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UNION AND ITS TERRITORY, Article 1 describes India, that is, Bharat as a ‘Union of States’, rather than a ‘Federation of States’. This provision deals with two, things: one, name of the country; and two, type of polity., There was no unanimity in the Constituent Assembly with, regard to the name of the country. Some members suggested the, traditional name (Bharat), while other advocated the modern, name (India). Hence, the Constituent Assembly had to adopt a, mix of both (‘India, that is, Bharat’), Secondly, the country is described as ‘Union’ although its, Constitution is federal in structure. According to Dr. B.R., Ambedkar, the phrase ‘Union of States’ has been preferred to, ‘Federation of States’ for two reasons: one, the Indian Federation, is not the result of an agreement among the states like the, American Federation; and two, the states have no right to secede, from the federation. The federation is an Union because it is, indestructible. The country is an integral whole and divided into, different states only for the convenience of administration., , According to Article 1, the territory of India can be classified into, three categories: 1. Territories of the states 2. Union territories 3., Territories that may be acquired by the Government of India at any, time., At present, there are 28 states and 9 union territories.
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Notably, the ‘Territory of India’ is a wider expression than the ‘Union, of India’ because the latter includes only states while the former, includes not only the states, but also union territories and territories, that may be acquired by the Government of India at any future time., Being a sovereign state, India can acquire foreign territories, according to the modes recognised by international law, i.e., cession, (following treaty, purchase, gift, lease or plebiscite),, Article 2 empowers the Parliament to ‘admit into the Union of India,, or establish, new states on such terms and conditions as it thinks fit’., Thus, Article 2 grants two powers to the Parliament: (a) the power to, admit into the Union of India new states; and (b) the power to, establish new states., Article 3 authorises the Parliament to:, (a) form a new state by separation of territory from any state or, by uniting two or more states or parts of states or by uniting, any territory to a part of any state;, (b) increase the area of any state;, (c) diminish the area of any state;, (d) alter the boundaries of any state; and, (e) alter the name of any state., However, Article 3 lays down two conditions in this regard: one,, a bill contemplating the above changes can be introduced in the, Parliament only with the prior recommendation of the President;, and two, before recommending the bill, the President has to refer, the same to the state legislature concerned for expressing its
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views within a specified period., the Constitution (Article 4) itself declares that laws, made for admission or establishment of new states (under Article, 2) and formation of new states and alteration of areas, boundaries, or names of existing states (under Articles 3) are not to be, considered as amendments of the Constitution under Article 368., This means that such laws can be passed by a simple majority., , EVOLUTION OF STATES AND UNION, TERRITORIES, 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 and territories of the, Indian Union–Part A, Part B and Part C states and Part D territories5 .
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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 territories., , Dhar Commission and JVP Committee, , The integration of princely states with the rest of India has purely an, ad hoc arrangement. 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
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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’. Its view was that the unity, of India should be regarded as the primary consideration in any, redrawing of the country’s political units. 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.
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The commission suggested the abolition of the four-fold, classification of states and territories 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, , The States Reorganisation Act (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., , New States and Union Territories Created After 1956, , Even after the large-scale reorganisation of the states in 1956, the, political map of India underwent continuous changes due to the, pressure of popular agitations and political conditions. The demand, for the creation of some more states on the basis of language or, cultural homogeneity resulted in the bifurcation of existing states.
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Maharashtra and Gujarat In 1960, the bilingual state of Bombay was divided8 into two separate states–, Maharashtra for Marathispeaking people and Gujarat for, Gujaratispeaking 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., Subsequently, the administration was carried on till 1961 by an, administrator chosen by the people themselves. 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.
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Nagaland, In 1963, the State of Nagaland was formed10 by taking the Naga, Hills and Tuensang area out of the state of Assam. This was done, to satisfy the movement of the hostile Nagas., , Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh, In 1966, the State of Punjab was bifurcated11, to create Haryana,, the 17th state of the Indian Union, and the union territory of, Chandigarh. This followed the demand for a separate ‘Sikh, Homeland’ (Punjabi Subha) raised by the Akali Dal under the, leadership of Master Tara Singh. On the recommendation of the, Shah Commission (1966), the Punjabi-speaking areas were, constituted into the unilingual state of Punjab, the Hindi-speaking, areas were constituted into the State of Haryana and the hill areas, were merged with the adjoining union 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)., Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya, With this, the number of states of the Indian Union increased to 21, (Manipur 19th, Tripura 20th and Meghalaya 21st)., , Sikkim Till 1947, Sikkim was an Indian princely state ruled by Chogyal., In 1947, after the lapse of British paramountcy, Sikkim became a
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‘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. For this, purpose, a new Article 2-A and a new schedule (10th Schedule, containing the terms and conditions of association) were inserted in, the Constitution. This experiment, however, did not last long as it, could not fully satisfy the aspirations of the people of Sikkim. 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). This amendment amended the First and the Fourth, Schedules to the Constitution and added a new Article 371-F to, provide for certain special provisions with respect to the, administration of Sikkim., , 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., , 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
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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.
