We should know our history while celebrating Rajostava …!

Ø  In 1947 India merged 571 princely states together and made 27 states on the basis of the political and historical considerations as a temporary arrangement.

Ø  Differences existed in many states raising linguistic issues and the need for a permanent aroused.

Ø   1948 Central Government appointed a Commission under SK Dhar a judge of Allahabad High court to look in to this issue and submit a report.

Ø  This commission preferred a reorganization of states on the basis of Administrative convenience and geographical considerations instead of linguistic basis.

Ø  Again during the end of 1948 a JVP committee formed to study this issue. (Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramaiah). This committee rejected the idea of reorganizing the states on linguistic basis in 1949 and suggested at fresh on account of the public demand.

Ø  1n 1953 India Government was forced to accept the demand of Telugu speaking people with their agitation, 56 day hunger strike resulted in the death of Potti Sriramalu, and Andhra Pradesh was formed.

Ø  Further to that demands were raised from many other part of the country for bifurcation of linguistic states.

Ø  In 1953 Jawaharlal Nehru the then prime minister, appointed another Commission under Fazal Ali to consider the demands.

Ø  The Fazal Ali Committee report suggested to divide the country in to 16 states.

Ø  The Government agreed the report with some changes as 14 states and 6 Union territories under the State Re-Organization Act and passed it in 1956.

Ø  It was on 1^st November 1956 the states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Mysore, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal were formed.

Ø  The six union territories were Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands, Manipur and Tripura.

Ø  In 1960, the state of Bombay was bifurcated to create the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra following violence and agitation.

Ø  In 1963, the state of Nagaland was created for the sake of the Nagas and total number of states stood at 16. 

Ø  Areas dominated by people from France like Chandernagore, Mahe, Yaman and Karekal, and the areas dominated by people from Portguese like territories of Goa, Daman and Diu were made as territories.

Ø   Punjab reorganization act was passed by the Parliament based on the Sha Commissuion report in 1966.  Following this, the state of Haryana got the Punjabi-speaking areas while the hilly areas went to the Union Territory of Himachal Pradesh. Chandigarh, which was made a Union Territory, would serve as the common capital of Punjab and Haryana. 

Ø  In 1969 and in 1971, the states of Meghalaya and Himachal Pradesh came into being respectively.

Ø  Union Territories of Tripura and Manipur being converted into states, the total number of Indian states rose to 21.

Ø  Thereafter, Sikkim in 1975 and Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh in 1987 also acquired the status of states.

Ø  In 1987, Goa became the 25th state of the Indian Union.

Ø  Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttaranchal were got the status of state in 2000.

Ø  2014, Telangana officially became India’s 29th state. 

Presently, India has 29 states and 7 union territories. The states are: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, West Bengal and Telangana. The union territories are: Delhi, Chandigarh, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar haveli. 

Linguistic states may encourage promotion of regional languages.  They may maintain the culture and tradition to keep connected to the roots.

But the division of states based on the linguistic basis has become the division of communities. It widened the differences even more in the society and encourages discrimination. It weakens the prime idea of single Indian identity in contrast to linguistic/religious/regional identity

Having a common language all over the country is very important in promoting national unity and integrity which will not happen with the said division of states.

Division of our country must have been based on administrative efficiency, capital formation, human/natural resources, population density, convenience and area, not on linguistic basis. Language is just a medium of communication, it can’t form the basis of administration. Development of people is far more important than speaking a language and dividing the communities based on language.