UPSC Mains 2016 GS Paper 1 Q12: model answer
What is the basis of regionalism? Is it that unequal distribution of benefits of development on regional basis eventually promotes regionalism? Substantiate your answer.
What the question wants
Explain the bases of regionalism and test whether uneven development is the main cause.
How to structure it
What is ... Is it ... Substantiate: three tasks.
- Bases of regionalism
- Case for uneven development as the cause
- Other causes
- Verdict with evidence
How to think it through
The question has half-written your answer: 'unequal distribution of benefits'. Agree with it, then complicate it. Vidarbha's farmers fit the economic story. But Tamil linguistic pride rose in a state that was not poor, and Khalistan grew in prosperous Punjab. Economics lights the fuse, identity is the gunpowder.
Model answer
Maharashtra is among India's richest states, yet the demand for a separate Vidarbha rests on the charge that the region's cotton farmers and irrigation needs were neglected while Mumbai and western Maharashtra prospered.
Bases of regionalism
- Geography and history: distinct physical regions, older kingdoms (Hyderabad, Travancore).
- Language and culture: the linguistic states movement after Potti Sriramulu's death (1952).
- Ethnicity and tribe: the North-East, Jharkhand.
- Economic grievance: unequal development, resource drain, migrant competition.
- Political mobilisation by regional parties.
How uneven development feeds it
- Backward regions inside states: Vidarbha, Bundelkhand, Telangana, Saurashtra.
- Resource-rich but poor tribal regions: Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh.
- 'Sons of the soil' movements in better-off states fear migrants taking jobs (Shiv Sena in the 1960s, Assam movement 1979–85).
Where it is not enough
- Tamil and Punjabi regionalism grew from language and identity in relatively prosperous states.
- Gorkhaland is about identity more than income.
- Khalistan militancy in the 1980s arose in Punjab, then India's richest state per head, showing that grievance can be religious and political rather than economic.
- Dravidian politics rested on language and anti-Brahmin social reform.
- Leaders often use regional feeling to win elections, whatever the level of development.
Verdict
Uneven development is a strong driver, especially for sub-state demands, but it works through identity. Balanced regional planning (Backward Regions Grant Fund, Aspirational Districts) answers the economic part; respect for language and culture answers the rest.
Draw: Flow chart: uneven development + identity + leadership → regionalism.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
Sons of the soil (Myron Weiner), Article 371 special provisions, BRGF, Vidarbha, Bundelkhand, Assam Accord 1985.
Where most answers lose marks
- Answering 'yes, only economics'. The question invites a qualified yes.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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