The UPA’s decision to move ahead with the creation of the new state of Telangana has only managed to take the lid off the cauldron of demands regarding statehood from every nook and corner of the country including from those areas that were relatively calm because of the existence of Autonomous Councils.
Demand for a separate Bodoland in Assam, which was lying dormant for a while after the creation of Bodo Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD), now again threatens to intensify. The region already had a bloodied past when terrorist organisations like the National Democratic Front of Bodoland and Bodo Liberation Tigers were at their peak in the 90s.
The Telegraph reported that the Bodoland People’s Front has indicated that the demand for a separate Bodoland will again gather momentum triggered by the formation of Telangana.
“Hagrama Mohilary, the president of Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) and chief of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), told reporters after a meeting of the executive council of the BTC that they had demanded “same-level talk” for the creation of Bodoland as for Telangana. If the issue of Telangana is placed in Parliament, so should Bodoland, he added. The party is organising a mass rally here on August 4 to put pressure on the government on Bodoland“—The Telegraph said.
If we travel towards the west of Bodoland, another demand for statehood crops up. This demand is for the state of Kamatapur.
“The Koch-Rajbongshi community demands a separate Kamatapur state comprising a huge area in Brahmaputra Valley in Assam and six adjoining districts of West Bengal. The AKRASU leader (All Koch Rajbongshi Students Union president Bishwajit Rai) claims that there are 40 lakh Koch-Rajbongshi people living in Assam, while another 35 lakhs are in West Bengal“—rediff.com had reported way back in 31 December 2009.
This demand has also not died down yet and it already looks like the Assam government has its hands full.
Coming further down towards North Bengal, we find the demand for a separate Gorkhaland.
Bimal Gurung, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration chief, has already declared that if the UPA forms Telangana, it should also allow Gorkhalanad to be formed.
“Our demand for Gorkhaland is older than the demand for Telangana. If the Centre announces a Telangana state then it should also declare a Gorkhaland state,” Gurung had told reporters.
The demand for a separate state for the Gorkhas existed as early as the beginning of the 20th century, when an indigenous group wrote to the British administration demanding a separate administrative framework from that of Bengal.
There have been sporadic demands for the new state through the decades, but the momentum picked up in the 1980s with Gorkha leader Subhash Ghising leading a violent agitation seeking autonomy. Consequently in 1988, following sustained protests by Ghising’s party Gorkha National Liberation front, the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, a body with certain administrative powers, was formed.
Soon, dissent started pooling against Ghising, and Bimal Gurung, another flamboyant Gorkha leader, broke away away from DGHC to start his new party – Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM). Violence has been a fixture in the hills ever since with several political groups in the same region engaging with violent clashes with each other.
Tehelka reports that the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) was formed immediately after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee came to power in 2011, giving the Gorkhas a semblance of an autonomous administration. However, as time passed, Banerjee too ended up being a killjoy for the Gorkhas. Tehelka reports:
“But Darjeeling might soon see the dark days of 2008. On 29 January, Banerjee snubbed the Gorkhaland demand at a public event in Darjeeling. When a group of GJM supporter shouted pro-Gorkhaland slogans, Banerjee said, “Bengal will not be divided and if required I can act tough”. She made this statement while sharing the dais with Gurung.“—the Tehelka report said.
The UPA decision on the formation of Telangana had an immediate fallout today with Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati reiterating her demand of dividing Uttar Pradesh into four smaller states.
“It’s been a long time since the BSP government sent a proposal to divide UP into four states. BSP demands that the Central government takes a decision on state reorganisation and forms four smaller states – Purvanchal (Eastern UP), Harit Pradesh (Western UP), Bundelkhand and Awadh Pradesh (Central UP),” Mayawati was quoted.
Another stir is the one for forming a new state of Vidarbha, which has remained considerably low-key for a while now. The activists who demanded several districts that comprise Vidarbha be separated from Maharashtra, have now raised their voices again and planned a series of protests demanding a separate state.
Political leaders from Vidarbha, a region plagued by severe droughts and poverty, have argued that holistic development of the region was only possible if a separate state was formed.
According to a article titled Why Vidarbha State? by RL Pitale, the region—a conglomerate of eight Marathi speaking areas in Madhya Pradesh—was annexed to Maharashtra in 1956, under the linguistic reorganisation of states undertaken by the government of India in 1956.
In 2012, a former MP from Vidarbha, Jambuwantrao Dhote announced a strong movement demanding separation.
The biggest grievance that residents of Vidarbha have is that Maharashtra has systemically ignored its development, though it never stopped exploiting the natural resources of the region. According to some reports, Vidarbha comprises at least “two-thirds of Maharashtra’s mineral resources, three quarters of its forest resources”.
Down south, the Tulu Nadu state movement may also get stronger owing to the Telangana decision.
“Tulu Nadu is a region on the south-western coast of India. It consists of the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Karnataka, and the northern parts of the Kasargod district up to the Chandragiri river in Kerala.“— a piece on Wikipedia said.
The Tulu activists have been demanding a separate Tulu Nadu state since the 90s, keeping in mind their language and culture.
