Emergence of New States | Geography Optional for UPSC (Notes) PDF Download

Demand for New states

• Earlier demand for a new state was based on the linguistic, cultural, and ethnic composition of an area, but today it is based on development and progressive considerations.
• Even at present, there are demands of smaller states, currently, development has become the basis of new states demand, and a secondary factor is a culture.
• For example earlier the demand of the Vidarbha state was on a cultural basis, but the present priority has changed from linguistic to development basis and it is a healthier trend for unity and sovereignty of India.

Several States in Demand for Creation

• Faizl Ali State reorganization committee recommended that the formation of new
• states should be adjudged by the following principles –
  • Economic viability
  • Administrative viability
  • Ecological viability
  • Socio ethnic viability
• Some of the states that are under demand for creation are:
  • Harit Pradesh (Western Uttar Pradesh): Harit Pradesh is a proposed state, which would comprise 22 districts of Western Uttar Pradesh, currently forming six divisions – Agra, Aligarh, Bareilly, Meerut, Moradabad, and Saharanpur.
  • Purvanchal (Eastern Uttar Pradesh): Purvanchal is a geographic region of northcentral India, which comprises the eastern end of Uttar Pradesh state. It is bounded by Nepal to the north, Bihar state to the east, Bagelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh state to the south, the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh to the west. Purvanchal comprises three divisions – the Awadhi region in the west, the Bhojpuri region in the east, and the Baghelkhand region in the south.
  • Bundelkhand: Bundelkhand comprises parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. While the Bahujan Samaj Party government under Chief Minister Mayawati proposed in 2011, the creation of Bundelkhand from seven districts of Uttar Pradesh, organizations such as Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha (BMM) wants it to include six districts from Madhya Pradesh as well.
  • Vindhya Pradesh: Vindhya Pradesh is a former state of India. It occupied an area of 23,603 sq. miles. It was named for the Vindhya Range, which runs through the center of the province. It lay between Uttar Pradesh to the north and Madhya Pradesh to the south, and the enclave of Datia, which lay a short distance to the west, was surrounded by the state of Madhya Bharat.
  • Bodoland (Northern Assam): The agitation for the creation of a separate Bodoland state resulted in an agreement between the Indian Government, the Assam state government, and the Bodo Liberation Tigers Force. According to the agreement made on February 10, 2003, the Bodoland Territorial Council, an entity subordinate to the government of Assam, was created to govern four districts covering 3082 Bodomajority villages in Assam.
  • Saurashtra (Southern Gujarat): The Saurashtra state movement for separate Saurashtra state was initiated in 1972 by advocate Ratilal Tanna, who was a close aide of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Saurashtra is linguistically different from the rest of the state with its Saurashtra dialect being in use.
  • Gorkhaland (Northern West Bengal): Gorkhaland is a proposed state covering areas inhabited by the ethnic Gorkha (Nepali) people, namely Darjeeling hills and Dooars in the northern part of West Bengal. The movement for Gorkhaland has gained momentum in the line of the ethnolinguistic cultural sentiment of the people who desire to identify themselves as Gorkha.
  • Kongu Nadu (Southern Tamil Nadu): There have been demands for the creation of a separate state of Kongu Nadu (also called Kongadesam), comprising the regions of western Tamil Nadu, parts of southern Karanataka and central-east Kerala with its capital at Coimbatore, based on demography, culture, linguistics and other factors.
  • Vidarbha (Eastern Maharashtra): Vidarbha is a region that comprises the Amravati and Nagpur divisions of eastern Maharashtra. The State Reorganisation Act of 1956 placed Vidarbha in Bombay State. Shortly after this, the States Reorganisation Commission recommended the creation of Vidarbha state with Nagpur as the capital, but instead, it was included in Maharashtra state, which was formed on May 1, 1960.
  • Konkan: Konkan is a rugged section of the western coastline of India. It consists of the coastal districts of Maharashtra, Goa, and Karnataka. The proposed Konkan state includes the districts of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg of Maharashtra, north and south districts of Goa and Karwar up to Aghanashini in Karnataka

Demand for New States

Basis of Formation of New States

• Physiographic character/distinctiveness: It is an important factor for the demand for the creation of new states, for example, Uttarakhand is a mountainous region, Jharkhand is a plateau and Chhattisgarh is a basin.
• Level of Economic Development: The lack of industry, agrarian crisis, and a low level of infrastructural facilities push demand for such states, growth can be achieved in spite of these handicaps. E.g. Gorkhaland
• Resource base: The new state should be self-sustainable for e.g. Tulunadu, Kudagu would not be a self-sustainable state. The demand for Bundelkhand and Maru Pradesh is based on this factor only.
• Ethnicity: One main reason for the creation of new states in India is cultural or social affiliations. For instance, the state of Nagaland in the Northeast was created taking tribal affiliations into account.
• Size of state/Geographical area: Big size of the state makes the governance of the larger area difficult, which leads to inequality in the level of development within in the state. For example demand for Harit Pradesh in UP and Maru Pradesh in Rajasthan is based on the above consideration.
• Tribalism or nature of society: This is based on the argument that specific planning like area-based planning or tribal planning are required to develop the region. For example – Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand.

Need of Second States Reorganisation Commission

• The formation of new states must be competent in terms of their economic, administrative and ethnic viability and they mustn’t impede the progress of the Nation and shouldn’t be antithetical to National Integration. Based on the above-said principles, a new States Reorganisation Commission may be formed and Indian states can be revamped and restructured on constitutional lines without affecting regional consciousness and interest of people.
• Why a new States Reorganisation Commission needed? – India has passed 60 years of Independence and a new vibrant economy and emergence of new regional disparities, regional consciousness requires a restructuring of the Indian Union of states.
• Carving out smaller states is too important and complex an issue to be taken in the heat of inflamed passions and under the pressure of political agitations.
• In the absence of a political consensus, and when concerns are raised above the wider implications for the other parts of the states, decisions will have to be made after wide-ranging consultations and on the basis of a well-laid out roadmap for the creation of new states.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Creation of New States