Since independence, several states in India have been separated and united. The marathi speaking region in erst while Hyderabad state was united with Bombay state to form Maharashtra. Gujarat was separatd from Bombay state. Similarly, I remember reading news about the separation of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. On the same lines, the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed in 1956 after merging the Andhra State and the telugu speaking region in Hyderabad state. Now, I hear telugu speaking region in Andhra Pradesh (read telangana) is going to be separated. Till then, its fine. What amazes me is the amount of publicity (both positive and negative) this separation has created.
When the three states (UP, MP and Bihar) were separated all I could remember was reading about it in the news and looking at pictures that show people enjoying the result (read bifurcation). However, the issue with creation of Telangana is something uncommon.We see a lot of people both opposing and supporting the bifurcation. So, this lead to some introspection as to how is this bifurcation different from the other states.
Looking back, when Bombay state was divided, the capital city of Bombay state (Bombay) was still in Maharashtra. So, the new state Gujarat had to find its own capital city. Since, they are the ones asking for the division of the state, it is their problem and hence the people of Maharashtra did not oppose. Similar is the case (I feel) with UP (Lucknow), MP (Bhopal) and Bihar (Patna). All the new states were carved out of the three states without much friction from the parent state as the capital city stayed with the parent state after bifurcation. However, the issue with Andhra Pradesh is not the same.
The parent state (Andhra) is loosing the capital city to the daughter state (Telangana) and hence there is huge friction from the parent state. People in the parent state feel like loosing the stability, their epi-center :). Also, it will be a herculean task to find and develop a new capital in the parent state. As a result, we see huge agitations from Andhra region to oppose the bifurcation. Also, majority of the people in Andhra region feel they are mainly responsible for the development of Hyderabad and for them loosing Hyderabad to Telangana is a bitter news.
I personally feel that if the people of Telangana wants to part, they should be separated. We cannot force people who wants to separate to stay with us. It might not be good in the long run. It already created enough hatred between people in both regions. The whole energy of people in Andhra region should be focused in developing the new Andhra state rather than agitating for United Andhra. I feel developing a new state is challenging and time consuming, but is do-able with the talent and resources (as Andhra people boast of developing Hyd :) :P).
In the end, there is no point in agitating for United Andhra or Telangana. If separated, accept it and move on to develop what we have.
