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. Andhra Pradesh and Bihar are poorer than Nepal. Human development—measured by life expectancy, health, educational attainment, and poverty—in the GIP is comparable to that of the poorest countries. In the peninsula, it compares favorably 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 peninsula are more advanced than India on every other count.

This has led to talk in the peninsula of "GIP subsidies" given by the peninsula to the poor GIP states. To be clear, political power is vested in the GIP. The obscurantist, Hindi-imposing nationalist government is in power at the center and in most of the GIP, fueling feelings of discrimination.

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