Linguistic Nationalities, Business Chambers and Federalisation in India
| Author | Himanshu Roy |
| Date | 01 July 2015 |
| Published date | 01 July 2015 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556120150314 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
LINGUISTIC
NATIONALITIES,
BUSINESS
CHAMBERS
AND
FEDERALISATION
IN
INDIA
HIMANSHU ROY
This article analyses the role
of
linguistic nationalities
and
the business chambers in thefederalisation
ofmodern
India
that
contributed
to the decentralised, democratic
political and constitutional construction.
The
process has been
in
continuation for the past 125 years, since 1885, when the Indian
business chambers began
to
be formed among the different
regional nationalities in India. But it was not a unilinear,
uniform development; there were many ups
and
downs in this
process. In the colonial era, it was politically represented
by the Congress; in postcolonial era it has been initially
represented by regional parties.
THE MODERN pan-Indian elite began to emerge since 1820s along with
the elites
of
different nationalities
in
different parts
of
the country. The Free
Trade and later on, the Industrial Age broke down the secluded village life
of
the pre-capitalist society and actuated the development
of
two simultaneous·
trends-pan-Indian
nationalism and nationality formation
-reinforcing
each other simultaneously. Nationality formation
in
India, contrary to
the general understanding, did not precede the pan-Indian formation. In
fact,
as
stated above, both kinds
of
formations emerged simultaneously.
What actually happened
as
a result
of
the uneven capitalist development
was the formation
of
some nationalities earlier while the others were yet
to emerge which could materialise only in the post-independence era
and when capitalism expanded
in
other backward regions. The regional
historical identities
of
language, culture, psyche, etc. began to coalesce
under the new productive powers, economic and administrative set-up
that led to the formation
of
nationalitie~.
But simultaneously, under the
same condition they also began to transcend their nationality barriers due
to inner contradictions.
It
was only then that the Congress could come into
existence in 1885 which was like a united coalition
of
different nationalities
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