Rahul Gandhi is trying to revive the old idea of ‘United States of South India,’ furthering India’s North-South divide

Perpetuating the long-held North vs South politics, which directly comes from the left-liberal intelligentsia of the country, Rahul Gandhi, in Kerala, said that the people in the state are interested in issue-based politics, unlike North India. He also belittled the people of Amethi, his former constituency, in his statement.

“My experience now since I have been an MP, I have also got to understand the wisdom of people of Kerala. For the first 15 years, I was an MP in the north. I had got used to a different type of politics. For me, coming to Kerala was very refreshing because suddenly I found that people are interested in issues and not just superficially but going into detail in the issues,” said Rahul Gandhi, addressing the people of Trivandrum.

“I was talking to some students in the US & I said that I really enjoy going to Kerala. It’s not just affection but the way you do your politics. If I might say so, the intelligence with which you do your politics. So, for me, it’s been a learning experience & pleasure,” added Rahul.

Rahul Gandhi not only perpetuated the long-held North vs South politics but also showed his distress over losing the Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh to Smriti Irani. Speaking about the same to ANI, Irani said, “The spiteful and vengeful politics of Rahul Gandhi which insults not only the people and voters of Amethi but seeks to create a divide between the north and south India is to be condemned by every Indian citizen.”

In the last few years, the ‘Breaking India’ brigade has coined a new idea for the country- the ‘United States of South India’. This whole notion that the people from South India pay more taxes, are more educated, interested in issue-based politics, do not vote for BJP, and so on, has been perpetuated for decades.

The left-liberal magazines like The Caravan, Frontline, and many other newspapers and websites have debated the idea of North vs South India in the last few years, especially since the rise of the BJP. Historians like Ramachandra Guha are arguing strongly for it, and leaders like Rahul Gandhi are falling for it.

The problem with these intellectuals is that they examine everything with a linear and narrow perspective rather than taking a holistic view of an idea. The linear view to examine society comes from Marxist ideology. Marx views history as a linear process where society progresses from being feudal to capitalist ultimately leading to a stateless society.

The linear examination where you examine society on one variable while keeping others constant leads to dangerous and misleading outcomes. The same happens with Indian intellectuals. They are taking a single variable which is economic productivity to argue that South Indian states should form a union. The other variables like defence and workforce required for economic productivity have been kept constant. They ignore the fact that any polity adjusts itself according to the needs of the country and different regions take responsibility for things that they are best at.

People from some regions could be good in technology, some other good for defence, some could be good in agriculture so on and so forth. India progressed in the same manner as a unit. Let’s now go back to history and examine this from the arrival of the British. At the time the British arrived in Bengal, most of the businessmen in the region were Marwaris from modern-day Rajasthan.

British expanded themselves throughout the country and the freedom movement started primarily in modern-day Punjab, Bengal, Maharashtra but the freedom fighters never asked for freedom of a particular region, it was for the whole of India. South Indian states got a better deal from the British because there was relative peace in the region and for the new industrial economy and trade, the southern part of the country was better.

When India was primarily an agricultural economy, the Indo-Gangetic plains were most productive but with a change in the course to industrial and service sector economy, the coastal areas and the southern part of India became more productive. They created an ecosystem for industrial growth taking advantage of geographical location, the northern parts started adjusting to changing environments and the ecosystem changed there. The northern states send more people in armed forces, government jobs, bureaucracy and provide a cheap migrant labour force to the western and southern parts of the country. More than half of the armed forces are constituted by the people of UP, Punjab, and Haryana.

Therefore, this whole idea of North vs South, which has been perpetuated by liberals and now raised by politicians like Rahul Gandhi, needs to be taken out of the public debate. However, people like Rahul Gandhi always put politics above the national interest and nothing else can be expected from them.