In fact, it would be naive to expect the tension between national unity and regional aspirations to be perfectly reconciled, just as there cannot be the perfect reconciliation of national identity and regional identities. On the one hand, there is the modern nation state recognised as the main carrier of social and political development, with its matrix of laws, bureaucracy, markets, communication networks, all of which can also create their own asymmetries and inequalities. On the other, there are these often competing ethnic, religious and regional identities that continue to be potent sources of political mobilisation. The best we can hope for then is that the second entity does not destroy the first, and that the first doesn’t destroy the one principle on which it rests: the equality of every citizen.Pamela Philippose, The Indian ExpressThis is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
Decentralisation is the key. More power to the states and more power to the districts and local government bodies is the best long term answer to “Unity in Diversity” or E Pluribus Unum. I’m in favour of moving towards a US type of federal structure. The Rajya Sabha needs to be overhauled giving more power to the states - yes, even smaller ones like Mizoram, Nagaland etc.
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