2. Evolution of States and Union Territories

Post-independence, the reorganization of the states on the basis of language became a major aspect of national consolidation and integration. It was a huge task to integrate the provinces, whose boundaries were drawn in a haphazard manner by the Britishers, along with the integration of princely states in post-independence period, which further added to the heterogeneity.

British India had two types of territories

♤ Provinces, governed directly by British Officials who were responsible to the Governor- General of India

♤ Princely states under the control of local hereditary rulers having British government as the sovereign but enjoying autonomy based on treaty.

When India gained Independence on 15th August, 1947, the British Government dissolved their treaty relations with the over 600 princely states, who had the option of acceding to either India or Pakistan. Most of the princely states joined India either voluntarily or by armed intervention.

Subsequently, during the period 1947-50, these states were politically integrated into the Indian Union by either merging with the existing provinces or by organising into new provinces. i.e. on 26th January 1950, when the new constitution came into existence, the constituent units of Indian Union were classified into four classes:

♤ The Part A states included the erstwhile Governor’s provinces. The nine part A states were Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Orrisa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

♤ The Part B states were former princely states or group of Princely states, governed by Rajpramukh, who was often a former prince, along with an elected legislature. The Rajpramukh was appointed by the President of India. The Part B states were Hyderabad, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Bharat, Mysore, Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU), Rajasthan, Saurashtra, Travancore-Cochin and Vindhya Pradesh

♤ The Part C states included both the former chief commissioner’s provinces and some princely states except Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Part C states were Ajmer, Bhopal, Bilaspur, Cooch-Behar, Coorg, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Kutch, Manipur and Tripura.

♤ The Part D included only Andaman and Nicobar Island and was administered by the Lieutenant Governor.