Evolution of states and Union territories in India

India got independence on 15th August 1947 from British rule. Today we have 28 States and 8 Union territories in India but at the time of independence, situation was not like that. The evolution of states and union territories in India has a long history which we are going to read in this article.

Content to be discussed in details :-

1. Integration of princely states to India ;
2. Four – fold classification of states and territories of Indian Union in Part – A, Part- B, Part- C, Part – D at the time of commencement of the Constitution;
3. Formation of various commissions and committees related to creation of states on linguistic basis like Dhar Commission, JVP committee, Fazl Ali commission etc.

At that time of independence, India has manily two types of political units i.e.

• British provinces (which were under the direct control of British government).
• Princely states (which were ruled by native or local princes under the paramountacy of British crown).

As per the provisions of Indian independence act of 1947, two independent nations India and Pakistan were created and this act gave liberty to princely states to join either India, Pakisatn or remain independent.

Around 552 princely states were there at that time. It was nothing but efforts of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Ji and Shri VP Menon Ji that led to joining of 549 princely states in India initially. Later, remaining 3 princely states i.e Hyderabad, Junagarh and Kashmir were also joined India by different means like :-

1. Hyderabad was integrated by means of police or military action.
2. Junagarh was integrated by means of referendum.
3. Kashmir was integrated by Instrument of Accession.

Integration of princely states with the rest of India was merely an adhoc arrangement, so demand from various regions mainly from South India was raised for re-organisation of states on linguistic basis (on the basis of language). Accordingly, government formed various commissions and committees to examine the viability of this demand. These commissions and committees played a very crucial role in the evolution of states and union territories in India. Details of them are as :-

1) Dhar Commission :- This commission was appointed by government of India in June 1948 under chairmanship of S.K. Dhar to examine the feasibility of reorganisation of states on linguistic basis. This commission submitted its report in December 1948 and recommended for reorganisation of states on the basis of adminstrative convenience rather than linguistic factor.

2) JVP committee :- This committee was appointed in December 1948 by congress to examine the feasibility of reorganisation of states on linguistic basis afresh. Members of this committe were JVP (Jawahar Lal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya). This committe submitted its report in April 1949 and it also rejected the language as a basis for reorganisation of states.

Meanwhile, Constitution of India came into force on 26th January 1950. Thus, Constitution contained four-fold classification of states and territories of the India Union i.e Part – A states, Part – B states , Part – C states and Part – D territories. Total they were 29 in numbers.

• Part – A contains nine provinces of British India which were under the control of governor at that time.
• Part – B contains nine princely states with legislatures.
• Part – C contains erstwhile chief commissioner’s province of British India and some of the princely states. These states in Part – C were centrally administered.
• Part – D contains Andaman and Nicobar islands.

States in Part – A	States in Part – B	States in Part – C	States in Part – D
1. Assam	1. Jammu & Kashmir	1. Delhi	1. Andaman & Nicobar islands
2. Punjab	2. Hyderabad	2. Himachal Pradesh
3. Bombay	3. Mysore	3. Coorg
4. Orissa	4. Rajasthan	4. Kutch
5. Madras	5. Saurashtra	5. Ajmer
6. West Bengal	6. Patiala and East Punjab	6. Bhopal
7. Bihar	7. Madhya Bharat	7. Manipur
8. United provinces	8. Travancore – Cochin	8. Tripura
9. Madhya Pradesh	9. Vindhya Pradesh	9. Bilasur
		10. Cooch – Behar

Meanwhile prolonged agitations were going on and death of Shri Potti Sriramulu after 56 days of hunger strike led to formation of first linguistic state i.e Andhra Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh was created by separating Telugu speaking areas from the Madras state.

Note :- Shri Potti Sriramulu was on hunger strike and he was demanding separate state for Telugu speaking people called as Andhra Pradesh.

3) Fazl Ali commission :- Creation of Andhra Pradesh intensified the demand from other regions as well for the creation of states on linguistic basis. This led to appointment of a state reorganisation commission called as Fazl Ali commission under the chairmanship of Fazl Ali in December 1953. This commission has total 3 members, other two were H.N. Kunzru and K.M.Panikkar. 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’. This commission suggested for the abolition of four – fold classification of states and territories. It recommended four factors to be kept in mind for reorganisation of states and these are as :-

• Unity and security of Indias should be preserved.
• Linguistic and cultural homogeneity.
• Financial, economic and administrative considerations.
• Welfare of the people in each state as well of the nation.

Accordingly, state reorganisation act 1956 came into force which led to creation of 14 states and 6 union territories which are as :

States	Union territories
1. Andhra Pradesh	1. Andaman & Nicobar islands
2. Punjab	2.  Delhi
3. Rajasthan	3. Himachal Pradesh
4. Bombay	4. Manipur
5. Jammu & Kashmir	5. Tripura
6. Mysore	6. Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi islands
7. Madras
8. Orissa
9. Uttar Pradesh
10. West Bengal
11. Assam
12. Bihar
13. Kerala
14. Madhya Pradesh

From 1956 to till today, many states were bifurcated into two or more states based on many factors and today we have 28 states and 8 union territories in India.

Hope you like the article on evolution of states and union territories in India. Please let us know your opinion in the comments section below.

Read about Important articles of Indian Constitution by clicking here.

Read about 12 Schedules of Indian Constitution by clicking here.

Read about Important acts passed during British rule in India by clicking here.

Read about Parts of Indian Constitution by clicking here.