On “distant” Assam and “mainland” India
I doubt many of you noticed two innocuous words in a tribute to Bhupen Hazarika in Firstpost earlier this week. The words (highlighted below) were “distant” and “mainland“. The “distant” was a reference to Assam and the “mainland” was supposed to be India.
I turned to long-time blog reader Dinesh for help.  In an email, I asked him if he could help with his whiz research skills to make the case that Assam is as distant from Delhi as Andhra Pradesh and less so than Tamil Nadu and Kerala and to figure out what is “mainland” India and where does it end?
I mentioned in my email that Assam shares a border with Paschim Banga and is close to Bihar. It is closer to these 2 “mainland” states than Maharashtra or Kerala. And that using phrases like “distant” and “mainland” reinforces feeling of separateness. Dinesh did not disappoint. He turned up with the following data and the map below: distance from New Delhi to Mumbai: 1400 kms; from New Delhi to Bangalore: 2088 kms; from New Delhi to Chennai: 2,148 kms. Compare this with distance from Guwahati to New Delhi: 1972 kms (Please note that Dinesh has created a new map which you see below, to replace the earlier one which had an incorrect depiction of India’s boundaries).
Draw your own conclusions. As for “mainland” India, “Politically and historically, the term has little significance, and is mostly used only by amateur radio operators as the territories outside mainland India have a different call sign block” [ link]. In essence, Dinesh noted that there is “no such place on earth“! Still wonder why our fellow citizens from north-eastern states feel “distant” from “mainland” India?
P.S. While on North-East, I hope at least some of you read and shared this link via the facebook page?
Related Post: One Country, many Worlds..and a forgotten Manipur and a first-hand account of the blockade
Thanks for pointing this out !
Once I spoke to a journalist in Delhi about not covering North East India properly & adequately.
He relied, “Personally I have tried but was told off by my editor saying that for Hindi news : India starts from Kashmir to Maharashtra & from Gujarat to Bengal. People just dont but anything outisde of thisl”
Wonder if public shapes the media or the media shapes the Public. I guess both are supposed to shape each other & clearly neither is doing a good job…!
More an image created in minds and hearts by those who used this as a ploy to garner benefits of all sorts and kind on good,decent and simple folks !!
Only two comments on the post, about 1 per 100 views as against 1 per 20-25 views for some other posts. Let us set that right and let us bring something from other posts.
I am interested in knowing what Lal Bahadur Shashtri did for Assam. Or for that matter, MM Singh, AB Bajpayee and so on. I know KPS Gill did a lot by holding IHF elections in Assam. For rulers of sports bodies, NE states have been very handy in last couple of decades. Lot of number of states so a lot of votes that could be very very useful in keeping one’s hold on governing bodies…..
May be these words were ‘copied’ from ‘western sources’.
But for sure, there are ‘forces in action’ who wants to see developments of these kinds of ‘fault lines.
But Our govt. is as always, sleeping.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Standard_Time
“The country’s east–west distance of more than 2,000 km (1,200 mi) covers over 28 degrees of longitude, resulting in the sun rising and setting almost two hours earlier on India’s eastern border than in the Rann of Kutch in the far west. Inhabitants of the north–eastern states have to advance their clocks with the early sunrise and avoid the extra consumption of energy after daylight hours.[5]
In the late 1980s, a team of researchers proposed separating the country into two or three time zones to conserve energy. The binary system that they suggested involved a return to British–era time zones; the recommendations were not adopted.[5][6]
In 2001, the government established a four–member committee under the Ministry of Science and Technology to examine the need for multiple time zones and daylight saving.[5] The findings of the committee, which were presented to Parliament in 2004 by the Minister for Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal, did not recommend changes to the unified system, stating that “the prime meridian was chosen with reference to a central station, and that the expanse of the Indian State was not large.”[7]
Though the government has consistently refused to split the country into multiple time zones, provisions in labour laws such as the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 do allow the Central and State governments to define and set the local time for a particular industrial area.[8] In Assam, tea gardens follow a separate time zone known as the Tea Garden Time or Bagantime that is one hour ahead of IST.[9]”
I have one small nitpick to your blog picture. It shows J&K and Arunachal Pradesh as Disputed territory border.
A different map should have been chosen. This is not about questioning your Rashtra-bhakti, but about presenting the right message when this blog article is shared with other people (some Bharatiyas some foreigners, some NRIs, some RNIs).
I hope you will be able to fix the map.
Fellow Bharatiya.
@Prakash: I too would be interested in knowing that. Would you have time to do some research?
@Sandeep: The government sure is sleeping!
@Prahaar: Good point and observation. I will request Dinesh to see if we can set this right.
Shantanu, the thoughts behind this post of yours are truly commendable; the term “Mainland India” is certainly not helping with the sense of isolation and creeping alienation in the Northeast.
That said, while this “distance-map” has been used to make a valid point and is dripping with well-meaning patriotism, let me ask you this- what makes distance from Delhi a reliable or unbiased indicator of “Indianness” (whatever that means), since that seems to be implied through your map- are we not falling into the trap of replacing one extremely flawed definition(the geographical remoteness and relative inaccessibility, coupled with perceived physical and cultural differences of the Northeast)with another that is equally and perhaps even more insidiously flawed? By this measure, Delhiwalas’ would be the very epitome of “Indian-ness” with the rest of the country playing resignedly for second place on the patriotic sweepstakes,as it were.
The political, geographic and historical factors that lead to the pragmatic choice of a city(good old Dilli in this case)as the capital of the nation must not be extrapolated to suggest that it automatically represents the ideal(in any sense) which the rest of the nation must aspire to, or that commitment to the unity and integrity or even the concept of India is a function of proximity to Delhi.
@Prashanth: Agree fully with your concluding lines..
Pl don’t read too much into the choice of Delhi..It was chosen simply to make a point (and because most english language media is Delhi-centric).
Hope that clarifies..
Speaking of maps, here’s a link from BBC where they’ve completely removed J&K from the Indian map.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15693092
@6 Shantanu, I am not particularly interested in one leader or one province or one idea. I am interested in finding out whether people put ideas such as Nationalism and Good leadership to a rigorous test.
I know that late Rajeev Gandhi formalised the importance of Assam with the Assam accord. I notice, on this blog, that there is praise for late LB Shastri, and there also is a mention of the neglect of Assam. I don’t however notice the mention of those who tried to set things right. This is a thought experiment. It is up to you (or those who revere late LB Shastri) to answer the question. Absent any such information, I would know what the answer to my question is likely to be.
@Prakash: I did *not* request you to research one leader or one province or one idea. I merely asked if you could help answer the question you yourself raised in your comment.
You could have given a simple “Yes” or “No” as an answer.
And it is a little unfair to compare LB Shastri with others. He was PM for barely 19 months (and under fairly difficult circumstances, including intra-party politics).
Also, I am not sure you can say “Rajeev Gandhi formalised the importance of Assam with the Assam accord”. I don’t think he had much choice at the time. Assam was on boil in those years and something had to be done. As you may know, one of the key issues that led to the agitation & unrest at the time – illegal infiltration from Bangladesh – continues unresolved till date.
My general point was that our leadership (across the board) has failed this vital and strategic region. In fact, I did not name any leader at all in my post. Are you seeing ghosts where there are none?
P.S. As an aside, “It’s a matter of shame that after 26 years of the Accord nothing has happened. Be it the Congress, the BJP, the Left or the AGP, every party is responsible for it,” (AASU adviser Saujjal Bhattacharyyahe) rued, adding that the Indo-Bangla border was yet to be sealed.[link]
@Kaffir: Shocking. Thanks for alerting me…I am going to write a complaint.
Can all commentators on this post do so too? Will also post this on twitter & fb
Shantanu, left feedback for BBC, letting them know of the inaccurate map used.
I wish the official Indian government website (http://india.gov.in/ ) had an official map of India which could be provided to the errant media, but I was unable to find one (if it exists). I left a note for them too.
Here is the link to the wikipedia article about late LB Shastri’s premiership. Here are a few lines from the same..
After the death of Nehru, several leaders of the ruling Indian National Congress nominated Shastri due to his socialist background, to stand against the conservative, pro-business Morarji Desai. With the backing of Congress President Kumaraswami Kamaraj, Shastri became the party’s choice for Prime Minister.[2]
So much for difficult intra-party politics. And now back to Assam. After the 1962 debacle and the 1965 war, any visionary leader would have given a lot of thought to ALL borders. I wonder if late LB Shastri did. ( White revolution, NDDB, Amul are some of his significant contributions, but I haven’t heard of any initiatives about language or better integration of regions along the national borders. I would be glad if someone could let us know).
@Kaffir: Thanks…I am going to do that too, later today..Also, I think I have an official map of India which I will locate and upload under “Resources” https://satyameva-jayate.org/links/
***
@Prakash (#14): This was an interesting “thought experiment” for me.
I notice that you have completely avoided answering my question (in #6 above) which could have been a simple “Yes” or “No”.
In spite of this post not being about any leader – and in spite of me categorically saying that our leadership (across the board) has failed us (in #11), you insist on seeing ghosts where there are none.
As for Sh Shastri, pl do read outside of Wikipedia too. This for instance: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?224865
And pl re-read what I wrote: “..under fairly difficult circumstances, including intra-party politics)”. Fairly difficult circumstances included a nation coming out of the humiliation of ’62, a republic that was still less than 2 decades old, the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu and the war with Pakistan, not to mention hostility from within the party.
Do you think that these circumstances were “normal”?
Anyways, I will stop here. This is my last response to you on this post.
P.S. Have you left any feedback/made any complaint to the BBC re. the map mentioned by Kaffir in #9? If not, can you please consider doing so? Thanks.
@15. Thanks for posting my comment (#14) after moderation. Till that comment, the posting was automatic. I noticed that this one went through the editorial gate.
As for politics, it is best to consider the results that we can easily see and check. For example, regarding Assam and late LB Shastri, we know that he was the Transport minister from 1951 to 1956. For that period, I would judge his performance by asking whether he travelled to Assam any time, and whether he did anything to improve the transport infrastructure in Assam.
As for BBC, you very well know my views. We pay licence fee and BBC is answerable to all of us. I will be glad to write to BBC if there is a well defined purpose. Do please let us know when you get the link to the official map of India as designated by the Indian government. I will write to BBC, and I will also request some others to write to BBC with a clear demand that we would like to see the official version of the map on the BBC site. Of course, if there is no official map designated by the Indian government, then I would not like to write to BBC because it would then be a wasted initiative.
@Prakash: I know I had said that my earlier comment was the last one in response to your remarks..
However I cannot let an insinuation like this pass without being challenged: “Till that comment, the posting was automatic. I noticed that this one went through the editorial gate”
I know you have enough technical knowledge to understand spam filters. I use a free filter called Akismet. It sometimes plays up i.e. acts strange, blocking comments and content that is otherwise fairly innocuous (as regular commentators of this blog will know from their experience too). When it does act so, I clear the comment as soon as I can.
I am somewhat surprised (and disappointed) that you thought I would “edit” comments I don’t agree with. I thought you had been with the blog long enough to know I would not do that.
Sorry if the perceived edit was just a software action. I missed that point.
BTW, has BBC removed the map that link you posted?
@Kaffir, Prakash, All: The map seems to have been taken off!
Kaffir: I dont know what you wrote but it clearly had the desired effect. If you don’t mind, pl do share here…and well done + Thanks a lot!!
Important: Here is the link to the official map(s) of India. You can also download them for free (roughly 2M download)
http://www.surveyofindia.gov.in/soi_geo.html
Hope this helps. Thanks..
Good work, Shantanu. Keep it up.
Shantanu, I don’t have a copy of my email/message (I submitted it through BBC website), but I told them that the map was incorrect, that J&K was very much part of India, gave them a link to GOI website that lists the states and told them that putting an inaccurate map reflects badly on BBC and the writer. I do wish that I’d taken a screenshot of the article with the inaccurate map – they don’t even mention any edits at the bottom (i.e. the map was removed), and it’d have been better if they’d replaced the map instead of removing it.
@Prakash, All: The credit must go to Kaffir..
I did manage to locate a cached copy of the website, after snooping around a bit on the net. The offending map is clearly visible..Have taken screenshots..Expect a blog post on this later tonight/ tomorrow..