India shall always stand united
22 Aug 2014 4:23 AM IST
Waving the politics of regionalism and creating a divide is nothing new in India. Take for example, India’s youngest state, Telangana which conducted an intensive household survey on Monday and Tuesday as ordered by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. The survey is said to be voluntary without any element of compulsion. A state government holiday on 19 August was also declared so that people could participate in large numbers.
The government has denied that the survey will be used to determine nativity, or be misused for the ethnic profiling of those who are not from Telangana but live or work in Hyderabad. But what needs to be understood is the fact that behind such arbitration, there is a concerted effort to launch scathing attacks on those who have migrated to other areas within the country from their own state and also float regional chauvinism to a great extent. All this is directed to create a barrier to the process of fostering national integration.
Maharashtra-based parties like Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena are known for targeting migrant labourers from other parts of the country particularly from Bihar, arguing that their presence in the city would hit job opportunities for locals.
However, as history would witness, internal migration has always been a force for the growth of local economy which eventually helps in the growth of the entire country. In Chennai, there has been an increased presence of migrants from Odisha. During the peak of Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu, members from the Tamil Brahmin communities were forced to migrate to other parts of the country and foreign nations.
It is unfortunate that our leaders practice such petty politics to attain individual goals and create divide amongst countrymen. Our diversity of languages, religion and culture gives India a definite vibrancy. Despite repulsive rhetoric from within the nation, India is certainly growing as an emerging power, much above regional parochialism and political cynicism.
The government has denied that the survey will be used to determine nativity, or be misused for the ethnic profiling of those who are not from Telangana but live or work in Hyderabad. But what needs to be understood is the fact that behind such arbitration, there is a concerted effort to launch scathing attacks on those who have migrated to other areas within the country from their own state and also float regional chauvinism to a great extent. All this is directed to create a barrier to the process of fostering national integration.
Maharashtra-based parties like Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena are known for targeting migrant labourers from other parts of the country particularly from Bihar, arguing that their presence in the city would hit job opportunities for locals.
However, as history would witness, internal migration has always been a force for the growth of local economy which eventually helps in the growth of the entire country. In Chennai, there has been an increased presence of migrants from Odisha. During the peak of Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu, members from the Tamil Brahmin communities were forced to migrate to other parts of the country and foreign nations.
It is unfortunate that our leaders practice such petty politics to attain individual goals and create divide amongst countrymen. Our diversity of languages, religion and culture gives India a definite vibrancy. Despite repulsive rhetoric from within the nation, India is certainly growing as an emerging power, much above regional parochialism and political cynicism.
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