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Abstract
It is a well-known fa ct that a t the time of independence in 1947, India consisted of
571 dis jointed pri ncel y states andthe grouping of s ta tes a t the time was done on the basis of
politi cal and his torical considera tions ra ther than on linguisti c or cul tural di visions, but this was
a tempora ry a rra ngement.Therefore, i n 1953 the fi rst linguistic s ta te of Andhra for Teluguspeaking people was born. There were also similar demands for creation of sta tes on linguisti c
basis from other pa rts of the country. Therefore, on December 22, 1953, Jawaharlal Nehru
appointed a commission under Fazl Ali to consider these new demands whi ch submi tted its
report i n 1955 and i t sugges ted tha t the whole country be di vided i nto 16 s ta tes and three
centrall y administered a reas. Butthe government, di vided the country i nto 14 s tates a nd 6
union terri tories under the States Reorganiza tion Act that was passed in November 1956. Then,
in 1960, the s ta te of Bomba y was bifurca ted to crea te the s tates of Guja ra t and Maha rashtra
following violence and agita tion. The process of bi furcation continued a nd total number of the
s tates rea ched at 29 and union terri tories at 7 till 2014. The present resea rch paper ma kes a
review of the issue of reorga niza tion of the sta te in Indian federalism