Regional Imbalance

INDIA is a vast plural country, full of diversities of religions, castes,languages, tribes, cultures, etc. A number of cultural and linguistic groups are concentrated in certain territorial segments, to which they are attached, emotionally and historically.As has been said that during colonial rule the administration was interested in economic exploitation of the country and not in its development; it encouraged various divisions based on religion, region, caste and language and did not pursue any plan or strategy for a balanced development of the country.These resulted in regional imbalances,and group identities. Subsequently, the independent India saw the rise of regionalism, linguism, separatism, etc. In this chapter we will read about the background, causes and nature of these phenomena and possible ways out to check them. All these are related and interconnected.

THE REGION
A region is a territory, the inhabitants of which have an emotional attachment to it because of commonality of religion,language, usages and customs, socioeconomic and political stages of development, common historical traditions, a common way of living, etc.Any one or more of these, and above all widely prevalent sentiments of togetherness, strengthen the bond. This territory can coincide with the boundaries of a State, parts of State or even with more than one State. A sense of discrimination or competition on economic, political or cultural grounds, desire for justice or favour gives rise to regionalism. Depending on reasons,and related nature, regionalism can be manifested in many ways like demand for autonomy or powers for State,creation of new State, protection of language or culture of the region or separation from the country.

REGIONAL DISPARITIES
By regional disparities or imbalances is meant wide differences in per capita income, literacy rates, availability of health and education services, levels of industrialisation, etc. between different regions. As already