The report of the States Reorganisation Commission, submitted to the Government of India in September 1955, is remembered above all for rec...
The report of the States Reorganisation Commission, submitted to the Government of India in September 1955, is remembered above all for recommending that provincial boundaries be redrawn on linguistic lines. States such as Karnataka, where I live, came into existence because of the implementation of the States Reorganisation Commission report, whereby Kannada-speakers spread across four distinct administrative domains were brought together in a unified province.
The States Reorganisation Commission had three members: the jurist, S Fazl Ali (who also acted as chair), the social worker, HN Kunzru, and the historian, KM Panikkar. In a fascinating note printed as an appendix to the main report, Panikkar suggested that, apart from creating consolidated states of Kannada-speakers, Tamil-speakers, Odia-speakers and so on, the States Reorganisation Commission should recommend the break-up of India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh.
As things stood, in terms of population, Uttar Pradesh was as large as several other states combined. This gave it a disproportionate influence on national politics which the historian thought had dark portents for the future of Indian unity.
‘Suspicion and retment’
In his note, Panikkar argued that it was “essential for the successful working of a federation, that the units should be fairly evenly balanced. Too great a disparity is likely to...
