EVOLUTION OF STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES
- The integration of princely states with the rest of India has purely an ad-hoc arrangement. There has been a demand from different regions, particularly South India, for reorganisation of states on linguistic basis.
- Accordingly, in June 1948, the Government of India appointed the Linguistic Provinces Commission under the chairmanship of S K Dhar to examine the feasibility of this.
- The commission submitted its report in December 1948 and recommended the reorganisation of states on the basis of administrative convenience rather than linguistic factor.
- This created much resentment and led to the appointment of another Linguistic Provinces Committee by the Congress in December 1948 itself to examine the whole question afresh.
- It consisted of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallahbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya and hence, was popularly known as JVP Committee. It submitted its report in April 1949 and formally rejected language as the basis for reorganisation of states.
- However, in October 1953, the Government of India was forced to create the first linguistic state, known as Andhra state, by separating the Telugu speaking areas from the Madras state.
FAZL ALI COMMISSION 1953
- The creation of Andhra state intensified the demand from other regions for creation of states on linguistic basis. This forced the Government of India to appoint (in December 1953) a three-member States Reorganisation Commission under the chairmanship of Fazl Ali to re-examine the whole question.
- Its other two members were K M Panikkar and H N Kunzru. It submitted its report in September 1955 and broadly accepted language as the basis of reorganisation of states.
- But, it rejected the theory of ‘one language–one state’. Its view was that the unity of India should be regarded as the primary consideration in any redrawing of the country’s political units.
- It identified four major factors that can be taken into account in any scheme of reorganisation of states:
- Preservation and strengthening of the unity and security of the country.
- Linguistic and cultural homogeneity.
- Financial, economic and administrative considerations.
- Planning and promotion of the welfare of the people in each state as well as of the nation as a whole.
- The commission suggested the abolition of the four-fold classification of states under the original Constitution and creation of 16 states and 3 centrally administered territories.
- The Government of India accepted these recommendations with certain minor modifications. By the States Reorganisation Act (1956) and the 7th Constitutional Amendment Act (1956), the distinction between Part-A and Part-B states was done away with and Part-C states were abolished.
- Some of them were merged with adjacent states and some other were designated as union territories.
- As a result, 14 states and 6 union territories were created on November 1, 1956.
