India More United Than Political Perceptions

Rajdeep Sardesai Senior Journalist

What started as a question of women’s representation in legislatures has now brought to the fore a much more controversial question. Along with this, that concern has also started raising its head again, which India has been trying to balance for a long time: the difference between North and South!

Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has warned that if any step is taken that will harm the southern states, it could lead to unprecedented agitation. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has also said something similar. Are these political exaggerations? Or a sign of deeper structural concerns? The uncomfortable answer is: both.

Start with the numbers. Population growth in the northern states over the past five decades has been much faster than that in the south. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka invested in public health, education and family planning, which stabilized their population growth over time. A large part of the Hindi belt was left behind in this process.

If the redrawing of constituencies is done strictly on the basis of population – as envisaged in the Constitution – then the South’s share in the Lok Sabha is almost certain to decline after the 2026 census. This is also the demographic reality. But delimitation is not illegal.

It is based on the democratic principle of equal representation – one person, one vote. Freezing the number of parliamentary seats was always a temporary compromise, not a permanent arrangement. Sooner or later, representation had to adapt to changes in population. The real problem lies elsewhere: in politics, and in faith.

When Home Minister Amit Shah mooted the idea of ​​an equal increase of 50 per cent in Lok Sabha seats among states, it could have become the cornerstone of a workable compromise. That some arrangements should be made so that no area suffers absolute loss. But this proposal came late and seemed reactionary. Whereas in such a big decision, consensus and credibility can be built only by patiently reaching out to everyone.

If there had been consultation with all parties in advance – including Chief Ministers of different regions, an environment of trust and shared participation could have been created. Instead, the impression now emerges that decisions were decided first and outlined later. There is great power of perception in a federal system. The perception of unilateral decisions adds to the South’s deep concern that the numerically dominant North may over time dictate national priorities.

Still, reducing it to a simplistic dichotomy of North versus South would not be a very smart analysis. While on one hand the South is worried about the possibility of political marginalization, on the other hand it has quietly strengthened its influence in other areas. Economically, the southern states are the engines of India’s growth – they contribute disproportionately more to GDP, exports and tax revenues. Cities like Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad are deeply connected to global innovation-networks. If Parliament reflects the population, then the economy has growing potential – and the South is ahead on this front.

Social indicators also tell the same story. The South consistently outperforms the rest of the country in terms of literacy, healthcare and human development. Now he faces a dilemma: should he suffer the penalty of being overtaken by losing his political power?

The reality of India does not accept clear regional divisions. Cultural and social integration deepens in ways that politics often ignore. For example, Ranchi’s MS Dhoni enjoys almost devotional support in Chennai.

Or a film like RRR achieves pan-India success. Add to this the flow of migration – North Indians in the tech hubs of the South and South Indian professionals working in the North – and the picture that emerges is of an India that is much more interconnected than political perceptions would suggest.

Can’t we develop a hybrid model of public representation that, along with population, also accepts the performance of a state, its fiscal contribution or its human development?

(These are the author’s own views)

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