States & Union Territories : Evolution & Creation

Evolution of States & Union Territories

After independence it was a crucial question that how Indian states would be reorganized. In this regard Dr. Rajendra Prasad formed a committee of 4 members to look into the matter of reorganization of states on linguistic basis.
S.K. Dhar, the retired Judge of Allahabad High Court was the chairman of this committee.
This committee opposed this idea and they suggest reorganization on the basis of administrative convenience rather than the linguistic factor.
Then appointed another linguistic provinces commission by the congress to examine the whole factor.
Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallahbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramyya were the members of this committee which is popularly known as JVP committee.
JVP committee also submitted their report in April 1949 to reject the idea of Linguistic factor.
The Potti Sriramulu, a telugu leader from Madras state died after 56 day hunger strike while opposing the report of JVP committee.
Then Government of India was forced to develop the first linguistic state, named as Andhra State by separating the Telugu speaking areas from the state of Madras on 1st October 1953.
Then again appointed a new reorganization commission under the chairmanship of Fazl Ali to re-examine the whole factor.
Pondicherry, Yanam, Chandranagar and Karikle which were acquired by Indian Government from the Govt. of France in 1954 jointly became a union territory named Pondicherry.
By Bombay Reorganization Act of 1960 the bilingual state of Bombay was divided into two states Maharashtra and Gujarat.
In 1963, Assam was divided into two parts. The new state carved out of it became Nagaland.
In 1966 Punjab got divided into 2 states Punjab and Haryana.
In 1971 Himachal Pradesh became state of Himachal Pradesh from a union territory.
In 1972 Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya became states of India.
In 1975 Sikkim became the 22nd state by 36th Amendment Act.
In 1987 Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh became 2 different states.
In 1987 Goa became 25th state of India.
On 1st Nov, 2000 Chhattisgarh became 26th state, on 9th Nov, 2000 Uttaranchal became 27th state and on 15th Nov, 2000 Jharkhand became 28th state of India.

The States and their Year of Creation

States	Year of Creation
Andhra Pradesh	1953
Maharashtra	1960
Gujarat	1960
Nagaland	1963
Haryana	1966
Himachal Pradesh	1971
Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura	1972
Sikkim	1975
Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa	1987
Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal, Jharkhand	2000

Citizenship

Citizenship is a term by which a person can fully enjoy all civil and political rights.
India has 2 types of people- Citizens and Aliens.
Aliens are people from other states (Country) and unlike Indian citizens they do not enjoy all the political & civil rights in India.

Fundamental Rights not for the Aliens but for the Citizens:

Right against discrimination on grounds of religion race, caste, sex or place of birth (Article 15).
Right to equality of opportunity in the matter of public employment (Article-16).
Right to freedom of speech and expression, assembly, association, movement, residence and profession (Article 19).
Cultural and Educational rights (Article 29 and 30).

The other rights of citizenship in India are: Right to vote in election of Loksabha and State Legislative Assembly, to get the membership of Parliament and the state Legislature, eligibility to hold certain Public offices (e.g. President of India, Vice-President of India, Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, Governor of States, Attorney General of India etc.).
India has rule of single Citizenship and no concept of state Citizenship or dual citizenship is there.

Citizenship at the Commencement of Constitution

A person who had his domicile in India and also fulfilled any one condition of the three:
1. If he born in India
2. Either of his parents born in India
3. He has been ordinarily residing in India at least for 5 years immediately preceding such commencement shall be the citizen of India.

Persons who migrated from Pakistan to India before July 19, 1948.
Persons who migrated to India from Pakistan after July 19, 1948 could get the domicile of India with an appointment of competent officer for that purpose.
A person who migrated from India after March 1, 1947 but latter returned to India for resettlement could be citizen of India under a permit for resettlement.
A person, who or either of his parents or either of his grandparents born in India shall become citizen of India.

Citizenship act 1955: Acquisition of Citizenship

A person born after January, 1950 shall become a citizen of India if either of his parents was citizen of India at the time of his birth.
A person, who was outside India on or after 26 January, 1950 shall become a citizen of India if either of his parents, was a citizen of India at the time of his birth.
A person residing in India for not less than 7 years and got knowledge of Indian Constitution can get the citizenship of India by Naturalisation, provided he is not a citizen of another country.
If any new territory is added to the Territory of Indian the persons of that territory shall became the citizen of India.

Citizenship of India may be lost by:

Renunciation

Any citizen of India of full age has right to declaration of renouncing his Indian Citizenship.

Termination

If a person takes the Citizenship of another country his Indian Citizenship automatically terminates.

Deprivation

Deprivation of citizenship is done by the central Govt. As a result the person ceases to be an Indian citizen.