States Reorganisation Commission

The States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) was a body constituted by the Central Government of India in 1953 to recommend the reorganization of state boundaries along the linguistic lines. In 1955, after nearly 2 years of study, the Commission recommended that India's state boundaries should be reorganized to correspond more closely to the country's linguistic divisions, and proposed 16 states and 3 union territories. States Reorganisation Commission consisted of Fazal Ali, Kavalam Madhava Panikkar and H.N. Kunzru. Some of its recommendations were implemented in the States Reorganisation Act of 1956.

Background
After India became independent from the British Empire in 1947, the constituent units of India were classified under the following distinct categories:

Category Description

Administrator

States

Former Part A British states provinces

An elected governor and state 9 states legislature

Former princely 8 states: Hyderabad, Saurashtra,Mysore, TravancorePart B states or Rajpramukh(former Cochin, Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh, Patiala states groups of princes) and East Punjab States Union(PEPSU), Rajasthan Covenanting states

Part C

Former princely Chief commissioner 10 states states and provinces

Part D

Union Territory

Governor appointed by the Indian Andaman and Nicobar president

The borders of these states, inherited from British India, 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 reorganization of state borders was necessary, but the basis of reorganization was yet to be determined. One of the proposals was to reorganize the state on the basis of languages of India. 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 had agreed on the linguistic reorganization 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, the President of the Constituent Assembly, set up the

Linguistic Provinces Commission (aka Dar Commission) to recommend whether the states should be reorganized on linguistic basis or not. The committee included SK Dar (retired Judge of the Allahabad High Court), JN Lal (lawyer) and Panna Lall (retired Indian Civil Service 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 reorganization of the provinces of Madras, Bombay 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 Dar Commission. The committee, comprised Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel, in addition to the Congress president Pattabhi Sitaramayya. In its report dated 1 April 1949, the Committee stated that the time was not suitable for formation of new provinces, but also stated "if 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". B. R. Ambedkar submitted a Memorandum (dated 14 October 1948) to the Dar Commission, supporting the formation of linguistic provinces, specifically the formation of the Marathimajority Maharashtra state with Bombay 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 reorganization 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 had become powerful. Potti Sreeramulu, one of the activists demanding the formation of a Telugumajority state, died on 16 December 1952 after undertaking a fast-unto-death. Subsequently, the Telugu-majority Andhra State was formed in 1953. This sparked of agitations all over the country, with linguistic groups demanding separate statehoods. In order to reorganise the states on the basis of language, the Government of India constituted the State Reorganisation Commission (SRC) under the chairmanship of Fazl Ali, a former Supreme Court judge.

SRC Report
The Commission submitted its report on 30 September 1955, with the following recommendations: 1. The three-tier (Part-A/B/C) state system should be abolished 2. The institution of Rajapramukh and special agreement with former princely states should be abolished 3. The general control vested in Government of India by Article 371 should be abolished.(Article 371. Special provision with respect to the States of Maharashtra and Gujarat) 4. 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 on 14 December 1955.