Introduction

At the time of independence, India existed two types of political units – the British provinces (under the direct rule of the British government) and princely states (under the rule of native princes, but these princely states had accepted the paramountcy of the British Crown). The Indian Independence Act of 1947 created two independent and separate countries, India and Pakistan, and gave three options to the princely states: the freedom to join either India or Pakistan or to remain independent. Out of 565 princely states in British India, 552 princely states situated within the geographical boundaries of India, 549 joined India and the remaining 3 (Junagarh, Kashmir, and Hyderabad) refused to join India. However, later, these three states were also integrated with India—Hyderabad by means of police action, Junagarh by means of referendum and Kashmir by means of the Instrument of Accession.

The integration of princely states in India was ably handled by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel with the help of VP Menon, secretary, state ministry. They made plans to make the integration or merger of princely states as smooth as possible in India.

In 1950, the Constitution of India classified the states into four folds. These four folds of classification are Part-A, Part-B, Part-C, and Part-D.  In all, the total number of states is 29. The Part-A states comprised nine states which were under the government of British India. The Part-B states comprised nine states which were princely states with legislatures. The Part-C states comprised ten states which were chief Commissioner’s provinces of British India and princely states. These Part-C states were centrally administered. The Part-D states comprised one state, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

To know about the territory of India in 1950, refer to the table below.

Dhar Commission and JVP Committee

The integration and merge of princely states with the rest of India had purely an ad hoc arrangement. After the independence of India, some regions of India had demand, particularly South India states, for reorganisation of States on a linguistic basis. In June 1948, the Government of India appointed a commission under the chairmanship of S K Dhar, a judge of the Allahabad High Court, to examine the feasibility of the reorganisation of states on linguistic basis. The commission submitted its report in December 1948 and recommended the reorganisation of states on the basis of administrative convenience rather than linguistic considerations.

However, this report created much resentment and led to the appointment of another Linguistic Provinces Committee in December 1948 by the Congress itself to examine the whole problem afresh. This committee consisted of Jawaharalal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, and Pattabhi Sitaramayya. This committee is also known as the JVP Committee. The JVP Committee submitted its report in April 1949 and dismissed the idea of reorganisation of states on the basis of linguistics.

First Linguistic State and Fazl Ali Commission

In October 1953, the Indian Government was forced to create a separate state Andhra State for Telugu-speaking people from the Madras state because of a prolonged popular agitation and after a 56-day hunger strike that resulted in the death of Potti Sriramulu. Thus, Andhra State became the first linguistic state of India.

After the creation of Andhra State, other parts of the country also demanded the creation of states on the linguistic basis. This forced the Government of India to appoint a three-member States Reorganisation Commission under the chairmanship of Fazl Ali to re-examine the whole situation on December 22, 1953.

The other two members of the commission were K M Panikkar and H N Kunzru. The commission submitted its report in September 1955 and broadly accepted language as the basis of reorganisation of states. But the committee rejected the theory of ‘one language, one state’. The committee view was that the unity of India should be regarded as the primary consideration in any redrawing of the country’s political units. The committee identified four major factors that can be taken into consideration in any scheme of reorganisation of states:

1. Preservation and strengthening of the unity and security of the country.
2. Linguistic and cultural homogeneity.
3. Financial, economic and administrative considerations.
4. Planning and promotion of the welfare of the people in each state

The Fazl Ali Commission suggested the abolition of the four-fold classification of states under the original Constitution and reorganisation of the whole country into sixteen states and three centrally administered areas. However, the Government of India did not accept the total recommendations of this committee but accepted these recommendations with certain minor modifications.  Under the State Reorganisation Act of 1956 and the Seventh Constitutional Amendment Act of 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 others designated as union territories. As a result, the country was divided into fourteen states and six union territories. To know about the territory of India in 1956, refer to the table below.

New States and Union Territories Created After 1956

The demand for the creation of some more states on the basis of language or cultural homogeneity was not finished even after the large-scale reorganisation of the states in 1956. Such demand resulted in the bifurcation of existing states. To know about the created new states and union territories after 1956, refer to the table below.

Thus, the number of states and union territories increased from 14 and 6 in 1956 to 28 and 8 in 2021 respectively. To know about the territory of India in 2021, refer to the table below.

Change of Names of States and Union territories

The names of some states and union territories have also been changed since 1950. To know about these changed names of states and union territories, refer to the table below.

Note-

1. The United Provinces was the first state to have a new name.

2. After the independence of India, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Goa, Daman and Diu were territories of the Portuguese. Dadra and Nagar Haveli was liberated in 1954 from the Portuguese and Goa, Daman and Diu were also acquired from the Portuguese by police action in 1961.

3. 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.

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