Government of Tamilnadu

Department of Employment and Training

Course : TNPSC Group IV / VAO Exam

Subject : Indian Polity
Topic : Union, State and Territory

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 Union, State and Territory

• According to Article 1, the territory of India can be classified into

threecategories:
• 1. Territories of the states
• 2. Union territories
Article 1
• 3. Territories that may be acquired by the Government of India at any time

• 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
Article 2 India new states; and (b) the power to establish new states.

• It relates to the formation of or changes in the existing states of the Union of

India. In other words, Article 3 deals with the internal re-adjustment inter se of
the territories of the constituent states of the Union of India.
• 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,
Article 3 •(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.

• (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,
Article 4 boundaries or names of existing states (under Articles 3) are not to be
considered as amendments of the Constitution under Article 368.

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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

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.

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

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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 Committee.
It submitted its report on April 1949 and formally rejected language as the basis for
reorganization 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 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.
The commission suggested the abolition of the four-fold classification of states 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.

By the States Reorganisation Act (1956) and the 7th Constitutional Amendment Act
(1956), the distinction between Part-A and Part-B states was done away with and Part-
C states were abolished. Some of them were merged with adjacent states and some

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other were designated as union territories. As a result, 14 states and 6 union territories
were created on November 1, 1956

New States and Union Territories Created After 1956

the bilingual state of Bombay was divided8 into two separate

Maharashtra and states—Maharashtra for Marathi-speaking people and Gujarat
1960
Gujarat for Gujarati-speaking people. Gujarat was established as the
15th state of the Indian Union.
The Portuguese ruled this territory until its liberation in 1954.
Subsequently, the administration was carried on till 1961 by
Dadra and Nagar
1954 an administrator chosen by the people themselves. It was
Haveli
converted into a union territory of India by the 10th
Constitutional Amendment Act, 1961
India acquired these three territories from the Portuguese by
means of a police action in 1961. They were constituted as a
Goa, Daman and union territory by the 12th Constitutional Amendment Act,
1961
Diu 1962. Later, in 1987, Goa was conferred a statehood.9
Consequently, Daman and Diu was made a separate union
territory.

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
Puducherry 1962
1954. Subsequently, it was administered as an ‘acquired
territory’, till 1962 when it was made a union territory by the
14th Constitutional Amendment Act

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.
Nagaland 1963
However, before giving Nagaland the status of the 16th state
of the Indian Union, it was placed under the control of
governor of Assam in 1961.

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 On the recommendation of the Shah Commission (1966), the
punjabi-speaking areas were constituted into the unilingual
Haryana, state of Punjab, the Hindi-speaking areas were constituted
Chandigarh and 1966 into the State of Haryana and the hill areas were merged with
Himachal Pradesh the adjoining union territory of Himachal Pradesh. In 1971, the
union territory of Himachal Pradesh was elevated12 to the
status of a state

the two Union Territories of Manipur and Tripura and the Sub-
Manipur, Tripura State of Meghalaya got statehood and the two union territories
1972
and Meghalaya of Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh (originally known as
North-East Frontier Agency—NEFA) came into being.

the 36th Constitutional Amendment Act (1975) was enacted to

Sikkim 1975 make Sikkim a full-fledged state of the Indian Union (the 22nd
state)

In 1987, three new States of Mizoram,14 Arunachal

Mizoram, Arunachal
1987 Pradesh15 and Goa16 came into being as the 23rd, 24th and
Pradesh and Goa
25th states of the Indian Union respectively.

In 2000, three more new States of Chhattisgarh,17

Chhattisgarh,
Uttarakhand18 and Jharkhand19 were created out of the
Uttarakhand and 2000
territories of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
Jharkhand
respectively.

In 2014, the new state of Telangana came into existence as

Telangana 2014 the 29th state of the Indian Union. It was carved out of the
territories of Andhra Pradesh.