[LINK] "India creates new state of Telangana in victory for hunger striker”

[rfmcdonald]

So India did end up creating a state of Telangana. The northern region of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh occupying the area of the former princely state of Hyderabad, regionalism apparently overcame the unifying forces of Telugu language common to all.

The Government has agreed to create a state called Telangana, acceding to demands of a movement that dates from Indian independence in 1947, when states were demarcated roughly along linguistic lines. “The process of forming the state of Telangana will be initiated,” Palaniappan Chidambaram, the Interior Minister, said. The announcement followed an 11-day hunger strike by K. Chandrasekhar Rao, head of a party that had campaigned for the state on the ground that the regional government had neglected its northern areas.

“We are concerned about the health of K. Chandrasekhar Rao,” the minister said. “We request him to withdraw his fast immediately. We also appeal to all students to withdraw their agitation to help to restore normalcy.” Speaking from his hospital bed in Hyderabad, Mr Rao expressed his thanks to the Government.

The area has its own distinct dialect and culture, and used to be part of the princely state of Hyderabad, the largest in India, which was amalgamated with the rest of the country by force in 1948. Telangana could have a population of up to 30 million, mainly Telugu speakers.
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A decision has yet to be made on whether the new state will include Hyderabad, which rivals Bangalore as a base for Indian and multinational companies including Microsoft and Google. Supporters of the new state argue that it should include Hyderabad, because of its historic link, but the regional government is anxious not to lose control of the huge investments it has made in the city.

Opponents of Telangana also worry that its creation could encourage similar movements, some of them violent, in regions across India, including West Bengal, Assam, Nagaland and Kashmir.

Last year the region around Darjeeling in West Bengal was paralysed by sometimes-violent protests by ethnic Gorkhas demanding a separate state called Gorkhaland. Three new states were created in 2000, when Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were divided to give rise to Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand.

The vote still has to go through the state and national parliaments. Still, the speed of this astounds me: creating a new province out of an existing one would be another huge constitutional drama.