Separatism Rampant

When Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1953 created India's first state with linguistic boundaries, setting a precedent for the big boundary reshuffle of 1956, many Indians objected that language was not the only basis on which to establish a community of interest. They felt that Nehru risked encouraging a chain reaction of fragmentation, with different sections demanding statehood on any convenient pretext just when India most needed to find unity in its bewildering diversity.

Last week some of their apprehensions seemed about to be realized. To the sound of conch shells and church bells, India's bilingual state of Bombay was formally divided into Marathi-speaking Maharashtra, with Bombay as the capital, and Gujarati-speaking Gujarat, with Ahmedabad as its capital. Even before the noisy celebration died down, Maharashtra police in Nagpur 400 miles away were teargassing 40,000 demonstrators demanding still another state of their own--Vidarbha.

By Nehru's reasoning, the rioting Vidarbhans should have been overjoyed at being included in Maharashtra, since they speak the Marathi tongue. But Vidarbhans had another grievance. They have a thriving cotton and textile economy, fear they will be exploited in taxation and neglected in appropriations unless they can have their own state, separate from both Maharashtra and Gujarat.

At week's end few Indian officials gave Vidarbha much chance of becoming a reality, though Nehru's study commission had recognized that the section had its own identity and could probably make a self-sustaining state. But having once opened the lid of the Pandora's box of separatism, Nehru clearly faced a continuing fight getting it shut again.

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