The North-South fallacy

The argument that Indian polity is divided into a BJP-loving North and a South that continues to reject it is lazy and simplistic. Contest for 2024 is between the 'BJP heartland' and the peripheries

An intriguing new North-South binary has emerged in our political debate after the elections in four major states last week. The argument might look persuasive — that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rules the North and the South continues to reject it, creating a horizontal divide in the Indian polity marked by the Vindhyas. I have used the description “intriguing” as a euphemism for the kind of simplistic and lazy theorising that calls for something stronger.

First of all, the challenge to the BJP’s supremacy is not limited to the South. A quick look at the political map of India