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13/01/10
dr.ambedkar on the reorganization of states
dr.ambedkar had some interesting things to say on the consolidation of
the north and the balkanisation of the south:
What the Commission has created is not a mere disparity between the
States by leaving U.P. and Bihar as they are, by adding to them a new
and a bigger Madhya Pradesh with Rajasthan it creates a new problem of
North versus South.
The North is Hindi speaking. The South is non-Hindi speaking. Most
people do not know what is the size of the Hindi-speaking population.
It is as much as 48 per cent of the total population of India. Fixing
one's eye on this fact one cannot fail to say that the Commission's
effort will result in the consolidation of the North and the
balkanisation of the South.
Can the South tolerate the dominance of the North?
It may now not be a breach of a secret if I revealed to the public
what happened in the Congress Party meeting when the Draft
Constitution of India was being considered, on the issue of adopting
Hindi as the national language. There was no article which proved more
controversial than Article 115 which deals with the question. No
article produced more opposition. No article, more heat. After a
prolonged discussion when the question was put, the vote was 78
against 78. The tie could not be resolved. After a long time when the
question was put to the Party meeting the result was 77 against 78 for
Hindi. Hindi won its place as a national language by one vote. I am
stating these facts from my personal knowledge. As Chairman of the
Drafting Committee I had naturally entry to the Congress Party
enclosure.
These facts reveal how much the South dislikes the North. This dislike
may grow into hatred if the North remains consolidated and the South
becomes disintegrated and if the North continues to exercise a
disproportionate influence on the politics of India (See Map 1).
To allow one State to have such preponderating influence in the Centre
is a dangerous thing.
Mr. Pannikar has referred to this aspect of the case. In his
dissenting minute he says:
"The consequence of the present imbalance, caused by the denial of the
federal principal of equality of units, has been to create feelings of
distrust and resentment in all the States outside Uttar Pradesh. Not
only in the Southern States but also in the Punjab, Bengal and
elsewhere the view was generally expressed before the Commission that
the present structure of government led to the dominance of Uttar
Pradesh in all-India matters. The existence of this feeling will
hardly be denied by anyone. That it will be a danger to our unity, if
such feelings are allowed to exist and remedies are not sought and
found now, will also not be denied."
There is a vast difference between the North and the South. The North
is conservative. The South is progressive. The North is superstitious,
the South is rational. The South is educationally forward, the North
is educationally backward. The culture of the South is modern. The
culture of the North is ancient.
Did not Prime Minister Nehru on the 15th of August 1947 sit at the
Yajna performed by the Brahmins of Benares to celebrate the event of a
Brahmin becoming the first Prime Minister of free and independent
India and wear the Raja Danda given to him by these Brahmins and drink
the water of the Ganges brought by them ?
How many women have been forced to go Sati in recent days and immolate
themselves on the funeral pyre of their dead husbands. Did not the
President recently go to Benares and worship the Brahmins, washed
their toes and drank the water ?
The North still has its Satis, its Nanga Sadhus. What havoc the Nanga
Sadhus made at the last Hardwar Fair! Did anyone in U.P. protest
against it ?
How can the rule of the North be tolerated by the South ? Already
there signs of the South wanting to break away from the North.
Mr. Rajagopalachari has made a statement on the recommendations of the
States Reorganisation Commission which has appeared in the Times of
India of the 27th November. 1955. This is what he says :
" If it is impossible to put the States Reorganisation Schemes in cold
storage for the next 15 years, the only alternative is for the Centre
to govern India as a unitary state and deal with district officers and
district boards directly, with regional commissioners' supervision.
" It would be utterly wrong to fritter away national energy in dispute
over boundaries and divisions conceived in the drawing room and not on
the background of conditions that have resulted historically.
" Apart from the general convictions of mine, I feel that a large
southern State is absolutely essential for preserving the political
significance of that part of the country. To cut the South up into
Tamil, Malayalam and other small States will result only in complete
insignificance of everybody and, in the net result, India as a whole
will be the poorer."
Mr. Rajagopalachari has not expressed himself fully. He did do so
fully and openly to me when he was the Head of the State and I was the
Law Minister in charge of drafting the constitution. I went to Mr.
Rajagopalachari for my usual interview which was the practice of the
day. At one such interview Mr. Rajagopalachari, referring to the sort
of constitution which the Constituent Assembly was making, said to me,
"You are committing a great mistake. One federation for the whole of
India with equal representation for all areas will not work. In such a
federation the Prime Minister and President of India will always be
from the Hindi speaking area. You should have two Federations, one
Federation of the North and one Federation of the South and a
Confederation of the North and the South with three subjects for the
Confederation to legislate upon and equal representation for both the
federations.
These are the real thoughts of Mr. Rajagopalachari. They came to me as
a revelation coming as they did from the innermost heart of a
Congressman. I now regard Mr. Rajagopalachari as a prophet predicting
the break-up of India into the North and the South. We must do
everything to falsify Mr. Rajagopalachari'
It must not be forgotten that there was a civil war in the U.S.A.
between the North and the South. There may also be a civil war between
the North and the South in India. Time will supply many grounds for
such a conflict. It must not be forgotten that there is a vast
cultural difference between the North and the South and cultural
differences are very combustible.
In creating this consolidation of the North and balkanisation of the
South the Commission did not realise that they were dealing with a
political and not a merely linguistic problem.
It would be most unstatesman like not to take steps right now to
prevent such a thing happening. What is the remedy ?
in his notes, dr.ambedkar struggled with several problems raised by
the reorganization of states, weighed the pros and and cons of
linguistic states (which he favoured), and also formulated some
principles for the creation of new states. more on that later.
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