Delimitation and States Reorganisation: For a Better Democracy in Bharat

Bharat is currently engaged in a process of re-imagining itself.

- Karti Sandilya

For about seven decades after Independence in 1947, the country saw itself in terms of a liberal democracy in the Western mould, pursuing economic policies based on Fabian socialism. As the authors of the book under review note, "Independent India simply fell into another British-constructed identitarian cul-de-sac." But all that changed with the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, when, for the first time in 30 years, a single political party won an absolute parliamentary majority on its own. Even more remarkably, that political party was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose earlier incarnation (the Jan Sangh) had once been banned and which in 1984 had only two seats in Parliament. Something clearly had changed in the country's political landscape; something much deeper than just outrage at the unchecked corruption of the Indian National Congress (INC) that had led a coalition government since 2004.

In fact, the 2014 election can now be seen as a political watershed, when Bharat signaled that it was time to slough off an ill-fitting and uncomfortable skin and start developing a persona more in tune with its dharmic civilization and heritage.

The years since 2014 have seen an outpouring of books, podcasts and articles giving voice and shape to the new Bharat that is emerging. Desiraju's earlier book (Bharat: India 2.0) sat squarely in this renaissance of Indic writing. It set out radical new thinking about the fundamental changes required for the new Bharat to come fully into being. It also pre-figured a bold proposal for reorganizing the country into 75 small states (in place of the current 28 states and 8 Union Territories).

In his new book under review, co-authored with Deekhit Bhattacharya, Desiraju fleshes out his thoughts on states' reorganization, marries them to the impending delimitation of parliamentary constituencies, and shows why constitutional concerns need not be a constraint.