現代インドの空間構造と地域発展 : メガ・リージョン研究に向けて <論説>

本稿では,経済自由化後のインドにおける空間構造を把握するために方法論上の問題の検討を行い,それをふまえて現代インドの空間構造の特質と今後の地域発展を考察した。まず空間構造把握の枠組を構築するために,現代の中国とインドに関する重要著作を検討し,地域構造論の枠組も参照して筆者の空間構造研究の枠組を示した。続いて,現代インドの空間構造を示す重要な要素である地域格差について経済自由化後の動向とその要因を分析し,体系的な空間構造の把握が必要なことを指摘した。全国スケールでの現代インドの空間構造は主に佐藤(1994)に依拠して提示し,地帯構成論と中心・周辺モデルの2 つによる説明を試みた。発展途上国であるインドの場合は,この2 つのモデルの併用が有効であるが,今日では都市と農村の分断構造から都市を中心とした求心構造へ移行しつつあるように思われる。それゆえ,最後に,現代インドの空間構造にとって重要な意味をもつ地域発展形態として,中心・周辺モデルの「中心」に位置づけられる広域的な経済集積地域であるメガ・リージョン(mega-region)に注目することを提起した。

The rapid economic growth after the economic liberalization in 1991 has caused a large scale reorganization of spatial structure on a nationwide scale in India. This paper intends to examine the methodological issues on the research of India's spatial structure and have a perspective on regional development focusing on the mega-region concept introduced by R. Florida.

First, I examined the research methodology behind two important previous studies in which the spatial structure and regional developments were investigated in China and India individually. Both books have a lot in common in the methodology. The five major points are as follows. The first is to pay attention to the initial conditions such as geographical environment and historical development. The second is to attach importance to the regional disparity by grasping the characteristics of nationwide spatial structure. The third is to focus on the industrial location and spatial pattern of investment to abstract the spatial patterns of the economic activity. The fourth is to appreciate the role of regional policy conducted by the central and the state government as regional development strategies. The last one is to appreciate the central/local relationship and the local government such as a state that plays a critical role in regional development. Based on the above-mentioned points, I proposed my own research framework of India's spatial structure, especially referring to Yada's regional structure theory.

Second, I examined the causes of regional disparity based on the recent tendency data. The causes have mainly been explained by historical, social, and political factors, though the economic factors have not been considered adequately. Therefore, systematic studies on the spatial structure are to be enforced.

Third, I proposed the characteristic spatial pattern of India based on Satoh (1994) and set up the zonal structure model and the core periphery model for explaining the spatial structure. For India, as a developing country, both models are useful to understand the actual spatial structure.

Finally, I assessed the importance of the mega-region as a core region in the nation, which was composed of a number of metropolitan areas.