SACHIDANAND A S

19 September 2021

Regionalism In
Historiography
““Regionalism is narrow nationalism and nationalism is broader regionalism”

There is something marvellous about everything in nature. If we closely analyse nature, we

will discover the answers to every question that remains unsolved. One such thing is
regionalism. The roots of regionalism arises from the so called Territorial behaviour in
animals. The famous YouTube videos of Alan Mcsmith and Ivan Carter is a manifestation
of the same. If we enter the territory animals, they will exhibit many stages of resistance.
The rst one will be the charging behaviour in which they will try to protect the territory
by inducing fear in the mind of their opponent. And if it fails, naturally the animals will
attack. In this sense every animal have their own territory and everyone will mark their
territory by various means. We human beings are also animals, the territorial behaviour is
also an instinct quality is humans, and it is called Regionalism.

To understand regionalism, we need to know various dimensions of the region. Region as a

geographical unit, is delimited form each other. Region as a social system, re ects the
relation between different human beings and groups. Regions are an organized
cooperation in cultural, economic, political or military elds. Region acts as a subject with
distinct identity, language, culture and tradition. Regionalism is an ideology and political
movement that seeks to advance the causes of regions.

While communalism stands for the love of a community at the cost of society, regionalism
stands for love of a region or an area in preference to the country. Regionalism is also
known as Sub-nationalism. Regionalism is a highly parochial sentiment which blinds the
people of the region to the broader requirement of the nation or the community as a whole.
Before discussing the issue of regionalism, let us have an idea regarding the concept of
regionalism. The term regionalism has two connotations. In the negative sense, it implies
excessive attachment to one’s region in preference to the country or the state. In the
positive sense it is a political attribute associated with people’s love for their region,
culture, language, etc. with a view to maintain their independent identity.

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While positive regionalism is a welcome thing since it encourages the people to develop a
sense of brotherhood and commonness on the basis of common language, religion or
historical background. The negative sense regionalism is a great threat to the unity and
integrity of the country. In the Indian context generally the term regionalism has been
used in the negative sense. In India regionalism is a feeling or an ideology among a section
of people residing in a particular geographical space characterized by a unique language,
culture, etc. They regard themselves that they are the sons of soil and every opportunity
exists in their land must be accorded to them rst but not to the outsiders. Regional
imbalance, economic and political inequality among various regions, the psychology of
bruised sentiments, the centre’s or state indifference to a particular region, etc. are the
factors which lead to the development of regionalism.

As a process it plays role within the nation as well as outside the nation i.e. at national and
international levels. Both types of regionalism have different meaning and have positive as
well as negative impact on society, polity, diplomacy, economy, security, culture,
development, negotiations, etc. If someone is aspiring to or make special efforts to develop
one’s state or region or to remove poverty & make social justice there, then that cannot be
called as regionalism. Regionalism doesn’t means defending the federal features of the
constitution. Any demand for separate state, autonomous region or for devolution of
power below the state level is also, sometimes confused as regionalism.

Causes of Regionalism
1. The efforts of the government to impose a particular ideology, language or cultural
pattern on all people and groups compelled the regional movement to crop up.
2. Continuous neglect of an area or region by the ruling parties and the concentration of
political and administrative power have given rise to demand for decentralization of
authority and bifurcation of unilingual states.
3. The desire of regional elites to capture power has also led to rise of regionalism.
4. The discriminatory attitude of the center in allocating funds for development and
sanctioning of grants–in-aid, has led to the development of regionalism.
5. Language problem is another cause. Norman D. Palmer believes that much of the
politics concerns the question of regionalism is language. He observed that problem of
regionalism is candidly connected with language. India is a multi-lingual country and
people speaking various languages initiated intense movement for separate states.
Indian government by organizing states on linguistic basis has created a never ending
problem.
6. The desire of various units of nation to maintain their sub-cultural region and greater
degree of self government has promoted regionalism and given rise to demand for
greater autonomy

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7. The discriminatory attitude of the centre in allocating funds for development and
sanctioning of grants–in-aid, has led to the development of regionalism.

Between Regionalism and

Historiography
Historiography represents different schools, which reveals and re ects their identity
through certain identi able styles, techniques, approaches, methodologies and justi cation.
The modern Indian historiography is more the outcome of western ideas than the locally
developed ones. It was out of the very nationalist historical writings that the regional
historiography got its motivation. This trend has ared up in the last few decades due to
the constant surfacing of new pieces of evidence and also due to the need to draw a new
regional identity and to draw a comparative perspective. History is not a subject which can
function in isolation from other social sciences, as it shelters all the disciplines. In a vast
country like India where the historical source is so diverse and multi-lingual, the study of
regional history certainly deserves more importance.

Regional historiography can be used to identify the social & economic reasons for the
change. A historian working on the regional history of India should not allow his study to
become an instrument of regional chauvinism rather, it should help in building up an
integrated picture of the total Indian scene. We should not regard history just as a study of
past anymore, rather with new schools and interdisciplinary approach its scope has been
broadened and widened.

To study the past a historian should be systematic, exacting and critical in his research.
Arthur Marwick's statement that “history means not the past, but the study of the past”.
This statement immediately generates two questions, How we study past? and Which past
we should pick up to project?

To study the past and to present it, we require a thorough and systematic approach to
writing history. Though the history of India is very old and rich, Indian historiography is
of comparatively recent origin. As R C Majumdar is of the view that ‘the study of Indian
history by the Indians, in the last century, started, almost as a reaction against the writing
of Europeans scholars, who often gave a prejudiced and distorted version of India's history
and culture which was a conventional historiography’.

In conventional historiography, the inclination was more towards the political and dynastic
history. However, the merit of the conventional approach certainly cannot be completely
ruled out as they provided us with a sound chronological framework of political history

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 and information base to us. It is very important to necessarily set up a new paradigm when
we attempt to write the regional historiography which is different than the conventional
one. As Shekhawat points out ‘the old paradigm gradually decays slowly and the rebels
continue with their search as a campaign or trend, in the hope that they will succeed in
formulating a clear paradigm someday in the future’.

Challenges of Historiography
1. As we know that the pre-independent history was made an instrument of propaganda
for social reforms and a political device for the elimination of foreigners, at some point,
it also gave its version about the past events e.g. V.D. Savarkar's ‘First war of
Independence’. The author has extensively tried to justify the entire event which
though emerged from the regional scale went on to culminate as a national event.

2. Sometimes-regional historiography might adopt a partial approach towards its

af liated region. It might at times obstruct the correct understanding of the country as
a whole.

3. Intentionally or otherwise they may attempt to glorify the culture of their region at
the expense of their neighbouring states. To specify the glaring example when seeing
the regional bias in writing the history of South India, we nd too much of regional
diversi cation which can only be recti ed only when we look upon entire Southern
India as a relatively homogenous entity and not as consisting of four regional groups
based on languages. Unless it is done, the historians of Southern India will not be able
to project a correct and proper image of their history and culture. This bias can even
affect the political history of the region, by glorifying the achievements of a particular
king or dynasty against another of the same region.

4. While writing the history, a state of confusion also arises due to the complexities of
boundaries. As no region in the country has favourably maintained its past long
boundaries or demarcated its zones. Apart from this, the ecological changes have also
forced many people to migrate from one region to another which has now made it
dif cult to relate them to a speci ed region, but this rule cannot be generalized.

5. The historians while writing the regional history should try to eliminate personal
error and focus his searching light on the same event from different angles. Sometimes
the historians being intellectually & emotionally involved in the locality cannot give a
balanced historical perspective.

6. It becomes very dif cult when we have to trace the origins of certain ancient and
medieval dynasties as we cannot take into account the present-day boundaries it

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 becomes very obscure. For eg to discuss the origins of Satvahanas, as we don't know
the geographical zones was it present Andhra Desa, parts of Karnataka or
Maharashtra also similarly the origins of the Yadavs of Deogiri during medieval times.

7. Regional history sometimes follows the conventional periodization of ancient,

medieval and modern. It does not merely involve a time bracket, but also historical
assumptions. ‘Though there is certain convenience in this periodization, convenience
should not be allowed to become an intellectual truth

ROLE OF A REGIONAL HISTORIAN

The connection between the craft of writing a history and personal ideology does
overlap in many cases. The challenge to the regional historian is equally forceful, but the
historian must stick with the truth with all the lucrative and adverse conditions. The adoption
of the inter-disciplinary approach will necessitate not only a close familiarity with the sources
but also some understanding of the methods with which other disciplines concerned &
analyse their data. If we can also check the documented of cial records especially the district
records of the state, which also contains very useful data for the history of the region. In
reconstructing the past from innumerable tiny fragments, in organizing evaluating and
interpreting the data, the historian will constantly need to decide which of them to use, which
to reject partly or provisionally. There is a probability of glori cation and exaggeration, when
the historian deals with his own region. Kalhana is an example in dealing with regional
aspirations. He wrote Rajatarangini in which he made a critical study on the History of
Kashmir.

CONCLUSION
While writing the regional history the historian's approach should not diversify to
any particular region from the mainstream of India life. As the macro & micro studies of
Indian society should proceed in juxtaposing and historians should always attempt an
impartial, accurate and scienti c history. It is dif cult, but not impossible to achieve. As
we strongly know that the past has happened and it cannot be changed, but the
interpretation and understanding of it continue to happen and will never stop changing.
While we look to the past, then we must also anticipate the future. It is like maintaining a
delicate balance between the introspection and action, hearing and believing, thinking and
writing, this is indisputably the most crucial need for any historian going about his work.
Though purely objective history is, however, a noble dream, but can certainly strive to
maintain its essence.

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