Read the passage and answer the questions:
During colonial rule, the state boundaries were drawn either on administrative convenience or simply coincided with the territories annexed by the British government or the territories ruled by the princely powers. Our national movement had rejected these divisions as artificial and had promised the linguistic principle as the basis of formation of states.
The acceptance of the principle of linguistic states did not mean, however, that all states immediately became linguistic states. There was an experiment of ‘bilingual’ Bombay state, consisting of Gujarati- and Marathi-speaking people. After a popular agitation, the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat were created in 1960.
The formation of Andhra spurred the struggle for making of other states on linguistic lines in other parts of the country. These struggles forced Central Government into appointing a States Reorganisation Commission in 1953 to look into question redrawing the boundaries of a states. The Commission in its report, accepted that the boundaries of a state should reflect the boundaries of a different languages. On the basis of its report, States Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956. This led to creation 14 states and six union territories.
Language did not, however, remain sole the basis of for organization states. In later years, sub-regions raised demands for distinct states on the basis of a distinct regional culture or complaints regional imbalance in development. Three such states, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, and Jharkhand, were created in 2000. Telangana became a new state in 2014. The story reorganization not come to an end. There are many regions in the country where there are movements demanding separate and smaller states. These include Vidarbha in Maharashtra, Harit Pradesh, in the western region of Uttar Pradesh, and the northern region of West Bengal.
What forced Central Government to appoint a State Reorganisation Committee?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → People’s struggle for the formation of the state
Option (1) Bi-lingualism — Incorrect. Bilingualism here is the experiment of the ‘bilingual’ Bombay state of Gujarati- and Marathi-speaking people, which was ended in 1960 after a popular agitation; it did not force the appointment of the Commission.
Option (2) People’s struggle for the formation of the state — Correct. The formation of Andhra spurred the struggle for other states on linguistic lines, and these struggles forced the Central Government into appointing a States Reorganisation Commission in 1953.
Option (3) Gujarati-Hindi enmity — Incorrect. The bilingual Bombay state was made up of Gujarati and Marathi speakers, not Hindi speakers, and it was the people’s struggles for linguistic states, not hostility between two groups, that forced the Commission.
Option (4) Anti-English policy of the states — Incorrect. The struggles were for states of the people’s own languages, such as Telugu; a policy against English was not what forced the Commission.
NCERT (2025-26): “Reorganisation of States … The formation of Andhra spurred the struggle for making of other states on linguistic lines in other parts of the country. These struggles forced the Central Government into appointing a States Reorganisation Commission in 1953 to look into the question of redrawing of the boundaries of states. The Commission in its report accepted that the boundaries of the state should reflect the boundaries of different languages. On the basis of its report the States Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956. This led to the creation of 14 states and six union territories.” |