Status of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand after division

Abstract

India acceded to the global changes by initiating economic reforms. Liberalization of the economy had unshackled new centers of political interest and influence. A retreat of the central state meant greater latitude for the state and local level constituencies and a shift in the locus of decision making to the regions. In foreign policy, it meant realignments in the region. In the 1990s, a new reactive connection had emerged between rising Islamic and Hindu extremism, Indo-Pakistan relations, and the conflict over Kashmir. A weak and unstable Pakistan was even more dangerous to India’s control over its borders in the north and the west than an aggressive Pakistan, driven by resurgent Islam. While these shifts altered the context of anxiety over Border States, the rise of Hindu nationalism led by the BJP and of powerful ethnic and caste parties in politically important states within India altered the basis of domestic politics.