Harit Pradesh - History, Support and Opposition

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).