A Tale of Two Regions: Understanding the Koshal Movement in Odisha

By Jaya Prakash Pradhan December 6, 2004 1.1K

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Type	Working paper
Title	“Interpreting the Demand for Koshala State in Orissa: Development Versus Underdevelopment”
Authors	Jaya Prakash Pradhan, M. K. Sahoo, Vinoj Abraham & R. K. Mishra
Published	2004 · KDF Working Paper No. 1 · Koshala Development Forum
Focus	The economic roots of the demand for a separate Koshal state in Odisha
Read	Working paper (PDF)

This is a plain-language summary of “Interpreting the Demand for Koshala State in Orissa: Development Versus Underdevelopment” (Pradhan, Sahoo, Abraham & Mishra, KDF Working Paper No. 1, 2004).

In short:

Western Odisha’s Koshal region supplies much of the state’s mineral and manufacturing wealth, yet, on the study’s figures, faced far higher poverty than the coastal region.
The paper documents wide gaps between Koshal and coastal Odisha in income, literacy, health, and basic infrastructure.
Its central argument: underdevelopment, and the perception of state apathy in addressing it, is the main driver of the demand for a separate Koshal state — and the most durable response is to close the development gap.

One state, two realities

Odisha contains, in effect, two very different regions. This study — by Jaya Prakash Pradhan, M. K. Sahoo, Vinoj Abraham, and R. K. Mishra — examines the western Koshal region (the Sambalpuri-speaking districts of western Odisha) and the demand, voiced over many years, for it to become a separate state. The paper’s approach is analytical rather than polemical: it asks why the demand exists, locates the answer in the region’s economic condition, and weighs what policy might do about it. The starting puzzle is a paradox of resources without prosperity.

Resources without development

On the study’s accounting, Koshal contributes far more to Odisha’s resource base than it receives back in development.

The region accounts for close to all of Odisha’s key minerals, about 76% of its manufacturing value, 66% of its forest resources, and 59% of its land area, while holding 39% of the population and contributing 39% of state tax revenue. And yet, the study reports, around 69% of Koshali households lived below the poverty line — a stark mismatch between what the region produces and how its people live. That gap between contribution and condition is the core of the grievance the paper sets out to explain.

A measurable gap

The disparity is not impressionistic; it shows up across standard development indicators comparing Koshal with coastal Odisha.

On the study’s figures, literacy in Koshal stood at about 54% against 70% in the coastal region; only about 19% of Koshal households had electricity, versus 27% on the coast; the region had roughly one university for a population comparable to one served by seven coastal universities; and infrastructure such as post-office density (about 34 vs 78 per 1,000 sq km) and road coverage lagged well behind. Healthcare was especially strained — a chronic shortage of doctors and facilities, with large shares of sanctioned medical posts lying vacant, forcing many residents to travel long distances to coastal towns for treatment. The paper also records, for the period it studied, severe distress in the poorest pockets — reported starvation deaths and acute deprivation — which it treats as evidence of how serious the development shortfall had become. (These are figures and accounts as documented in the 2004 study, covering roughly 2000–2003.)

The argument, and the way forward

The study’s central finding is straightforward: the demand for a separate Koshal state is driven less by language or identity alone than by underdevelopment and the sense that the state has failed to address it. Identity gives the movement its language; the development gap gives it its force. From that diagnosis follows the paper’s prescription — that the more durable response for the Odisha government is not to dismiss the demand but to close the gap: more equitable public spending across regions, stronger local representation in administration, and sustained investment in infrastructure, education, and healthcare, alongside attention to the region’s culture and economic potential. In the authors’ framing, addressing the underdevelopment is what would ultimately ease the pressure for separation.

Why it matters

Beyond Odisha, the Koshal case speaks to a recurring question in Indian federalism: what to do when development is distributed unevenly within a state, and a region comes to feel that its resources flow out while investment doesn’t flow back. The paper’s contribution is to ground a demand often discussed in identity terms in concrete economic evidence — and to argue that balanced regional development, not just political accommodation, is the real remedy. It’s a regional-development study with wide resonance for other parts of India where similar movements have arisen.

Read the academic abstract

This paper examines the rising demand for a separate Koshal state in Odisha and the factors responsible for it. It finds that underdevelopment — and the state’s apathy and failure in addressing it — has been the single most important factor behind the demand. The study prescribes suitable policies for the Odisha government to adopt in order to address, and thereby contain, the demand for the new state.

Cite this working paper

Pradhan, J. P., Sahoo, M. K., Abraham, V., & Mishra, R. K. (2004). Interpreting the demand for Koshala state in Orissa: Development versus underdevelopment (KDF Working Paper No. 1). New Delhi: Koshala Development Forum.

Read the working paper (PDF) →