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By:

Anusreeta Dutta

26 April 2026 at 1:22:24 pm

One Maharashtra, Unequal Priorities

Six decades after statehood, constitutional safeguards remain necessary to bridge the gap between western Maharashtra and the regions left behind. Maharashtra is often referred to as India’s economic engine. The state, which is home to Mumbai’s financial ecosystem and Pune’s industrial corridor, contributes about 14 percent to the GDP of India. There is a long-standing dispute behind this achievement that has affected state politics for decades. Is every district in Maharashtra thriving at...

One Maharashtra, Unequal Priorities

Six decades after statehood, constitutional safeguards remain necessary to bridge the gap between western Maharashtra and the regions left behind. Maharashtra is often referred to as India’s economic engine. The state, which is home to Mumbai’s financial ecosystem and Pune’s industrial corridor, contributes about 14 percent to the GDP of India. There is a long-standing dispute behind this achievement that has affected state politics for decades. Is every district in Maharashtra thriving at the same pace? It is not just a political question. It is written into the Constitution proper. Unlike most states in India, Maharashtra has a unique constitutional provision under Article 371(2) which empowers the Governor to ensure that development funding and opportunities are equally shared between Vidarbha, Marathwada and the rest of Maharashtra. The clause was born out of fears that some areas would be forgotten once the state was established in 1960. Six decades later, the existence of this constitutional safeguard raises an uncomfortable question: why does Maharashtra need tools to balance regional development still? Regional Disparity The seeds of regional disparity were sown long before the birth of Maharashtra. Western Maharashtra had early investments in irrigation, cooperative sugar mills, educational institutions and transportation. The centres of industrial growth followed by agricultural commercialisation were Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and part of Nashik. Vidarbha and Marathwada chose the other. Agriculture was still heavily dependent on monsoon rains, industrialization was slow and irrigation coverage was less than the state averages. Regional studies in Maharashtra have repeatedly shown that irrigation intensity and agricultural yield are higher in western districts than in much of eastern Maharashtra. These differences subsequently led to calls for institutional safeguards. In contrast, in western Maharashtra, government moves are increasingly geared towards growth, not deficit reduction. The region’s success is built on industrial corridors, logistics infrastructure, urban mobility projects and advanced manufacturing clusters. Pune has emerged as a hub for vehicles, computer technology, defence production and startups. Mumbai remains a major draw for investment in metro rail networks, coastal roadways, financial services infrastructure and international business zones. Agricultural practices in western Maharashtra are in a relatively advanced stage of development. Irrigation coverage is much better than many districts in the east, so the authorities can concentrate on raising productivity, export-oriented, value-added farming and agro-processing industries. Western Maharashtra’s policy, in a nutshell, is to make competitive regions more competitive. Eastern Maharashtra is very different. Here, the Governments have not only focused on accelerating growth but also on reducing the backlog of development. The main policy question is irrigation. For many decades official studies have consistently identified irrigation as the most important factor for regional disparities. Even with dedicated funds, the backlog of irrigation in Vidarbha and Marathwada kept growing, requiring repeated interventions by successive governments. To tackle this, region-specific irrigation corporations, such as Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) and Godavari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation (GMIDC) were established with a specific mandate to speed up water infrastructure projects. The Union Government has sanctioned a special irrigation package for Vidarbha, Marathwada and draught prone areas of Maharashtra, with an objective to increase irrigation potential and improve water security of the farmers. Even today, a lot of public money is spent on irrigation projects in eastern Maharashtra. Government affidavits and parliamentary replies say crores of rupees are spent every year to make up for irrigation shortfalls and to finish long-pending projects. This emphasis reflects an important reality: while the western part of Maharashtra talks about competitiveness, the eastern part of Maharashtra continues to debate water access. Another area where there are divergent approaches is industrial policy. Market forces have played a major role in the industrial expansion of western Maharashtra, a process assisted by the existing infrastructure and urbanization. In contrast, Eastern Maharashtra has frequently depended on state-led interventions to draw investment to lagging regions. Projects such as the Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN), logistics corridors, special industrial incentives and infrastructure subsidies were to divert industrial expansion away from the Mumbai-Pune region. Likewise, recent government announcements have earmarked Vidarbha to become a future hub for solar energy, semiconductors, aerospace manufacturing and logistics, with Marathwada being pitched for electric vehicle and electronics investments. Whereas in western Maharashtra, the policy tends to buttress pre-existing advantages, in eastern Maharashtra the industrial policy aims to generate such advantages from the beginning. Regional Equilibrium These divisions have persisted, leading to separate institutions of governance. Vidarbha and Marathwada have statutory development boards to monitor regional imbalances and recommend corrective actions. Their emergence is an indication of a broader acceptance that market forces alone have not been adequate to promote balanced growth in Maharashtra. The second capital of Maharashtra is also Nagpur. The same ideology. The state legislature meets every winter in eastern Maharashtra to ensure that the issues concerning the region remain in the political focus. The issues discussed generally are irrigation, agriculture, tribal welfare and regional development in these sessions. The controversy over regional equity, however, is still unresolved. According to critics, despite decades of special packages and focused strategies, many irrigation projects continue to face delays, cost overruns and implementation problems. Several big projects in Vidarbha remain incomplete despite years of cash pledges. There is now a growing body of policy thinking that suggests that Maharashtra may have to give up the very terminology of backlog elimination. In its own discussion on balanced regional development, the state attaches more importance to reforms in governance, diversification of the economy and speeding up growth, than to compensatory spending. The challenge is not just building canals and roadways anymore but building lasting economic ecosystems that can hold on to talent, draw investment and create jobs beyond the traditional Mumbai-Pune boom corridor. The real test for Maharashtra will be whether future policies can turn Vidarbha and Marathwada from regions requiring special support to regions capable of driving growth on their own. Till then Maharashtra’s development story will be two stories. (The author is a columnist and climate researcher with experience in political research analysis and energy policy. Views personal.)

India’s Oldest Queer Film Festival DIALOGUES Returns: A Sneak Peek

Updated: Nov 29, 2024

DIALOGUES

Sappho for Equality, Pratyay Gender Collective, and Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan collectively organise DIALOGUES, the oldest queer film festival every year. It is the oldest queer film festival in India, running since 2007. This is a non-ticketed, non-commercial festival aimed at raising awareness of queer and trans-lived experiences.


Over two days, the festival will screen 14 films from countries like Germany, Turkey, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam, amongst others. It will present different genres such as short films, documentaries, feature films, romance, and docu-features. Free passes for entry access for everyone have been arranged.


DIALOGUES was launched in 2007 as an annual cultural event in Calcutta that left a void when it came to queer films, and more importantly, a conversation around it. The festival focuses on showcasing feature films, shorts, and videos from national and international filmmakers on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, providing a much-needed platform for independent film and video from India and abroad.


From organising the last print screening on 16mm projection at the Fassbinder retrospective to hosting retrospectives on Derek Jarman and Agnes Varda, DIALOGUES has covered a chequered path. Though the primary identity of DIALOGUES is that of a queer film festival, it is consistently seeking to include socially relevant themes across the spectrum. The festival is a celebration of writers, directors, and actors and their work dealing with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex themes and issues-but does not limit itself to narrow definitions of these identities. DIALOGUES believes that the Film Festival is yet another tool in the larger struggle.


Let us take a peek at two of the films on the schedule, Wakhri and Jodi.


Wakhri, from Pakistan, directed by Iram Parveen Bilal is an Urdu language film. It talks about Noor, a young widow who leads a double life. During the day, she is a committed teacher in a primary school. At night, she is an important member of Lahore’s queer nightclub scene. On the one hand, she is worried about the reduction in the number of girls admitted to the school, while on the other, she dreams of establishing a full-fledged women’s school that runs against established social norms. She combines within her a life she loves to lead in secret and the mission to open a school with her own funding. How is this possible? Though her best friend Gucchi pushes her in her endeavours, social media spills over, and she finds her world collapsing around her.


Jodi, meaning “If” in Bengali and directed by Tathagata Ghosh, has just returned from a big tour of big film festivals armed with awards. “If” is a 26-minute short film that presents a short, subtle, but very powerful film on love between two young women still looked down upon by the urban middle class to which these two young women, Jaya and Fatima, belong. Jaya is a typically middle-class young girl who is secretly in love with Fatima, a Muslim young girl who lives a free life, smoking, and drinking, and is liberated and not constrained by old values like Jaya. Jaya and Fatima, two women in love, are separated because of Jaya's marriage arranged by her conservative father. Finally, they seek their own solution to the problem.


Says Ghosh about the film, “For me, the film is about relationships more than anything else. I simply wanted to create a feeling of love and loss within the audience. I have grown up watching films by Rituparno Ghosh, and this film is in that direction, I can say. Films like "Unishe April," "Raincoat," "Abohoman," "Memories in March," and even Aparna Sen's "Paromitar Ekdin" were my inspirations. I wanted to build that world I have seen around me, a middle-class Bengali household, and the characters in them. I wanted the film to feel like a Bengali short story, like the ones I have grown up reading. The writings of Pratibha Basu, Moti Nandy, and Sunil Ganguly among others have had a huge impact on me. This film is for the souls who have loved and lost and gone through that feeling of helplessness when our loved ones move away from us. So that was my motivation and inspiration, I can say.”


The directors might not be gay themselves but are empathetic with the issues faced by these groups just because they think, feel, and experience life differently. Let us wish them all the happiness they deserve. Films portraying gay and lesbian relationships in Indian cinema are of two kinds. One represents the truly Indian films, while the other comes from diaspora filmmakers from South Asia. Interestingly, the message they carry is similar.


(The author is a senior film critic based in Kolkata. Views personal.)

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