Read the passage and answer the following question.
Regionalism in India is rooted in India's diversity of languages, cultures, tribes and religions. It is also encouraged by the geographical concentration of these identity workers in particular regions and fuelled by a sense of regional deprivation. Indian federalism has been a means of accommodating these regional sentiments.
After independence, initially the Indian state continued with the British-Indian arrangement, dividing India into large provinces, also called 'presidencies'. These were large multi-ethnic and multilingual provincial states constituting the major political-administrative units of a semi-federal state called the Union of India. Language coupled with regional and tribal identity - and not religion - has therefore provided the most powerful instrument for the formation of ethno-national identity in India.
For the growth of regionalism, the prerequisite is :
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Sense of deprivation
Regionalism is rooted in India’s diversity of languages, cultures, tribes and religions, and is encouraged by the concentration of these identity markers in particular regions. What turns this diversity into a regional movement is a sense of regional deprivation: the feeling that the region is denied its fair share of development or power. Regionalism is fuelled by this feeling.
Note: The passage of Q1-Q5 is taken from the NCERT chapter ‘The Challenges of Cultural Diversity’, its section ‘Regionalism in the Indian Context’. All five questions are answered within a few lines of this section, so read it slowly and completely.
NCERT (2025-26): “6.2 Regionalism in the Indian Context … Regionalism in India is rooted in India’s diversity of languages, cultures, tribes, and religions. It is also encouraged by the geographical concentration of these identity markers in particular regions, and fuelled by a sense of regional deprivation. Indian federalism has been a means of accommodating these regional sentiments (Bhattacharyya 2005). After Independence, initially the Indian state continued with the British-Indian arrangement dividing India into large provinces, also called ‘presidencies’. (Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta were the three major presidencies; incidentally, all three cities after which the presidencies were named have changed their names recently). These were large multi-ethnic and multilingual provincial states constituting the major political-administrative units of a semi-federal state called the Union of India.…” |