aspect." By Mark Magnier December 12, 2009
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