History, Support and Opposition
Uttar Pradesh is a large state, and "the cultural divide between the east and the west is considerable, with the purabiyas (easterners) often being clubbed with Biharis in the perception of the westerners." At the village level, some commentators have observed that Western Uttar Pradesh resembles Haryana and Rajasthan more than it does Eastern Uttar Pradesh, and the eastern region resembles Bihar more than it does Western Uttar Pradesh. Also, due to the successes of the Green Revolution, Western Uttar Pradesh has experienced both economic and social development, in a fashion similar to Haryana and Punjab. Eastern Uttar Pradesh, like Bihar, has not benefited to the same extent. The resulting disparity is believed to be partially responsible for the demand for separate statehood in Western Uttar Pradesh.
In his 1955 critique of the proposed States Reorganisation Act, Thoughts on Linguistic States, B. R. Ambedkar had advocated the division of Uttar Pradesh into three states - Eastern, Central and Western, with capitals at Meerut, Kanpur and Allahabad respectively - in order to prevent excessively large states from dominating politics at the national level. The act was passed in 1956, however, keeping Uttar Pradesh intact as a single state. Later, in 1972, fourteen MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh state assembly moved an unsuccessful resolution to divide the state into three units (Braj Pradesh, Awadh Pradesh and Purbi Pradesh).
Read more about this topic: Harit Pradesh
Famous quotes containing the words support and/or opposition:
“... married women work and neglect their children because the duties of the homemaker become so depreciated that women feel compelled to take a job in order to hold the respect of the community. It is one thing if women work, as many of them must, to help support the family. It is quite another thing—it is destructive of woman’s freedom—if society forces her out of the home and into the labor market in order that she may respect herself and gain the respect of others.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)