Regionalism, Communalism & Communism

Regionalism, Communalism & Communism are the three words I would like to use as attributes to describe some of the current struggles and movements that are happening in India recently. The problem lies in the urban metros that have developed all over the country. Obviously people from all parts of the country would flock to these centers for livelihood and opportunities. People from some parts of the country are more industrious, outgoing and entrepreneurial than others. So they make it big in the metros. This is being seen with jealousy by the so called local people and regional agitations are started. These agitations try to seek something like reservations for the local people (Please see my article on reservations) and try to create fear among others. Whether it is Mumbai or Hyderabad, no one discouraged the local people from operating taxis, making movies or selling pickles and home made sweets. If someone else are successful at doing that there is no need to cry foul but just try to compete. And it would be much easier being a local to that region. If the agitations are directed towards corruption it would be better, rather than inciting hatred among people.

The underlying cause is overpopulation and not enough land. I will address this issue in an other post. But for now let me conclude by saying that communism and extreme socialism have failed all over the world. Even China is aggressively capitalistic. Finally whatever the reasons are behind the regionalism, the problems should be resolved outside the urban metros. Urban metros is where India is modernizing and building various industries (software, pharmaceutical, defense, electronics, food packaging, finance etc). Metros belong to all Indians and not to a narrow set of people. There is no point in disrupting the continuous development that is happening in the metros. Now Chennai, though notorious for its language fanaticism looks much better compared to Mumbai, Hyderabad!