Vidarbha

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Location of Vidarbha within India (administrative boundaries before 2014)

Vidarbha ( Marathi विदर्भ ) refers to a region in the east of the Indian state of Maharashtra with the capital Nagpur . The region stands out from the rest of Maharashtra with a number of special features. In the past and present there were or are efforts to raise Vidarbha to a separate state in India.

Disambiguation, Population and Geography

The six divisions of Maharashtra. Vidarbha is made up of the two divisions Amravati and Nagpur

The boundaries of Vidarbha are not clearly defined and the name has no quasi "official" status. In general, “Vidarbha” is understood to mean the area of ​​the Nagpur and Amravati divisions within Maharashtra. Together, the two divisions comprise 11 districts of Maharashtra: Amravati , Akola , Bhandara , Buldhana , Chandrapur , Gadchiroli , Gondia , Nagpur , Wardha , Washim and Yavatmal . The entire region covers about 97,382 km² (46.090 km² Amravati division, 51.336 km² Nagpur division; slightly less than the federal states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg combined, or slightly more than the area of ​​Austria). According to the 2011 census, 21.93 million people lived in Vidarbha (10.7 million in Nagpur, 11.3 million in Amravati). The population density in 2011 was 225 inhabitants / km². In Vidarbha, about 19.5% of the population live on 31.6% of the land area of ​​Maharashtra. The dominant language of Vidarbha is Marathi in the local variant Varhadi. In addition to play Hindi , Gondi and Telugu some role. As in the rest of Maharashtra, the dominant religion is Hinduism (80.1%, Maharashtra as a whole: 79.8%), there is also a strong Buddhist community (10.9%, Maharashtra as a whole: 5.8%), and comes third Islam (8.0%, Maharashtra total: 11.5%).

To the west, Vidarbha is bordered by the Marathwada and Khandesh regions of Maharashtra, to the north by Madhya Pradesh , to the west by Chhattisgarh and to the south by Telangana . Geographically, Vidarbha is on the northeastern edge of the Dekkan Plateau and the climate is therefore hot and relatively dry in the western part, but overall more rainy than, for example, in the neighboring Marathwada and Khandesh. The main agricultural products are cotton , oranges and rice . In terms of mineral resources, there are hard coal , bauxite , iron , manganese and chrome ore , silicates and limestone. Vidarbha is home to most of Maharashtra's previously known mineral resources. Despite the agricultural use and dense settlement, there are still larger forest areas. About 56% of Maharashtra's forests are in Vidarbha, 39% in western Maharashtra and 5% in Marathwada. Economically, Vidarbha is considered to be less developed than western Maharashtra, especially as the Mumbai agglomeration .

history

Map from 1909 showing the Central Provinces and Berar Province (in light pink)

In the Middle Ages, large parts of southern India came under the rule of various Muslim maharajas and sultans. These were incorporated into the Mughal Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries, albeit in part only superficially , which reached its greatest extent around the year 1700. After that, the position of power of the Mughal Empire rapidly declined and in central India the Marathas took over rule. The Marathas were ultimately subject to the armies of the British East India Company , which gradually annexed large parts of India. In the eastern part of Vidarbha, the Principality of Nagpur was established as a British vassal state in 1818. When the last Maharaja of Nagpur died in 1853 without male heirs, his country was annexed by the British East India Company according to the doctrine of lapse and administratively incorporated into the Central Provinces . The western part of Vidarbha (about today's Amravati Division ) came under the name of Berar from 1724 nominally under the suzerainty of the Nizams of Hyderabad . In a contract with the British East India Company in 1853, the Nizam left the administration of Berar to the British in return for regular pension payments, but formally remained the sovereign. In 1936 both provinces were merged to form the Central Provinces and Berar .

After India gained independence in 1947, the various Indian princely states were gradually integrated into the new state until 1950. The demarcation of the federal states that were newly formed after the constitution was passed in 1950 was still largely based on the administrative boundaries of the colonial era. The newly formed state of Madhya Pradesh in central India largely corresponded to the former British Central Provinces and Berar with the addition of a few smaller princely states. The calls for a reorganization of the Indian national territory according to ethnic-language aspects became louder, so that in 1953 Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru set up the States Reorganization Commission , which should deal with a reorganization of the states of India. The commission presented its proposals in 1955. The original proposal was for Vidarbha to be separated from Madhya Pradesh and the area to be converted into a state of its own. This was opposed to the "Movement for a United Maharashtra" ( Samyukta Maharashtra Andolan ), which sought a federal state that should include all Marathi speakers. In an agreement dated September 28, 1953, known as the Nagpur Agreement , politicians from different parts of the Marathi-speaking area agreed on common positions. The Nagpur Agreement called for the formation of a federal state that should encompass the contiguous Marathi language area. The government of this state should be composed proportionally of representatives of the different parts of the country, according to their population. Two high courts were to be established, one in Bombay and the other in Nagpur. The resources of the state should benefit the parts of the country proportionally, whereby underdeveloped parts of the country should be given special support (Marathwada was explicitly mentioned here). At least one session of the parliament of the state to be formed should not be held in the capital Bombay , but in Nagpur every year . The discussions about the proposals of the States Reorganization Commission ultimately led to the idea of ​​a separate state of Vidarbha being rejected. Vidarbha was incorporated into the State of Bombay in the States Reorganization Act 1956 , which in turn was divided into the two states of Gujarat and Maharashtra just four years later in 1960 . Vidarbha has been part of Maharashtra since then.

Aspirations for autonomy

Since its incorporation into Maharashtra, the question of whether Vidarbha should separate as a separate state has been repeatedly raised. In particular, opinions differed as to whether the agreements in the Nagpur Agreement were actually being adhered to. Proponents of independence pointed to the economic backwardness of Vidarbha compared to the coastal region of Mahrashtra and cited this as evidence of the neglect by the government in Bombay / Mumbai. The major political parties have taken different positions on this issue. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) advocated the creation of a Vidarbha state in its election manifesto before the 1998 parliamentary elections , but this did not materialize in the subsequent years of government. In the BJP election programs of the following elections, the program item no longer appeared, possibly out of consideration for the coalition partner Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, who strictly opposes a split from Vidarbha. Individual BJP politicians, such as the former BJP chairman Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur, continue to defend this position openly. The Congress Party originally acted negatively on this issue, but before the parliamentary elections in 2014 included the demand for statehood in its election manifesto, but removed the item from its election manifesto in October 2014. The leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, Sharad Pawar , spoke out in favor of a referendum on the issue in October 2014.

Vidarbha is notorious for the high rate of peasant suicides. In 2014, according to data from the National Crime Record Bureau, 5,650 farm suicides were registered nationwide in India, 2,568 of them from Maharashtra alone, which is home to around 1/10 of the Indian population. Within Maharashtra, Vidarbha was disproportionately affected. This is often cited by independence advocates as evidence of the economic neglect of the region by the central government. Scientific studies have shown, however, that the reasons for this are not only purely economic, but more complex in nature. Over-indebtedness is cited as one of the reasons (which often involves comparatively small sums of the equivalent of a few hundred euros), but also crop failures, disappointment about the lack of government aid in times of economic crisis, family disputes, personal problems, alcoholism and others.

The pro-Vidarbha movement received considerable impetus from the decision of the Indian parliament in 2013 to create a new state of Telangana from parts of Andhra Pradesh in the direct vicinity of Vidarbha . In 2014 this decision became a reality. However, there are a number of differences between Telangana and Vidarbha. In the latter there is so far no regional political party or mass movement such as the one in Telangana Rashtra Samithi and others in Telangana. In the case of Telangana, a supposedly potentially wealthy region (measured in terms of tax revenue) wanted to split off from a poorer region, in the case of Vidarbha the situation would be exactly the opposite, i.e. Vidarbha would have to reckon with the subsidies that have so far flowed from the coastal region into the interior , would dry up in the event of a spin-off.

In response to the discontent in the region, the Mumbai government launched extensive development programs for Vidarbha.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Anand Bhisey: Profile: Vidarbha. rediff.com, October 12, 2004, accessed October 23, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Population Census 2011. Census of India, accessed on October 25, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Abhijit Ranade: Mineral Map of Vidarbha. April 16, 2011, accessed October 23, 2015 .
  4. ^ Economic Survey of Maharashtra. (No longer available online.) Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Planning Department, Government of Maharashtra, India, formerly original ; accessed on October 24, 2015 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / mahades.maharashtra.gov.in  
  5. ↑ Home >> Forest at a Glance >> Tree Cover. Maharashtra Forest Department, accessed October 24, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Home >> Publication and Reports >> Reports >> Statistical Outline 2010.xls. Maharashtra Forest Department, accessed October 24, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Report of the High Committee on Balanced Regional Development Issues in Maharashtra, p. 421: Annex 1.1: Nagpur Pact dated September 28, 1953 (Nagpur Agreement). (PDF) Government of Maharashtra Planning Department, October 2013, accessed October 25, 2015 .
  8. ^ Vivek Deshpande: For and against in the debate over Vidarbha. October 15, 2014, accessed October 25, 2015 .
  9. ↑ BJP Manifesto 1998, Chapter 3: Agenda for Institutional Rejuvenation. Retrieved October 28, 2015 .
  10. ↑ People don't support demand for Vidarbha state: Shiv Sena. Business Standard, August 14, 2014, accessed October 26, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Sanjeev Unhale: Statehood for Vidarbha, a headache for Shiv Sena. IBNLive, October 2, 2014, accessed on October 25, 2015 .
  12. ↑ Nitin Gadkari seeks all-party support on Vidarbha statehood issue. NDTV, September 29, 2013, accessed October 26, 2015 .
  13. ^ Sanjay Jog: Maharashtra polls: Congress drops Vidarbha statehood from manifesto. Business Standard, October 3, 2014, accessed October 26, 2015 .
  14. ^ Faisal Malik: NCP chief Sharad Pawar for plebiscite for Vidarbha statehood. Deccan Chronicle, October 13, 2014, accessed October 26, 2015 .
  15. ↑ P. Sainath: Maharashtra: 'graveyard of farmers'. The Hindu, November 14, 2007, accessed October 25, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Kunal Purohit: 1 in 3 farmer suicides in Vidarbha over Rs 10,000 debt: Study. Hindustan Times, Mumbai, July 21, 2015, accessed October 24, 2015 .
  17. ↑ 12 Farmers in Vidarbha Commit Suicide In 72 Hours. NDTV, December 28, 2014, accessed October 24, 2015 .
  18. ↑ Amol R. Dongre, Pradeep R. Deshmukh: Farmers' suicides in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, India: a qualitative exploration of their causes. J Inj Violence Res. 2012; 4 (1): 2-6. doi: 10.5249 / jivr.v4i1.68
  19. ↑ Pradnya Waghule: Pro-Vidarbha leaders root for statehood. dnaindia.com, August 11, 2013, accessed October 23, 2015 .
  20. ^ Makarand Gadgil: Separate Vidarbha makes economic sense but lacks political backing. livemint, August 5, 2013, accessed October 25, 2015 .
  21. ^ Cong-NCP plotted to keep Vidarbha backward region: Devendra Fadnavis. The Indian Express, December 19, 2014, accessed October 26, 2015 .
  22. ^ Report of the High Committee on Balanced Regional Development Issues in Maharashtra. (PDF) Government of Maharashtra Planning Department, October 2013, accessed October 25, 2015 .