Das regionale Entwicklungsgefälle in Indien in seiner Relevanz für eine regional orientierte Entwicklungsplanung und -politik: Ausmaß - Dynamik - Ursachen

Abstract One of the great challenges with which development in the Indian subcontinent is, and will continue to be, confronted is its regional dimension, which has long been neglected by researchers and development planners. It is the object of this essay to point out the dimension, the dynamics and the causes of regional development disparities for the last 50 years. Regarding the analysis of the present situation above all four characteristics may be noted: 1) At state, district and tahsil level we find pronounced development divergences which do not follow a definite spatial order such as an East-West or North-South gradient. 2) Among the states Punjab has a clear developmental lead over the others. 3) Contiguous to it in Central India and also some adjacent areas to the North we can identify a zone of a rather low development level. 4) A particularly marked development incline exists between the metropolises, esp. very large ones (> 5 mill. inhabitants), on the one hand, and the rural regions within their catchment areas, even if not situated in their immediate vicinity, on the other - vice versa, remoteness from metropolises together with favourable natural conditions tends to have an equalizing effect. The analysis of the development of regional disparities since 1931 has led us to the following results: 1) The basic spatial pattems of the present disparities were extant already fifty years ago with the important exception of the Central and Eastern Gangetic Plain, which showed at that time a relatively high degree of development. 2) On the whole, the formerly autonomous princely states show a distinctly lesser degree of development than the regions included in British India. 3) Since the middle of the sixties polarization of regional development levels has been accelerating. 4) Metropolitan predominance was already clearly discernible by 1930. We find the most important causes of the regional development disparities to lie in the combination of prevalent natural conditions, the degree of infrastmctural development and - of specific significance - a differential readiness to accept innovations, but also in the legacy of colonial spatial policy with its marked preference for the large metropolises and the Northwestem region (Punjab). The growing exacerbation of the regional development levels and the consequences resulting therefrom - stagnation in wide parts of the country accompanied by marginalization of a growing part of the population - have become a serious challenge for the country's planners and policy-makers. Regional-oriented development planning which would effectively counteract this process is impeded by structural weaknesses inherent in the planning system (e. g. lack of district planning) and very limited financial resources.