EVOLUTION OF STATES IN INDIA :

•      INTEGRATION OF PRINCELY STATES : At the time of  independence, India comprised two categories of political units,  namely, the British provinces (under the direct rule of British  government) and the princely states (under the rule of native princes  but subject to the paramountcy of the British Crown).

•      The Indian Independence Act (1947) created two independent and  separate dominions of India and Pakistan and gave three options to  the princely states viz., joining India, joining Pakistan or remaining  independent.

•      Of the 552 princely states situated within the geographical boundaries of India, 549 joined India and the remaining 3 (Hyderabad, Junagarh and Kashmir) refused to join India.

•      However, in course of time, they were also integrated with India  Hyderabad by means of police action, Junagarh by means of  referendum and Kashmir by the Instrument of Accession.

•      In 1950, the Constitution contained a four-fold classification of the  states of the Indian Union—Part A, Part B, Part C and Part D State.  In all, they numbered 29.

•      Part-A states comprised nine erstwhile governor’s provinces of British India.

•      Part-B states consisted of nine erstwhile princely states with  legislatures.

•      Part-C states consisted of erstwhile chief commissioner’s  provinces of British India and some of the erstwhile princely  states. These Part-C states (in all 10 in number) were centrally  administered.

•      The Andaman and Nicobar Islands were kept as the solitary  Part-D state

DHAR COMMISSION AND JVP COMMITTEE :

•      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 Committee6. 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.

•      This followed a prolonged popular agitation and  the  death of Potti Sriramulu, a Congress person of standing,  after a 56-day hunger strike for the cause.

FAZL ALI COMMISSION :

•      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’.

•      It identified four major factors that can be taken into account in any scheme of reorganisation of states:

a)    Preservation and strengthening of the unity and security of the country.

b)   Linguistic and cultural homogeneity.

c)    Financial, economic and administrative considerations.

d)   Planning and promotion  of the welfare of the people in  each state as well as of the nation as a whole.

STATE REORGANISATION ACT :

•      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.

•      The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 established the new  state of Kerala by merging the Travancore – Cochin State with  the Malabar District of Madras state and Kasargode of South  Canara (Dakshina Kannada).

•      It merged the Telugu-speaking areas of Hyderabad state with  the Andhra state to create the Andhra Pradesh state. Further, it  merged the Madya Bharat state, Vindya Pradesh state and Bhopal  state into the Madya Pradesh state.

•      Similarly, it merged the Saurashtra state and Kutch state into that of  the Bombay state, the Coorg state into that of Mysore state; the  Patiala and East Punjab States Union (Pepsu) into that of Punjab  state; and the Ajmer state into that of Rajastan state.

•      Moreover, it created the new union territory of Laccadive,  Minicoy and Amindivi Islands from the territory detached from  the Madras state.

•      Maharashtra and Gujarat In 1960, the bilingual state of Bombay  was divided into two separate states—Maharashtra for Marathi-  speaking people and Gujarat for Gujarati-speaking people. Gujarat  was established as the 15th state of the Indian Union.

•      Dadra and Nagar Haveli The Portuguese ruled this territory until  its liberation in 1954. It was converted into a union territory of India  by the 10th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1961.

•      Goa, Daman and Diu India acquired these three territories from  the Portuguese by means of a police action in 1961. They were  constituted as a union territory by the 12th Constitutional  Amendment Act, 1962. Later, in 1987, Goa was conferred a  statehood.9 Consequently, Daman and Diu was made a separate  union territory.

•      Puducherry The territory of Puducherry comprises the former  French establishments in India known as Puducherry, Karaikal,  Mahe and Yanam. The French handed over this territory to India in  1954. Subsequently, it was administered as an ‘acquired territory’,  till 1962 when it was made a union territory by the  14th  Constitutional Amendment Act.

•      Nagaland In 1963, the State of Nagaland was formed10 by  taking the Naga Hills and Tuensang area out of the state of Assam.

Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh In 1966, the State  of Punjab was bifurcated to create Haryana, the 17th state of the  Indian Union, and the union territory of Chandigarh. State of  Haryana and the hill areas were merged with the adjoining unionN  territory of Himachal Pradesh. In 1971, the union territory of  Himachal Pradesh was elevated12 to the status of a state (18th  state of the Indian Union).

STATES :

•      Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya In 1972, the political  map of Northeast India underwent a major change.  Thus, the two Union Territories of Manipur and Tripura  and the Sub-State of Meghalaya got statehood and the  two union territories of Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh  (originally known as North-East Frontier Agency—NEFA)  came into being. With this the number of states of the  Indian Union increased to 2.

•     Initially, the 22nd Constitutional Amendment Act (1969) Created Meghalaya as an  ‘autonomous state’ or

•     Sikkim Till 1947, Sikkim was an Indian princely state ruled by  Chogyal. In 1947, after the lapse of British paramountcy, Sikkim  became a ‘protectorate’ of India, whereby the Indian Government  assumed responsibility for the defence, external affairs and  communications of Sikkim.

•     In 1974, Sikkim expressed its desire for greater association with  India. Accordingly, the 35th Constitutional Amendment Act (1974)  was enacted by the parliament. This amendment introduced a new  class of statehood under the constitution by conferring on Sikkim the  status of an ‘associate state’ of the Indian Union.

•     In a referendum held in 1975, they voted for the abolition of the  institution of Chogyal and Sikkim becoming an integral part of India.  Consequently, the 36th Constitutional Amendment Act (1975) was  enacted to make Sikkim a full-fledged state of the Indian Union (the  22nd state).

•     Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa In 1987, three new States of  Mizoram,14 Arunachal Pradesh15 and Goa16 came into being as the 23rd,  24th and 25th states of the Indian Union respectively.

The Union Territory of Mizoram was conferred the status of a full state as a  sequel to the signing of a memorandum of settlement (Mizoram Peace       Accord) in 1986 between the Central government and the Mizo National  Front, ending the two-decade-old insurgency.

•     Arunachal Pradesh had also been a union territory from 1972. The State of  Goa was created by separating the territory of Goa from the Union Territory  of Goa, Daman and Diu.

•     Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand In 2000, three more new  States of Chhattisgarh,17 Uttarakhand18 and Jharkhand19 were created  out of the territories of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar  respectively. These became the 26th, 27th and 28th states of the Indian  Union respectively.

•     Telangana In 2014, the new state of Telangana came into existence as the 29th  state of the Indian Union. It was carved out of the territories of Andhra Pradesh.

•     The Andhra state Act of 1953 formed the first linguistic state of India, known as the  state of Andhra, by taking out the Telugu speaking areas from the State of Madras  (now Tamil Nadu), Kurnool was the capital of Andhra state and the state high court  was established at Guntur.

•     The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 merged the Telugu-speaking areas of  Hyderabad state with the Andhra state to create the enlarged Andhra Pradesh state.  The capital of the state was shifted to Hyderabad.

•     Again, the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014 bifurcated  the  Andhra  Pradesh into two separate states, namely, the Andhra Pradesh (residuary) and the  Telangana. Hyderabad is made the joint capital for both the states for a period of 10  years. During this period, the Andhra Pradesh should establish its own separate  capital. Similarly, the Andhra Pradesh High. Court is renamed as the Hyderabad High  Court (High Court of Judicature at  Hyderabad) and is made common for both the  states till a separate High Court is set-up for the State of Andhra Pradesh. Thus, the  number of states and union territories increased from 14 and 6 in 1956 to 29 and 7 in  2014 respectively. 

CHANGE OF NAMES : 

•      The United Provinces was the first state to have a new name. It was  renamed ‘Uttar Pradesh’ in 1950.

•      In 1969, Madras was renamed ‘Tamil Nadu’. Similarly, in 1973,  Mysore was renamed ‘Karnataka’. In the same year, Laccadive,  Minicoy and Amindivi Islands were renamed ‘Lakshadweep’.

•      In 1992, the Union Territory of Delhi was redesignated as the  National Capital Territory of Delhi (without being conferred the status  of a full-fledged state) by the 69th Constitutional Amendment Act,  1991

•      In 2006, Uttaranchal was renamed  as ‘Uttarakhand’. In the same year, Pondicherry was renamed2as ‘Puducherry’. In 2011, Orissa was renamed27 as ‘Odisha’.

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