THE STATES REORGANIZATION 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. In 1955, after nearly 2 years of study, the Commission recommended that India's state boundaries should be reorganized to form 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.
*
India Administrative Divisions in 1951
____________________________________
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
-----------------------------
Part A states
-----------------
Former British provinces
----------------------------------
9 states: Assam, Bihar, Bombay, East Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal
Part B states
---------------
Former princely states or groups of Covenanting states
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Rajpramukh (former princes) 9 states:
Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Bharat, Mysore, Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU), Rajasthan, Saurashtra, Travancore-Cochin, and Vindhya Pradesh
Part C
----------
Former princely states and provinces Chief commissioner 10 states:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ajmer, Coorg, Cooch-Behar, Bhopal, Bilaspur, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Kutch, Manipur, and Tripura
Part D
-----------
Union Territory Governor appointed by the Indian president
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
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 Marathi-majority 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 Telugu-majority 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, the Government of India constituted the State Reorganisation Commission (SRC) under the chairmanship of Fazl Ali, a former Supreme Court judge.
SRC reportEdit
The Commission submitted its report on 30 September 1955, with the following recommendations:
The three-tier (Part-A/B/C) state system should be abolished
The institution of Rajapramukh and special agreement with former princely states should be abolished
The general control vested in Government of India by Article 371 should be abolished
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.
In Part II of Report of the States Reorganization Commission (SRC) 1955, titled “Factors Bearing on Reorganization”, the Commission clearly said that “it is neither possible nor desirable to reorganise States on the basis of the single test of either language or culture, but that a balanced approach to the whole problem is necessary in the interest of our national unity.
ImplementationEdit
The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 implemented some of the recommendations of the SRC. In addition to the three Union Territories (UTs) proposed by the SRC, it also established Laccadive, Minicoy & Amindivi Islands, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura as UTs. It established a total of 14 states in addition to these UTs
South Indian states prior to the States Reorganisation Act.
The recommendations of the commission were not accepted universally.
Vidarbha
The SRC recommended formation of separate Vidarbha State by splitting majority Marathi speaking areas from Madhya Pradesh state.However, the Indian government has not accepted the recommendation and merged these areas in the predominantly Marathi speaking Bombay state. Vidarbha would have been the second Marathi majority state for the people of a regional /provincial language in India. Similarly, Telangana state would have been the second state for the Telugu speaking people beside Andhra state as per the SRC recommendation. Thus Indian government did not accept the need of a regional language people having more than one state.
Kerala-Madras
The Travancore Tamil Nadu Congress (TTNC) demanded to merge Thovalai, Agasteeswaram, Kalkulam, Vilavancode, Neyyatinkara, Senkottai, Deviculam and Peermade with Madras State. However, the Commission recommended only the merger of Thovalai, Agasteeswaram, Kalkulam, Vilvancode and Shenkottai with Madras State. In Neyyatinkara Taluk the Commission found that 86% of the people knew Malayalam. So the Commission did not favour the merger of this Taluk with Madras State. During the Lok Sabha (Parliament) discussions, the representatives of Travancore-Cochin State vehemently opposed the Commission's recommendations for the merger of the Southern Taluks with Madras State. A. Nesamony argued for the merger of Neyyatinkara, Deviculam, Peermade and Chittoor with the Tamil-majority Madras State.
Even though the SRC recommended for the merger of the entire Shenkottai taluk, the subsequently formed Joint Committee recommended the eastern portion of Shenkottai alone to be merged with Madras State. This decision was finally published authoritatively on 16 January 1956. In the July 1956 Lok Sabha meeting, Nesamony argued for the full merger of Shencottai as recommended by SRC. The House refused to reconsider the decision of the joint Committee by over-ruling the recommendation of the SRC.
On the basis of the percentage of the people speaking Tamil, the S.R.Commission recommended for the transfer of four taluks namely, Agasteeswaram, Thovalai, Kalkulam and Vilavancode to Tamil Nadu from the State of Travancore-Cochin.
The same yard stick was used for the transfer of Shenkotta Taluk to Tamil Nadu.
While dealing with Devikulam and Peermede taluks, even though the majority was
__________________________________________________________________________
Tamil-speaking people and the representatives to the State Assembly were Tamils
__________________________________________________________________________
as in the case of the above indicated five taluks, the commission used a different
__________________________________________________________________________
yard stick and recommended to retain in Travancore-Cochin State due to
_________________________________________________________________________
geographical reasons.
______________________
Even though Shenkotta was fully transferred by the commission, the Joint Committee appointed to fix the exact boundaries of the states, divided Shenkotta Taluk and allowed Travancore–Cochin State to retain a major portion.
Geographical and climatic conditions of Vilavancode, Kalkulam and Agastheeswaram taluks are mostly like Travancore-Cochin State, the protests made by Nesamony's team made it a part of Madres state.
Now protests are there in the bilingual Kanyakumari district to get a Union Territory status.
No comments:
Post a Comment