Separate Vidarbha: Is It Really Required?

20th January, 2010, Vidarbha observed a complete strike to support for the formation of a separate state. The demand is not new but the recent outburst is provoked as a result of the Telangana uprising.


Before moving onto the demand and its validity, let’s spare some space for what exactly is Vidarbha.

According to the Nagpur gazetteer, the state of Vidarbha has been there for over 2000 years and derives its name from a king of the same name. The present day Western Vidarbha i.e. the districts of Amravati, Akola, Yavatmal, Wardha and Buldana were prosperous regions and had some great rulers in the Satvahanas and the Vakatakas. The eastern part i.e. the districts of Nagpur, Bhandara and Chandrapur were part of the famous forest Dandakaranya. This part later came to be known as Jhaadimandal. But after decline of the Vakatakas in late 5th century AD, the prosperity declined and Vidarbha continued to be subjugated by different rulers.

The modern city of Nagpur was established by Bakht Buland, the Muslim Gond king, who had his capital at Devgad in modern Chhindwara district. He founded the city of Nagpur by joining the twelve small hamlets formerly known as Rajapur Barsa or Barasta some 300 years ago. His death brought his empire into trouble. Claims for succession ensued bloody battles. His dowager queen, Ratankunvar, asked for help to the famed Maratha warrior, Raghuji Bhonsle. In return of his help, she gave him one-third of her empire, chiefly the area around Nagpur.

Raghuji was a formidable soldier and statesman. He was in principle a commissioner of the Chhatrapati Shahu of Satara and had the tax collection rights of areas from Vidarbha to Bengal. Throughout his lifetime he fought many wars across India from Varanasi to Tanjore & Pune to Murshidabad. His conflicts with Alivardi Khan, the Peshwas and the Nizam are well known.

With him the Maratha culture came to Vidarbha. Soon, Marathi became the language of prominence but Persian kept its presence felt. Muslim influence in Vidarbha was prominent from Mughal times. The western part of Vidrabha was under Nizam rule and was called as Berar. With the advent of the British, all the Maratha patriarchs lost their control and Nagpur was no exception. An over ambitious Appasaheb bought the Subsidiary Alliance in return for his annexation to power. The British after assuming control carved the state of Central Provinces (CP) comprising present day Chhatisgarh, present day MP sans Indore & Gwalior and Eastern Vidarbha with Nagpur as the capital. Later Berar was taken away from the Nizam and the state was duly renamed CP & Berar. This continued to be the case until the reorganization of states on linguistic lines in 1960 when Vidarbha joined the other Marathi speaking parts of erstwhile Nizam regime and Bombay presidency to form Maharashtra.

Now Vidarbha comprises of 11 districts viz. Gondia, Bhandara, Nagpur, Chandrapur, Garhchiroli, Wardha, Amravati, Akola, Buldana, Washim and Yavatmal. Along with these, the leaders of the statehood agitation want to include 4 districts of MP viz. Seoni, Balaghat, Chhindwara and Betul in the new state.

Vidarbha has traditionally been agrarian. Western Vidarbha, more known for farmers’ suicides, is still chiefly agrarian. Eastern Vidarbha is endowed with large deposits of minerals and especially coal. This has given this area a chance to industrialize. Unlike Mumbai-Pune, large scale industries are still a rarity here. But a large number of small scale and medium scale industries, mostly steel-based, are in huge numbers. The chief export of Vidarbha is Electric Power. With three power plants and one more coming up, it is the basic power provider to the entire state of Maharashtra. Even the Bhusaval plant has proximity to Vidarbha. And these power plants will form the backbone of the Vidarbha economy if the state is formed.

One thing is at least true of the agitators i.e. the step-motherly attitude of the Maharashtra leaders towards Vidarbha. Even though the region has so many natural resources, its under-development remains a reason to ponder. Same parallels can be drawn with Chhattisgarh which faced similar apathy. Even though we produce almost half the power, power cuts are regularity here. Surprisingly, under the Zero Load-Shedding (ZLS) scheme, Nagpur pays more surcharge than Pune which has no power generation facility! Recently, an Orange research institute was located to Nanded for reasons unknown to anyone (Chief Minister’s constituency). Over the years the Hiwali (Winter) session has brought only parties for the elites and road blocks for the common man in Nagpur. Every year, lots of dharnas and rallies are held for the 14 days the MLAs come for their winter holiday. But the result of these agitations has always come to a nought. Farmers’ suicides, decline in agriculture, failure to open new industries, closure of many medium and small scale industries, etc etc have plagued the whole region. The region especially in and around Nagpur have seen recent growth due to MIHAN. But, even it has not brought us into the economic map. It has at least sky-rocketed the real-estate prices.

Other chief export of Vidarbha are the engineers. We produce them in quantity without providing enough quality. And most of them are generally lost to the hungry city of Pune where they turn up as IT pros. If we could have tapped the potential and utilize, we could have developed the whole region. Arts & Sciences are slowly becoming non-existent and are dying day by day. If Pune University is among the top 5 in India, Amravati and Nagpur universities are fighting for the last spots. If the present situation continues maybe they will win it without contesting!

Culturally Vidarbha is more cosmopolitan than Western Maharashtra, Konkan and Marathwada. The region is totally peaceful and language, religion, region, caste, creed or any other kind of nonsense difference never evokes any response here. The recent Naxalite menace in the jungle areas is certainly a matter of concern. But this issue is not locally created and is more the problem across all jungles in India. A more centre high-handedness is required in this matter.

The Maharashtra government has seemed to be a government which has only belonged to the city-state of Mumbai. Whatever development the state has achieved has all been concentrated there. When Mumbai started saturating, Pune was the next beneficiary. All other regions were left out. Marathwada, the region that has provided most of the CMs, is the most backward. But South-West Maharashtra i.e. districts of Solapur, Sangli, Satara and Kolhapur took the reins of development in their own hands. They didn’t form a new state. But utilized the economic constraints in their favour and turned the region into a developed region. Now Kolhapur has more per capita Mercedes ratio than any other city (except Mumbai) in the state! And the development was done only in the agrarian front as it was the only front available there. We, having all the basic infrastructural facilities, have failed to develop. What could be the reason?

The chief reason is actually the lack of leadership. The leaders over their did actually kick ass and made prosperity happen. We have a dearth of quality leaders. Here every political leader doles out colleges which in turn dole out engineers! Even though our leaders have always said that they are sidelined, how many of them have actually tried hard to get noticed! While they get chief ministerial berths both in state and centre, we get Dairy, Animal Husbandry and Non-Conventional energy sources! And our leaders make merry on these. In the recent state government the Forest Ministry has gone to a Sanglikar. But, leaders of Vidarbha, with so much of forest cover, didn’t protest! The chief leader of the statehood agitation now was a union minister in the last cabinet. But he failed to bring a single project back home. And now when he is sidelined in the present cabinet, he is back with statehood demands. Nice way to get noticed!

He has classed all Vidarbhaites to be either ‘Vidarbhavaadis’ or ‘Vidarbhadrohis’. But, I would like to mention another class, the ‘Vidarbhapremis’. As a Vidarbhapremi, I would not like a separate state. The quality of leadership prompts me to say that the new state under such under-achievers will be further under-achieving. Of the new states formed, only one i.e. Chhattisgarh has sustained development. The North-Eastern states feud over cheeky matters, Goa has uncertain leaders, Jharkhand has seen 7 governments in 9 years, Uttaranchal is ok (But the chief leader was caught in a sex tape which made me forget even Tiger Woods sexcapades). Until and unless the leaders prove that they can actually develop the region, I personally don’t believe in handing them the reins of a village leave alone the state.

The two leaders who have actually worked hard for the development, one who brought infrastructural changes and other the Cargo Hub i.e. MIHAN, are not even party to this nonsense. All the leaders of the agitation are those who have been wronged by their respective parties and seem to work for their personal gains rather than the collective good. One even talks of joining hands with the Naxals! It seems a political gimmick on their part just to grab attention. Let’s condemn these actions and request the concerned leaders to relinquish the idea of the statehood and work for the region’s development.

To change the system, we have to stay in the system. The tide of development has to be turned into our favour. The demand for statehood has actually given us to get noticed and the chance to lay down our demands and get them fulfilled. Active leadership is the need of the day and this should be channelized to negate the existing apathy and convert the reluctance into reforms. We have the necessary education potential, the natural resources, the benefit of our central location which brings great transport facilities, MIHAN & Power. Now what is required are leaders of acumen who will rise above party and personal restrictions and turn these resources into weapons to destroy under-development and poverty. It should be made understood to the top brass that Vidarbha needs attention, care & love and not negligence, sympathy and apathy.

When a brother doesn’t take care of you, you don’t sever ties with him. You talk and sometimes coerce him to give you your proper dues. Maharashtra and Vidarbha are two brothers joined at the hip. Let’s not do the surgery which will cripple both of them. Let’s allow them to be united and work for the development of Vidarbha.

I’m happy to see MH-31 on my vehicle. VD-01 is neither required and nor should it be forced.

Jai Hind !!! Jai Maharashtra !!!