During the 1950s, regionalism was seen by many observers as a major threat to Indian unity. However, a rich legacy of national movement of recognising regional and linguistic diversity was to pull through the frictions created by various regional demands.
The national movement functioned as an all India movement and not as a federation of regional national movements. There was no counterpoising of national identity to regional identity, it recognised both and did not see the two in conflict.
Aspirations to develop the state one belongs to or remove poverty and implement social justice should not be seen as regionalism. Nor should the defiance of federal features of the constitution be seen as regionalism. Points out the historian Bipan Chandra “in fact a certain interregional rivalry around the achievement of positive goals would be quite healthy.
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Also local patriotism can help people overcome divisive loyalties to caste or religious communities.” Though India did witness one major regional movement with aspirations of separation in the form of DMK in Tamil Nadu, by and large a sense of cultural domination and discrimination has been overcome by the Indian nation by emphasising cultural diversity.
Nonetheless, quite a few regional disputes do exist and they have the potential of stirring interstate hostility. There has been friction between different states over the sharing of river waters. This has been between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Karnataka and Andhra and Punjab and Rajasthan. Boundary disputes have risen but of the formation of linguistic states. Construction of irrigation and power dams has created such conflicts.
But while these disputes tend to persist for a long time and occasionally arouse passions, they have on the whole remained within a narrow limit. However, regional imbalances persist as a major challenge to the Indian nation in the form of economic disparities between different regions. Colonialism had created modern economic infrastructure according to its needs for the market and raw materials. As a result some regions remained completely backward.
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Only a few enclaves around Calcutta, Bombay and Madras had undergone modern industrial development. Attempts were made in the post-independence phase to tackle these disparities through a combined effort of allocation of resources to the backward states through planning and disbursement of grants by the Finance Commission. But regional disparities have persisted.