Policy and Politics Behind Creation of New States in India

Abstract

This research paper indicates that it is not the case that social movement's fall neatly into identity- or interest- based categories. Instead, some movements are encouraged to foreground identity claims as a result of the broader political context in which they operate. Instead, the questioning of borders took place in the course of the processing of social movement demands in local politics. As the world's largest multi-ethnic democracy, India has a federal Constitution that is well-equipped with administrative devices that offer apparent recognition and measures of self-governance to territorially concentrated ethnic groups. This article analyzes how demands for political autonomy—or statehood—within the federal system have been used as a frame for social movement mobilization. It focuses on the most recent states to have been created in India: Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, which came into being in 2000.