Subject - Indian Polity & Governance
Chapter - Union & Its Territory

The Term ‘Union of States’ implies that India is a unitary system of government and it is federal only in a secondary sense.

Dr. Ambedkar use the expression “UNION” instead of the expression “Federation” because of two reasons :

• Though the country and the people may be divided into different States for convenience of administration, the country is one integral whole, its people are single people living under a single imperium derived from a single source.

• The expression- India is a Union of States was chosen as India was already a Union at the time of the Constituent Assembly debates.Secularism means separation of religion from politics. Religion is private while politics is public.

Parliament may by law can:

• 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;

• Increase the area of any State;

• Diminish the area of any State;

• Alter the boundaries of any State;

• Alter the name of any State;

For Detail Description, Analysis and More MCQs of the Chapter Buy this Study Notes:

What is Federation ?

A federation is one consisting of ‘an indestructible Union of indestructible States’ as in the USA.

Creating New States

• Even before Independence, Government was exploring the appropriate basis for states reorganization.

• Dhar Commission was set up by the President of the Indian Constituent Assembly in 1948 to consider the question of reorganization of states in India.

• The Commission favoured reorganization on the basis of administrative efficacy and not language.

• The Indian National Congress at its Jaipur Session (1948) set up a high level committee called Linguistic Provinces Committee - consisting of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitararniah to consider the Dhar Commission’s recommendations. In its report (J.V.P. Report) the committee counseled utmost caution in proceeding with the proposal for the linguistic reorganization of states.

Jawahar Lal Nehru subsequently appointed the States Reorganisation Commission (1953) that included Fazl Ali, KM Panikkar and HN Kunzru.

The four criteria laid down by the States Reorganization Commission (SRC) for accepting the demand by a region for the formation of a State are:

• Creation of new States should strengthen and preserve national unity.
• States are to be formed on the basis of linguistic and cultural unity.
• Financial, administrative and economic viability should govern the formation of new states.
• It should aid the process of implementation of five years plans.
• This was the beginning of states reorganization in India on a linguistic basis.

Three new states were created in 2000 not on the basis of language but primarily for good governance.

What is Regionalism ?

Regionalism refers to a group of people in a region or a state coming together to demand and agitate for more powers of autonomy or a separate state..

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