Integration of Princely States: Other states, enclaves and an assessment

Andhra's creation in 1953 set off agitations all over the country for linguistic states. In December 1953 the Centre constituted the States Reorganisation Commission of three members: Justice Fazl Ali, who chaired it, the historian-diplomat K. M. Panikkar and H. N. Kunzru. It submitted its report on 30 September 1955, after about two years of study, and the report was tabled in the Lok Sabha on 14 December 1955. It said it was neither possible nor desirable to reorganise states on the single test of language or culture, and urged a balanced approach in the interest of national unity. Its recommendations, with changes, were carried out by the States Reorganisation Act, enacted on 31 August 1956, which created 14 states and 6 centrally administered territories from 1 November 1956.

Soon after the Dhar Commission reported, the Congress at its Jaipur session set up a committee of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and the Congress president Pattabhi Sitaramayya, known from their initials as the JVP Committee. In its report of 1 April 1949 it said that the time was not suitable for forming new provinces, but it also conceded that if public sentiment was 'insistent and overwhelming', democrats would have to submit to it, subject to the good of India as a whole. This left the door open for Andhra. Sitaramayya himself had written on the need for linguistic provinces as early as 1912-13, when the demand for a separate Andhra was being debated.

The redrawing of India's internal map came in stages. Andhra State was the first linguistic state, carved out of Madras on 1 October 1953 after Potti Sreeramulu's fast and death. The States Reorganisation Act then reshaped the map from 1 November 1956, but it kept Bombay as a bilingual state; after the Samyukta Maharashtra and Mahagujarat agitations, the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960 created Maharashtra and Gujarat on 1 May 1960. Nagaland, made a state by the State of Nagaland Act, 1962, was inaugurated on 1 December 1963 as the 16th state, with Kohima as capital. Finally the Punjab Reorganisation Act, passed on 18 September 1966, created Haryana on 1 November 1966, while Chandigarh became a Union Territory serving as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana.

The Punjabi Suba movement of the Akali Dal had demanded a Punjabi-speaking state; the SRC rejected it in 1955 and the enlarged Punjab of 1956 was formed by merging PEPSU with East Punjab. The agitation continued, and Parliament passed the Punjab Reorganisation Act on 18 September 1966. Districts such as Hisar, Rohtak, Gurgaon, Karnal and Mahendragarh formed the new state of Haryana from 1 November 1966. Kangra, Simla, Lahaul and Spiti and some other areas went to Himachal Pradesh, which was at that time a Union Territory. Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab, became a temporary Union Territory and the provisional capital of both states, which share a single High Court and the Capitol Complex. The result was a Punjabi-speaking Punjab and a largely Hindi-speaking Haryana.

The demand for a Telugu state from the Madras Presidency was old. In October 1952 Potti Sreeramulu began a fast unto death in Madras; his death in December set off riots across the Telugu districts. On 19 December 1952 Nehru announced that a separate state would be formed for the Telugu-speaking people of Madras State, and Justice K. N. Wanchoo of the Rajasthan High Court was asked to examine the issues. Parliament passed the Andhra State Act in September 1953, and on 1 October 1953 the Telugu districts of Madras became Andhra State, with Kurnool as capital and T. Prakasam as the first Chief Minister. It comprised Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema only. The Telugu areas of Hyderabad State (Telangana) were joined to it on 1 November 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act, and the enlarged state was renamed Andhra Pradesh.

The Congress had been committed since 1920 to linguistic provinces, but after Partition its leaders feared that language-based units might threaten national unity. On 17 June 1948, Rajendra Prasad, as President of the Constituent Assembly, set up the Linguistic Provinces Commission under S. K. Dhar, a retired judge of the Allahabad High Court, with Jagat Narain Lal and Panna Lall. Its report of 10 December 1948 held that forming provinces on exclusively or even mainly linguistic considerations was not in the larger interests of the Indian nation. It suggested that Madras, Bombay and the Central Provinces and Berar be reorganised chiefly on grounds of geographical contiguity, financial self-sufficiency and ease of administration. B. R. Ambedkar had submitted a memorandum to it supporting a Marathi state with Bombay as capital. The report did not settle the issue, and the Congress set up the JVP committee to review it.

Under a Covenant of Merger, the rulers of a group of states gave up their ruling powers and one of them became the Rajpramukh, the constitutional head of the new union, with an Uprajpramukh as deputy. Madhya Bharat (Malwa Union), created on 28 May 1948 with Gwalior as its capital, had Jiwajirao Scindia of Gwalior as Rajpramukh. PEPSU, inaugurated on 15 July 1948 from eight states, had Yadavindra Singh of Patiala as Rajpramukh. Travancore- Cochin, formed on 1 July 1949, had the last Maharaja of Travancore as Rajpramukh. The Maharao of Kota was the first Rajpramukh of the union of Rajasthan in March-April 1948, not of Vindhya Pradesh, whose Rajpramukh came from Singrauli and then Rewa. The office lasted until the States Reorganisation Act took effect on 1 November 1956, when Governors replaced the Rajpramukhs.

Dadra and Nagar Haveli were small landlocked enclaves, held by Portugal since the Maratha treaty of 1779 and run from Daman. In July-August 1954 volunteer groups took them over: the United Front of Goans attacked the Dadra police station, while some 20 to 25 RSS activists and 8 to 10 Azad Gomantak Dal fighters stormed the Naroli police station on 28 July 1954; Silvassa was occupied soon after and the Portuguese police surrendered on 11 August. India refused Portuguese reinforcements passage across its territory. Portugal went to the International Court of Justice, whose judgment of 12 April 1960 in the Right of Passage case upheld Portuguese sovereignty but accepted India's right to deny passage to armed personnel. From 1954 to 1961 the area was run as 'Free Dadra and Nagar Haveli' by a body called the Varishta Panchayat; it was formally merged with India in 1961, and Portugal recognised Indian sovereignty only by a treaty of 31 December 1974.