Bundelkhand’s long road from neglect to renewal

For decades, Bundelkhand remained on the margins of development. Today, however, the region is witnessing a remarkable turnaround. Backed by major investments in infrastructure, improved connectivity and new industrial initiatives, Bundelkhand is steadily emerging as a key growth centre for Uttar Pradesh

Although Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region is advancing towards becoming the state’s second Noida today, for nearly seven decades after Independence it was condemned to a fate marked by bandits, drought and mass migration. Spanning roughly 29,000 sq km and home to nearly 8.2 million people across seven districts, this vast territory was systematically kept outside the mainstream of development for a prolonged period. Under successive regimes of the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and, above all, the Samajwadi Party, resource scarcity, neglect of schemes and administrative apathy remained the norm. Promises were routinely made, yet tangible change on the ground remained conspicuously absent.

This is the same land that, under the leadership of Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, raised the banner of self-respect during the Revolt of 1857. Stung by that uprising, the British administration deliberately set out to cripple Bundelkhand economically and socially as a punitive lesson.

After Independence, there was hope that the land of these great warriors would finally receive its rightful due. Instead, successive Congress, BSP and especially Samajwadi Party governments converted colonial-era neglect into a permanent political arrangement. The old pattern was further entrenched so that the absence of development could always be excused by a ready-made narrative of backwardness and insecurity.

The artificial narrative of ‘Dasyu Pradesh’: A design to keep investment away

During the tenures of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, Bundelkhand’s image was deliberately projected as the stronghold of the dacoits of Chambal and Bundelkhand. Rather than recognizing the region’s latent potential, official policy reduced it to a mere “dacoit-affected zone.”

This carefully constructed narrative sent a clear signal to industrialists and investors across India and beyond: Bundelkhand was unsafe for trade and capital. Dacoits received political patronage; their criminal pasts were glorified. Consequently, while new industries and infrastructure rose elsewhere in the state, Bundelkhand’s public identity remained confined to chilling tales of outlaw gangs.

The criminalisation of a generation of youth

The greatest disservice under Congress, BSP and SP rule was inflicted on the future of Bundelkhand’s young people. Hands that should have held quality education, modern skills and technical knowledge were steered instead towards pistols and the underworld, exploiting unemployment and despair.

With employment opportunities absent and the education system in ruins, local youth faced only two bleak choices: join mafia or dacoit gangs, or migrate to the slums of Delhi, Mumbai and Surat to work for subsistence wages. ‘Under Samajwadi Party governance’, youthful energy was channeled not into learning or livelihood but into muscle power and political muscle-flexing.

Government machinery as silent spectator and willing accomplice

During SP rule, successive dreaded dacoit gangs operated parallel administrations in full public view. The terror spread by figures such as Thokia, Dadua and Ragia was so complete that law and order simply ceased to exist in rural areas.

Most painfully, the state government and police administration remained passive onlookers instead of acting. Political patrons in power exploited these gangs for electoral advantage, booth capturing and ‘vote-bank consolidation’.

Punishment postings and the free rein of the mining mafia

‘Government machinery’ in Bundelkhand was deployed ‘not for public service’ but to silence ordinary citizens and plunder local resources. Police and administrative officers regarded postings there as “punishment postings.” Those who arrived either capitulated to the corrupt system or chose silence. In return, under SP rule the mining and land mafias were granted open license to loot sand from the rivers. Illegal extraction from the Ken and Betwa drained the public exchequer while ordinary farmers feared even setting foot in their own fields.

The cost of limited political weight and step motherly fund allocation

A key political calculation behind this prolonged neglect was Bundelkhand’s modest electoral footprint — only four Lok Sabha seats and nineteen Assembly seats. Whether under Congress, BSP or the SP of Mulayam and Akhilesh Yadav, electoral strategy always prioritised regions with larger seat shares or stronger captive vote banks. Because of its limited political leverage, Bundelkhand never received priority in budgetary allocations. The bulk of state resources was diverted elsewhere, while the region was dismissed with the label “backward area” and token announcements.

Farmers parched by drought and relief looted by corruption

Bundelkhand’s natural geography is arid and plateau-like, yet successive governments left this structural challenge unaddressed. Between 2013 and 2015, under Akhilesh Yadav’s government, severe drought drove farmers into starvation, debt and suicide. Irrigation projects remained buried in files for years. The ultimate betrayal came when drought-relief supplies and “relief packets” themselves became ‘casualties of corruption’. The administration simply labelled the crisis a “natural disaster” and washed its hands of responsibility.

The end of neglect under the double-engine government

The arrival of the double-engine government—Narendra Modi at the Centre and Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh after 2017 — has brought an epochal shift. The Bundelkhand Expressway has linked the region directly to both the national and state capitals.

Mega projects such as the Defense Industrial Corridor (Jhansi node) and the Bundelkhand Industrial Development Authority (BIDA) are accelerating industrialisation. The centuries-old drinking-water crisis has been addressed through the ‘Har Ghar Nal scheme’, freeing mothers and sisters from kilometres-long walks for water. Power supply has been fully stabilised, and scheme benefits now reach citizens directly, free of middlemen.

The story of Bundelkhand is a stark reminder of how a historically and strategically significant region was systematically sidelined for political convenience. Neglect that began under British rule reached its zenith under Congress, BSP and especially Samajwadi Party governments. Arming the youth with pistols, allowing dacoits to flourish, and denying basic amenities had become the region’s enforced destiny.

While the double-engine government since 2017 has begun writing a new chapter of development and has visibly transformed the atmosphere, the fact remains that the ‘planned impoverishment of Bundelkhand’ until 2017 is a documented chapter of history whose full redress will still require considerable time.

Mega projects such as the Defense Industrial Corridor (Jhansi node) and the Bundelkhand Industrial Development Authority (BIDA) are accelerating industrialisation. The centuries-old drinking-water crisis has been addressed through the ‘Har Ghar Nal scheme’, freeing mothers and sisters from kilometres-long walks for water

The author is an Assistant Professor at Allahabad Degree College, University of Allahabad; Views presented are personal.