The paradox of power without progress

The road to power in Delhi, it is said, runs through the Hindi belt. Stretching across the vast Indo-Gangetic plains, the region has been the crucible of Indian politics, producing eight of the country’s 15 prime ministers, electing the largest number of lawmakers, and wielding immense influence on its cultural and religious identity. Yet, as Ghazala Wahab shows in her latest book, The Hindi Heartland, its political clout has not translated into progress.

The centrality of the Hindi heartland, Wahab notes, is best grasped from Narendra Modi’s decision to pick Varanasi as his Lok Sabha constituency to enter the Prime Minister’s office in 2014. “An astute politician, Modi understood that the heartland provides the best path to power. Rule the Hindi heartland, rule India,” she notes.

However, despite its numerical and political weight, the region lags in all human development indices and is in a constant state of social unrest. The Hindi belt, writes Wahab, is the most impoverished, as poverty levels in the region are much higher than the rest of India. Caste violence, growing communal polarisation, and feudal structures continue to define it, contributing to the region’s description as dysfunctional.