Local Peripheries in the Global Economy: Case of Eastern Uttar Pradesh

The economic decline and deindustrialisation of Eastern Uttar Pradesh offer a compelling case study of "left-behind regions" in the global South. Historically, it was a region of rich cultural tradition, a robust agricultural economy, and a growing industrial base. Although economically backwards compared to its counterparts in Southern India and the areas around the National Capital Region (around the capital, Delhi), it was still comparable. However, the Structural Adjustment Programmes undertaken in 1991 and the New Economic Policy intervention widened the gap between the two. Over the next three decades, this region developed dependencies on the urban areas along the coasts, where coastal cities began functioning as metropolitan areas, and Eastern Uttar Pradesh became the periphery. This region became the reserve army of labour within the Indian economy, with its workers used to suppress wages along the coasts.

This paper explores how these factors have reshaped the region’s socio-political landscape, focusing on the deepening regional disparities within India. It uses secondary demographic data to highlight the impacts of economic neglect on rural communities, examining how this "left-behindness" manifests in Eastern Uttar Pradesh in contrast to other developing regions. It also considers how migration has created a reliance on remittances and new forms of socio-economic vulnerability.

The paper applies dependency theory to broaden the framework typically used for industrially declining areas in the global North and South. It explores how economic marginalisation and demographic decline in this part of India contribute to regional discontent, mirroring global trends of rural depopulation and the breakdown of local economies. Ultimately, this study challenges the limitations of current conceptualisations of "left-behind places" by including critical perspectives from the global South.