India creates three new states BY HARIHAR BHATTACHARYYA The Indian federation took a very of the linguistic characteristics of the States Reorganization Commission significant turn in November 2000 country. This pledge led to an awakening in 1953, and on the basis of its with the creation of three new states. of interest in self-rule among various recommendations, to pass the nationalities and ethnic groups prior to States Reorganization Act in 1956. Although infrequent, the creation of new independence. Many of the post- states is not unusual here. India has a As a result of this Act in 1956, India independence movements for statehood long history of what is called “states undertook the first major reorganization had their origins in this reorganization”. of states, and the reasons were strongly pre-independence phase. linguistic: the new federal units were created so that the states’ boundaries Language: the original basis A dynamic period of change would better correspond with linguistic for statehood boundaries. When the Indian republic was The formation of states on the established in 1950, there were 27 Since 1956, there has been a more- basis of language was a pledge states of different status and powers. or-less continuous process of states and a demand of the anti-colonial reorganization. For most of this period, nationalist movements in India. During the first major territorial the creation of new states was based The federal idea in India began reorganization in 1956, the number on both ethno-regional and linguistic to take shape on this vision. of states was reduced to 14, largely characteristics. In the 1950s and the on linguistic lines, each having equal The Indian National Congress (INC), as 1960s, language played the most powers and function. the main party of India’s independence, determining role with the sole exception began to encourage the idea of linguistic But from then on, new states were of the case of the creation of Punjab states from the beginning of the 1900s. created to accommodate India’s (1966) in which the linguistic factor It officially endorsed the demand as manifold diversity. combined with religion. early as 1920 when it reorganized its The first state created for linguistic In the 1970s, India’s northeast (now own party units on the basis of regional reasons in the post-independence comprising seven federal units) became linguistic boundaries. period was Andhra Pradesh, in 1953, an area of major states reorganization. The nationalists pledged to reorganize after its legendary leader Sri Ramalu’s Three new states were created as a India after independence on the basis fast unto death. This prompted the political recognition of tribal identity. Government of India to form the New States and the Indian Constitution • alter the boundaries of any state; The Indian constitution is quite flexible in its provisions for • and alter the name of any state. the creation of new states. The legislative requirement on the part of Parliament to The Indian federation, constitutionally speaking, is an do so is by a simple majority, and by means of the ordinary indestructible union of destructible states. The Indian legislative process. However, a Presidential recommendation Constitution (Articles 3-4) empowers the Union Parliament— for introducing such a bill is required, and the President is the Lok Sabha (popularly elected Lower House) and the required, before the recommendation, to refer the bill to the Rajya Sabha, (the Council of States)—to reorganize the legislature of the state to be affected by the proposed states for territorial adjustment. changes. The President is not bound to accept the view of the state legislature. It is provided that Parliament may by law: So far more than 20 Acts have been passed by the parliament • form a new state by separation of territory from any state, to give effect to states reorganization. In the cases of the three or by uniting two or more states, or parts of states, or by new states, the constitutional procedures have been followed, uniting any territory to a part of any state; and the legislative assemblies of the three affected states • increase the area of any state; have debated the proposed changes for years before agreeing to them. • diminish the area of any state; Federations volume 1, number 1, march 2001 In the 1980s, another three states were The most significant political aspect language factors played no role created (two in the northeast, and one of the creation of Chhatisgarh was in carving out the state. in the southwest). that, since 1993, the issue has been an electoral pledge of the two leading One means by which a state is created Can statehood provide more political parties, namely Congress and is upgrading the status of a “Union democracy? the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP, the Territory”. Today there are seven leading partner of the National India’s social and cultural landscape Union Territories of different sizes Democratic Alliance government is dotted with various movements and significance within the federation. in India). The immediate political for statehood, rooted in communities’ Union Territories are directly ruled beneficiary of the new state has, concern for their identities. There are by the Central Government. however, been the Congress, the such movements as: Historically, these Union Territories have party in power in the parent state, • Harit Pradesh in western Uttar often been the precursors of new states which played a very active role in Pradesh, in India. Arguing that a Union Territory the creation of the new state. should be upgraded to a state has • Vindhyachal in Madhya Pradesh, The new state of Uttaranchal was remained one means for ethnically carved out of the northern mountainous • Telengana in Andhra Pradesh, significant people living within a given regions of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most territory to pursue statehood. Statehood • Vidarbha in Maharashtra, populous state (some 140 million in means more autonomous powers, 1991). For the first time ever, ecology • Kodagu in Karnataka, and more freedom of action within as the defining factor of ethnic identity the federation. • Gorkhaland and Kamtapuri in played the most active role in the West Bengal, At the heart of demands for statehood creation of a new state. has remained the urge for decentral- • and Bodoland in Assam. The creation of the state of Uttaranchal ization and autonomy for the protection is the culmination of a ten-year long The federal structure of India since her of identity and for development. movement by the hill people for decolonization has shown flexibility in statehood. They sought autonomy politically accommodating the needs of New bases for state-creation to address the problems of economic diversity. Short of full statehood, various development, and to protect their institutional measures such as the The creation of three new states— cultural distinctiveness born of the District or Regional Councils, Union Chhatisgarh (carved out of Madhya ecological distinctiveness of the region. Territories, and Associate State or Sub- Pradesh), Jharkhand (carved out of Essentially, the lack of development in State units have been the states’ Bihar), and Uttaranchal (carved out the hills defined the tenor of the responses to ethnic grievances. In many of Uttar Pradesh)—has followed the statehood movement. cases, the statehood movements have conventional method of states grown out of dissatisfaction with those reorganization in India. The rise of Uttaranchal has provided institutional measures. the minority hill people of Uttar In the formation of these states, Pradesh with the political institutions to This vast country contains complex however, language, as a symbol of transform themselves into a majority in diversity coupled with regional identity, has played very little role. a state of their own, in which they will imbalances, social and economic The process of creation of Chhatisgarh play the major role in governance. inequalities, and mass poverty. out of the state of Madhya Pradesh has The state of Jharkhand, by contrast, is Statehood provides an institutional been peaceful, unlike that of Uttaranchal the culmination of more than a century framework for autonomy and and Jharkhand. A movement for a state of struggle by some tribal peoples in decentralization to respond to the need such as Chhatisgarh has existed from Bihar for the protection of their identity, for development and the protection of about the 1960s. for power over development in their identity. The three new states offer a When the parent state of Madhya region, and for a state of their own. tier between grassroots governance Pradesh itself was created in 1956, from below—an issue that has acquired The ethnic bases of the new state are there was very little demand for a considerable momentum in India since complex. Although they began to assert state of Chhatisgarh although the the 1980s—and the federal government tribal identity some decades back, cultural distinctiveness of the people at the top. the tribal groups are no longer in the of the region was well-known. majority in this state of their “own”. But Still, the real effectiveness of statehood The community which has spearheaded they do constitute a significant element. for underprivileged sectors must depend the movement for Chhatisgarh are the on the extent to which the powers and In the creation of Jharkhand state, ex-Malgujas—the rich peasants who opportunities now made available are however, regional underdevelopment collected land revenues on behalf of democratically devolved further down and a sense of deprivation have the Maratha (indigenous rulers) and the the strata of society. combined with these tribal affiliations. British rulers—and who seek to become And as in the other two cases, numerically powerful in a new state. Federations volume 1, number 1, march 2001.