Bharat-India Divide (Fazilat Abazer Biviji)

‘It is our dream to come to the city’, said an economically underprivileged woman of Koralvari village while she sat in front of a fireplace cooking her evening meal.

Koralvari village located on a hilltop is surrounded by a number of lush green hills, all of which appear to be a mirror image of each other. This tribal village of Maharashtra affirms all the peculiarities that people from cities associate with the image of rural India.

Stretching not more than a kilometer from its commencement, Koralvari village is equipped with a water pump, public toilet and a primary school teaching upto Standard 5th.

The primary occupation of the men folk of Koralvari is agriculture of Tandal (a type of crop) and cutting of wooden logs from the forests. A fewer proportion of people from this village have had the privilege of visiting the city for the purpose of sale of goods.

But why is it that people of India pray for an opportunity to come to the city? Is it the city life and its charisma that attracts villagers to the cities? Or is it considered a gateway to innumerable facilities, benefits and opportunities that opens up new career avenues and prospects for a bigger and better lifestyle?

Yes, cities of India have grown to become the focal points of development, progress and urbanization. We see a mélange of culture, ethnicity, religions, beliefs, professions, classes and ideologies in the big metros of India which comes together to make, what is known to us as ‘a city’.

Let’s take the city of Mumbai for example. We can think of more than a hundred facilities that the Mumbaikars benefit from each passing day of their lives.

Be it 24 hours water supply and electricity or access to public transport; it is all available readily in the cities.

Procrastination as a practice is more prevalent in cities as the people can always get access to their resources and complete the duties last minute. But when it comes to villages, the lives of the residents are driven according to the time when their access to resources is possible.

Distribution of resources is a clear indicator of the preference that is given to certain regions of the country as opposed to the others.

This is what divides the country into two halves; the primitive, agrarian Bharat and the modern, progressive India. Ironically, even as both aspects of India compete with each other to establish their supremacy, they successfully co-exist to make up a nation we love and respect so much.