The industrialization in West esp Punjab - is totally due to enterprising Arora,Khatri/Bhappe and Bania community of Punjab. Infact many bore brunt of Partition and yet it was in their tradition to setup business especially SME and MSE's and they succeeded. Just small example - read about MDH. Khali antics forced them to move away to places like Maharashtra or in other states and all industrial strength built flew away. State and Centre always from start focused on agriculture. Industrialization was always looked down as poonjiwaad.
Can you tell any Heavy PSU's setup in West? Or how much Rail lines were laid in west compared to say east or south?
The entire automotive sector be it TELCO now Tata Motors or Premier Padmini by Premier Group , the Mahindra group , the Bajaj Group were all located in the west or more specifically in Maharashtra then.
The only exceptions to it were the HM - Ambassador assembled in Kolkata , Ashok Leyland & Royal Enfield with both based out of Chennai.
All major textile mills were located in the west especially Ahmedabad & Mumbai with the jute industries in & around Kolkata.
Then you had the cooperative sector active in Gujarat best known by the dairy brand Amul in Gujarat & the sugar cane industries in Maharashtra though the latter is a scam which only a state generating the kind of revenue like Mumbai could afford.
All the heavy industries namely steel & mining were mostly located near the source which is east & central India.
Beyond that you had special sectors like N power , precision engineering like HAL , HMT etc mostly located down south. Barring these you had the MSME sector which once again was prevalent in the west & south except Kolkata & Delhi NCR notwithstanding small pockets across the country or up north in Punjab Haryana etc
Nehru hated Punjabi migrants. There is a lore of how Gandhi and Nehru went to them to move back to Pakistan or vacate properties only to be manhandled by them. Khali problem from nuisance became monster due to Congi politics. This is the same mentality which is causing Cong to court extreme leftists, khali or even malsis.
So its not just east withered.. west withered too, Ask your Father.. he will tell how till 50-60's people looked for Made in Calcutta label for quality products.
Every region withered with some more than the others but under the circumstances the one which withered the least was the west & the one which prospered the most was the South .
South had advantages of top edge Knowledge intitutes being setup at the very first - IISC, TIFR, HAL, IIT, etc. They are reaping benefits now.
China model cannot be implemented in India - simply India cant shove shoot or hide unemployed people. China model sustains as Chinese people are just too happy from dire conditions they lived under Mao. As current and Next generation comes in - you will start to see social tensions on rise.
In the event the aim wasn't to expect we'd emulate China but to highlight the fact that even the CCP has limitations in that they couldn't just let go millions just like that with no safety blanket like the dole or social security.
They could do it only coz the Pvt sector took off & they were confident the excess labour from SOE's could & would be absorbed there . That's exactly what happened.
There are parallels in that sense to the situation we've in the north & east as the government & state sector in those part are the biggest employers.
www.opindia.com
I know I would rile up Maharashtrians by calling them south west 
