It's Time to Divide the Bigger Indian States into Manageable Units

A time bomb, that could rip apart the unity of India, is silently ticking in the background. We can already hear the rumblings from various states who are feeling the heat of unfair allocations of resources based on the population.

- Anand Neelakantan

The delimitation exercise that would happen soon has the potential to rip apart India, if it is not handled carefully.

When India had got independence, our problem was our burgeoning population and our limited resources. We didn't have enough to feed our people and depended on the aid of the rich countries. Three generations of Indians grew up on the mantra of population reduction. All states were urged to curb their population that was supposed to solve all our issues miraculously. The southern states took the lead and managed to bring down their population growth, while the big states in the North, often dubbed as Bimaru states, were as sincere in their implementation of this policy as they were about the three languages formula. The results are for everyone to see. Indian federalism is facing its greatest challenge now as the resource allocation ratio—the proportion of tax revenues paid back to each state—from the Central Government adopted the 2011 Census instead of 1971 one.