Regionalism

Conventional theories of development are insensitive to regional demands and aspirations, and treat regionalism as a threat to national integration and coherence. Regionalism can politically be understood as a search for an intermediate control system between the centre and the periphery for competitive advantages in the national arena. In this relationship, regionalism is the outcome of real or perceived, sense of internal colonialism. What is important is not why the differences exist, but the way people respond to their differences, and their aspirations and apprehensions emerging out of such differences, and their aspirations and apprehensions emerging out of such differences. The essays in this volume provide an account of how ethnic groups use political power to overcome their fears of being dominated by other group which may be more enterprising, more skilled, better educated and better equipped to deal with the problems of development.