Four-state solution

With the upcoming assembly election as backdrop,Chief Minister Mayawati has outraced her political competitors by bringing the proposal for Uttar Pradeshs partition into the state legislature. With the notable exception of the Samajwadi Party,there is near unanimity among the major political forces in the state that it needs to be broken into more manageable units. It is proposed that UPs elephantine girth be carved into four parts Awadh Pradesh,Poorvanchal,Bundelkhand and Paschim Pradesh. Like the BSP,the Congress has long championed this move,and the BJP has consistently pushed for smaller,easily administrable states so the only conflict is over the method of reorganisation and over who takes the credit.

Uttar Pradesh is an interesting case,where the decision to part is not the result of identity struggle,a question of culturally distinct regions locked in a mutually hostile relationship,or even the result of resource imbalance,as in many other states. It is merely a dispassionate recognition of the fact that UP is splayed over too large a territory to be a coherent unit,and far-apart regions are forced to compete for resources and attention from a remote capital. Many areas,like Bundelkhand,have specific grievances that cannot be fit into state-wide prescriptions.

However,now that partition is a real possibility,it is easier to imagine the possibilities that it could inaugurate. Four states would mean four capitals,with attention lavished on each. There will,hopefully,be a rejuvenation of the fabled old towns strewn across the current Uttar Pradesh. Apart from Lucknow,which now holds on to a disproportionate share of the states largesse,other urban hubs will bid for infrastructure upgrades and renewed notice from the Centre and their own states the pilgrimage towns of Hindus and Muslims,industrial cities,old centres of culture. Allahabad,Varanasi,Aligarh,Kanpur,Meerut,as well as the Unnaos and Balrampurs will now get a fair stab at resources,and their urban futures must be rationally,sensitively planned. As these towns look forward to getting out of Lucknows all-encompassing shadow and thriving,a new social and economic geography is set to emerge in Uttar Pradesh.