The States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) constituted by the Central Government of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
in December 1953 to recommend the reorganization of state boundaries.
In September 1955, after two years of study, the Commission, comprising Justice
Fazal Ali,
K. M. Panikkar and
H. N. Kunzru
Hridya Nath Kunzru (1 October 1887– 3 April 1978) was an Indian freedom fighter and public figure. He was a long-time Parliamentarian, serving in various legislative bodies at the Provincial and Central level for nearly four decades. He was a m ...
, submitted its report. The commission's recommendations were accepted with some modifications and implemented in the
States Reorganisation Act in November, 1956. The act provided that India's state boundaries should be reorganised to form 14 states and 6 centrally administered territories.
Background
![India Administrative Divisions 1951](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/India_Administrative_Divisions_1951.svg)
After India became independent from the British Empire in 1947, the constituent units of India were classified under the following distinct categories:
The borders of these states, inherited from
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
, were not suitable for easy administration. The internal provincial borders of British India were a result of historical events, as well as political, military and strategic planning by the British. The Government agreed that the reorganisation of state borders was necessary, but the basis of reorganisation was yet to be determined.
One of the proposals was to reorganise the state on the basis of
languages of India
Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families together are sometimes known ...
. This would make administration easier, and would help replace the caste and religion-based identities with less controversial linguistic identities. Earlier in 1920, the members of the
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...
had agreed on the linguistic reorganisation of the Indian states as one of the party's political goals.
The Provincial Committees of the party were set on this basis since 1920. In 1927, the Congress declared that it was committed to "the redistribution of provinces on a linguistic basis", and reaffirmed its stance several times, including in the election manifesto of 1945-46.
But, soon after independence, the Congress-led Government became concerned that the states formed solely on a linguistic basis might be unsuitable, and might even pose a risk to the national unity.
On 17 June 1948,
Rajendra Prasad
Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...
, the President of the Constituent Assembly, set up the Linguistic Provinces Commission (aka Dhar Commission) to recommend whether the states should be reorganised on linguistic basis or not. The committee included SK Dhar (retired Judge of the
Allahabad High Court),
Jagat Narain Lal (lawyer and member of constituent assembly) and Panna Lall (retired
Indian Civil Service
The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947.
Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...
officer). In its 10 December 1948 report, the Commission recommended that "the formation of provinces on exclusively or even mainly linguistic considerations is not in the larger interests of the Indian nation."
It recommended the reorganisation of the provinces of
Madras,
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...
and
Central Provinces and Berar primarily on the basis of geographical contiguity, financial self-sufficiency and ease of administration. Soon after the report was published, the Congress, at its Jaipur session, set up the "JVP committee" to study the recommendations of the Dhar Commission. The committee consisted of
Jawaharlal Nehru
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat—
*
*
*
* and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
and
Vallabhbhai Patel
Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (; ; 31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950), commonly known as Sardar, was an Indian lawyer, influential political leader, barrister and statesman who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of I ...
, in addition to the Congress president
Pattabhi Sitaramayya
Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya (24 November 1880 – 17 December 1959) was an Indian independence activist and political leader in the state of Andhra Pradesh. He was also the first governor (1 November 1956 – 13 June 1957) of Madhya Pradesh. ...
. In its report dated 1 April 1949, the Committee stated that the time was not suitable for formation of new provinces, but also stated that the "public sentiment is insistent and overwhelming, we, as democrats, have to submit to it, but subject to certain limitations in regard to the good of India as a whole."
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly debates, served a ...
submitted a Memorandum (dated 14 October 1948) to the Dhar Commission, supporting the formation of linguistic provinces, specifically the formation of the
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
-majority
Maharashtra state with
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...
as its capital. To address the concern of national unity, he suggested that the official language of every province should be same as the official language of the Central Government.
KM Munshi, a Gujarati leader opposed to incorporation of Bombay in the proposed Maharashtra state, opposed the linguistic reorganisation proposal, saying that "the political ambition of a linguistic group can only be satisfied by the exclusion and discrimination of other linguistic groups within the area. No safeguards and no fundamental rights can save them from the subtle psychological exclusion which linguism implies."
By the 1952, the demand for creation of a Telugu-majority state in the parts of the
Madras State
Madras State was a state of India during the mid-20th century. At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu (except Kanyakumari district), Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North and ...
had become powerful.
Potti Sreeramulu
Potti Sreeramulu (IAST: ''Poṭṭi Śreerāmulu''; 16 March 1901 – 15 December 1952), was an Indian freedom fighter and revolutionary. Sreeramulu is revered as ''Amarajeevi'' ("Immortal Being") in the Andhra region for his self-sacrifice for ...
, one of the activists who belonged to congress itself demanded the formation of a Telugu-majority state, died on 16 December 1952 after undertaking a
fast-unto-death. Subsequently, the Telugu-majority
Andhra State
Andhra State (IAST: ; ) was a state in India created in 1953 from the Telugu-speaking northern districts of Madras State. The state was made up of this two distinct cultural regions – Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra. Andhra State did not incl ...
was formed in 1953. This sparked off agitations all over the country, with linguistic groups demanding separate statehoods.
The report of the State Reorganisation Commission was received by the Government 30-Sep-1955 afternoon.
SRC report
The Commission submitted its report on 30 September 1955, with the following recommendations:
# The three-tier (Part-A/B/C) state system should be abolished...
# The institution of Rajapramukh and special agreement with former princely states should be abolished
# The general control vested in Government of India by Article 371 should be abolished
# Only the following 3 states should be the Union Territories: Andaman & Nicobar, Delhi and Manipur. The other Part-C/D territories should be merged with the adjoining states
The report was tabled in the
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...
on 14 December 1955.
In Part II of Report of the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) 1955, titled "Factors Bearing on Reorganisation", the Commission clearly said that "it is neither possible nor desirable to reorganise States on the basis of the single test of either language or culture, but that a balanced approach to the whole problem is necessary in the interest of our national unity."
Implementation
The
States Reorganisation Act of 1956 implemented some of the recommendations of the SRC. In addition to the three Union Territories (UTs) proposed by the SRC, it also established
Laccadive, Minicoy & Amindivi Islands,
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...
and
Tripura
Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the ea ...
as UTs. It established a total of 14 states in addition to these UTs.
Controversies
![South Indian territories](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/South_Indian_territories.svg)
The recommendations of the commission were not accepted universally.
Vidarbha
The SRC recommended formation of separate
Vidarbha State by splitting majority
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
speaking areas from Madhya Pradesh state. However, the Indian government did not accept the recommendation and merged these areas in the predominantly Marathi speaking
Bombay state. Vidarbha would have been the second Marathi majority state for the people of a regional /provincial language in India.
Kerala-Madras
The
Travancore Tamil Nadu Congress
The Travancore Tamil Nadu Congress (TTNC) was a political party in the Indian state of Travancore-Cochin. The party was led by A. Nesamony.
History
The Kingdom of Travancore was a princely state of India. Its population included an ethnic M ...
demanded to merge
Thovalai,
Agasteeswaram,
Kalkulam
Kalkulam is a small village located in Kalkulam taluk, Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, India. The taluk was among several in Thiruvananthapuram district that with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act of 1956 were transferred from Thir ...
,
Vilavancode
Vilavancode, also spelt as Viḷavaṅgōḍu, is a town panchayat in Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu state, India. It is part of territory among several taluks that were with the Thiruvananthapuram district that with the passage of the St ...
, Neyyatinkara,
Senkottai,
Deviculam and
Peermade
Peermade, also spelt Peerumedu (Malayalam: പീരുമേട്) is a village, Grama Panchayat and hill station in the state of Kerala, India. It lies above sea level in the Western Ghats (Sahyadri) about east of Kottayam on the way to The ...
with Madras State.
However, the Commission recommended only the merger of Thovalai, Agasteeswaram, Kalkulam, Vilvancode and Shenkottai with Madras State. In Neyyatinkara Taluk the Commission found that 86% of the people knew Malayalam. So the Commission did not favour the merger of this Taluk with Madras State. During the Lok Sabha (Parliament) discussions, the representatives of Travancore-Cochin State vehemently opposed the Commission's recommendations for the merger of the Southern Taluks with Madras State.
A. Nesamony argued for the merger of Neyyatinkara, Deviculam, Peermade and
Chittoor
Chittoor is a city and district headquarters in Chittoor district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is also the mandal and divisional headquarters of Chittoor mandal and Chittoor revenue division, respectively. The city has a popu ...
with the Tamil-majority Madras State.
Even though the SRC recommended for the merger of the entire
Shenkottai taluk
Shenkottai taluk is a taluk of Tenkasi district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest ...
, the subsequently formed Joint Committee recommended the eastern portion of Shenkottai alone to be merged with Madras State. This decision was finally published authoritatively on 16 January 1956. In the July 1956 Lok Sabha meeting, Nesamony argued for the full merger of Shencottai as recommended by SRC. The House refused to reconsider the decision of the joint Committee by over-ruling the recommendation of the SRC.
On the basis of the percentage of the people speaking Tamil, the S.R.Commission recommended for the transfer of four taluks namely, Agasteeswaram, Thovalai, Kalkulam and Vilavancode to Tamil Nadu from the State of Travancore-Cochin. The same yard stick was used for the transfer of Shenkotta Taluk to Tamil Nadu. Even though Shenkotta was fully transferred by the commission, the Joint Committee appointed to fix the exact boundaries of the states, divided Shenkotta Taluk and allowed Travancore–Cochin State to retain a major portion.
Andhra-Telangana
The Commission's report judged the arguments for and against the merger of the
Telugu-majority
Telangana
Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and 3 ...
region (of
Hyderabad State) and the
Andhra State
Andhra State (IAST: ; ) was a state in India created in 1953 from the Telugu-speaking northern districts of Madras State. The state was made up of this two distinct cultural regions – Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra. Andhra State did not incl ...
(created in 1953). Para 369 to 389 of SRC deals with the merger of Telangana and Andhra to establish the
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
state (complete text of the recommendations is available on
Wikisource
Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually re ...
). Para 386 of SRC says, "After taking all these factors into consideration we have come to the conclusions that it will be in the interests of Andhra as well as Telangana, if for the present, the Telangana area is to constitute into a separate State, which may be known as the Hyderabad State with provision for its unification with Andhra after the general elections likely to be held in or about 1961 if by a two thirds majority the legislature of the residency Hyderabad State expresses itself in favor of such unification".
Hyderabad Chief minister in his
letter
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
to Congress President said Communist parties supported the merger for their political calculations. Hyderabad PCC chief said overwhelming majority from Congress opposed the merger and Communists were elected in special circumstances in 1951 and Visalandhra was not a political issue in 1951 and Assembly does not reflect people's view on this issue. He also said 80% of Congress delegates who were elected in 1955 opposed the merger.
In Hyderabad assembly out of 174 MLAs, 147 MLAs expressed their view. 103 MLAs (including Marathi and Kannada MLAs) supported the merger and opposed the Fazal Ali Commission's recommendation to keep Telangana as a separate state for 5 years; and 29 opposed such merger. Among Telangana MLAs, 59 Telangana MLAs agreed with the merger, 25 Telangana MLAs opposed the merger. Out of 94 Telangana MLAs in the assembly, 36 were Communists(PDF), 40 were Congress, 11 were Socialist party(SP), 9 were independents. Voting did not take place on the resolution because Telangana proponents asked to include the phrase "As per the wishes of people" in the resolution.
An agreement was reached between Telangana leaders and Andhra leaders on 20 February 1956 to merge Telangana and Andhra with promises to safeguard Telangana's interests. Popular newspaper in Telangana, Golconda Patrika, in its editorial on 8 March 1956, immediately after Nehru public declaration about the merger, expressing doubts about the Gentleman's agreement said "Andhra older brother might say any number of sweet things now, but they have to be committed to their promises and they should not exploit Telangana younger brother in future."
Following the
Gentlemen's agreement, the central government established a unified
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
on 1 November 1956.
There have been several movements to invalidate the merger of Telangana and Andhra, major ones occurring in 1969, 1972 and 2000s onwards. The
Telangana movement
The Telangana movement refers to a movement for the creation of a separate state, Telangana, from the pre-existing state of Andhra Pradesh in India. The new state corresponds to the Telugu-speaking portions of the erstwhile princely state of H ...
gained momentum over decades becoming a widespread political demand of creating a new state from the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh.
In early 2014, the
Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014
The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014, commonly known as the Telangana Act, is an Act of Indian Parliament that bifurcated the state of Andhra Pradesh into Telangana and the residuary Andhra Pradesh state, as an outcome of the Telanga ...
was approved by the Indian parliament, and Telangana became India's 29th state on 2 June 2014.
Punjabi Suba
The
Akali Dal, a
Sikh-dominated political party active only in
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...
, sought to create a
Punjabi Suba (a
Punjabi-majority) province. This new state would be a Sikh-majority state, which caused concern among the
Punjabi Hindu
Punjabi Hindus are adherents of Hinduism who identify linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Punjabis. While Punjabi Hindus are mostly found in the Indian state of Punjab today, many have ancestry from the greater Punjab regio ...
s. The Sikh leaders such
Fateh Singh tactically stressed the linguistic basis of the demand, while downplaying its religious basis — a state where the distinct Sikh identity could be preserved.
The States Reorganisation Commission rejected the demand for a Punjabi-majority state saying that it lacked a majority support and that Punjabi was not grammatically very distinct from Hindi. The
Patiala and East Punjab States Union
Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the ''Qila Mubarak'' (the 'Fortunate Castle') constructe ...
(PEPSU) was merged with Punjab, though. Akali Dal continued its movement, and in 1966 the
Punjab Reorganisation Act split Punjab into the Sikh-majority
Punjab state
Punjab (; ) is a state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the north and northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast, and ...
and the Hindu-majority states of
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land a ...
and
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...
, with
Chandigarh
Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which a ...
, administered as a separate
union territory, as the shared capital of
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...
and
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land a ...
states.
Belagavi
After India became independent in 1947, the Belagavi district (
Belgaum) of the erstwhile
Bombay Presidency was retained by the Marathi dominated
Bombay State. The award of the
Belagavi district to the
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
-majority
Mysore State
Mysore State, colloquially Old Mysore, was a state within the Dominion of India and the later India, Republic of India from 1947 until 1956. The state was formed by renaming the Kingdom of Mysore, and Bangalore replaced Mysore as the state's c ...
(later
Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
) was contested by the
Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti
Samyukta Maharashtra Movement ( mr, संयुक्त महाराष्ट्र चळवळ), commonly known as the Samiti, was an organisation in India that advocated for a separate Marathi-speaking state in Western India and Cent ...
, which wanted it to be included in the proposed Marathi-majority
Maharashtra state.
External links
Lok Sabha Discussion on States Reorganisation Commission
* https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/55931/1/lsd_01_11_09-12-1955.pdf Page 36
* https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/55796/1/lsd_01_11_14-12-1955.pdf page 38
* https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/55799/1/lsd_01_11_15-12-1955.pdf page 43
* https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/56096/1/lsd_01_11_16-12-1955.pdf page 50
* https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/55783/1/lsd_01_11_17-12-1955.pdf page 16
* https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/55801/1/lsd_01_11_19-12-1955.pdf page 42
* https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/55810/1/lsd_01_11_20-12-1955.pdf page 50
* https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/55811/1/lsd_01_11_21-12-1955.pdf page 74
* https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/55812/1/lsd_01_11_22-12-1955.pdf page 49
* https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/56101/1/lsd_01_11_23-12-1955.pdf page 247
See also
*
States Reorganisation Act
References
{{Indian commissions
Indian commissions and inquiries
Reorganisation of Indian states
1955 in India