The United States Of Inequality

India's south is richer and better developed than its north. But incomes are unevenly spread in either half. Urban decay and misogyny are just as common in both

- RATHIN ROY

To live in peninsular or south India means, for the most part, to live in a more prosperous India than the Great Indian Plain (GIP), a polite geographical name for northern and eastern India.

Peninsular states have per capita incomes (PCIs) at least double that of GIP states. Tamil Nadu and Kerala have PCIs close to Indonesia's. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are poor, like Nepal. Human development—measured by life expectancy, health, educational attainment, and poverty—in the peninsula is comparable to that of the poorest countries. In the peninsula, it compares favourably with middle-income countries.

The difference between the GIP and the peninsula is the same as between India and China. The former is only ahead of the latter in population. China and the rest of East Asia are more advanced than India on every other count.

This has led to talk in the peninsula of "subsidies" given by the peninsula to the poor GIP states. To be clear, political power is vested in the GIP. The current, Hindi-imposing nationalist government is in power at the centre and in most of the GIP, fuelling a sense of discrimination.

The ignoring of the peninsula in successive finance commissions—the 15th commission had zero representation from the peninsula—the preponderance of senior Central government officials and armed forces officers from the GIP, the favouritism shown to GIP states when promoting investment, and the disgraceful behaviour of GIP-born governors of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala in subverting the duly elected state governments further fuelled this resentment.