States were created for convenience of administration; it doesn’t have a culture: Tamil Nadu Governor

Speaking at the Celebration of the Foundation Day of Telangana State at the Raj Bhavan, Mr. Ravi said creation of States have also created political identities

Telangana State artists being felicitated by the Tamil Nadu Governor R. N. Ravi on the occassion of the Telangana State foundation day celebrations held at RajBhavan in Chennai on Friday. | Photo Credit: SR RAGHUNATHAN

Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi on Friday said States in India have been created from time to time for “convenience of administration and governance” but said there is nothing called a “culture of a State”.

Speaking at the Celebration of the Foundation Day of Telangana State at the Raj Bhavan, Mr. Ravi said creation of States have also created political identities such as ‘Tamilians’, ‘Telanganites’, ‘UP-ites’ and so on, and added that “all kinds of fictional identity have been created that has been undoing and undermining the core strength of this country”.

“If this country has survived several thousand years and, for this civilisation to be strong, we have to go back to the core strength of the country…that is cultural continuum. . A State is an administrative entity; it has got a political character; whereas culture is the character of the people/society. Move continuously, you will see the continuum, you won’t see the difference,” he believed.

“At that time, Kerala, Andhra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were created from Madras Presidency. And that is how Jharkhand from Bihar, Uttarakhand from UP, Chhattisgarh from MP and Telangana from Andhra Pradesh were created. These States have been created, and rightly so, to provide efficient administration and governance for the welfare of the people. Unfortunately, these are turning into political identity. This divisive psychology, which is being fed day to day, by pre-eminence of politics in our life, is dangerous. In this process, we are losing Bharat,” he said.  

Mr. Ravi claimed that India is a ‘civilisational state’ and that its civilisation has emerged out of culture.

“There are variations from place to place. Even within a State, there will be variations. In our dance, performances, rituals… What is common is our mythology, heroes, gods and goddesses. We see that Shiva, Rama, Krishna, Goddess is all pervasive. What unites us is our rich cultural heritage with their enormous stunning diversity, in terms of language, cuisine…we see the underlying unity,” he opined.

He rued how the political identities created by ‘divisive’ politics across States have resulted in concept of ‘migrants’ in India.

“There are thousands of people from Saurashtra and Mahrattas in Tamil Nadu and Tamils. Around 40,000 people are living in Kashi. This political identity of a State has created the concept of migrants within India.  This is dangerous and we must not let it grow,” he said.