FORMATION OF STATES IN INDIA....

India is one of the biggest country in the world. It ranked 7th in terms of area and land acquisition, among all other countries in the world. The geographical structure of this country is very different from the rest of the countries. As you all know, India is the largest peninsula in the world, so it is covered with water from its three sides. The northern part of the country is covered by great Himalayas. So, due to its vast area and nature, it is difficult to govern whole of India with singular structure.
For the better governance or for the administrative purpose, India is divided into three sections: 1) the National Capital territory, 2) States, 3) union territories.
New Delhi is the capital of India, so it comes under the National Capital Territory (NCT). It is called as National capital territory of Delhi. Delhi has its own chief minister (council of ministers) and elected legislative assembly.
Apart from this, state divides India into 28 parts i.e. India has 28 states. There are seven union territories in India at present.
The difference between the states and the union territory is that, a union territory is a sub-national administration division of India. Union territories are ruled directly by the federal national government. The president of India appoints an administrator or lieutenant governor for each territory. But in states, it has its own selected government and has its own council of ministers and legislative assembly. Unlike, union territory the state has its chief minister.
The formation of the states and the union territory in India were the long process. The sub continent of India has been ruled by many different ethnic groups throughout its history, each imposing their own administration division in the regions.

Here, I am going to discuss it, from the British India to the present India.

The British India was made up of two types of states, the provinces and the princely states. Provinces were ruled directly by British officials, either a governor or chief commissioner, who were appointed by the viceroy.
Princely states were ruled by local hereditary rulers, who acknowledged British sovereignty in return for local autonomy.
British India had 15 provinces: Ajmer-merwara, Assam, Baluchistan, Bengal, Bihar, Bombay, Central provinces and berar, Coorg, Delhi, Madras, Northwest Frontiers, Orissa, Punjab, Sind and United Provinces and had hundreds of princely states, which diffrered in size, and with wide variation in population.
Most of the princely states were under the authority of a British political agent responsible to the governor of a province, but the four largest princely states, Hyderabad, Baroda, Mysore and Jammu and Kashmir, were directly under the authority of governor-general of India.

After the independence, the period between 1947 and 1950 witnessed the consolidation of the former princely states into new provinces, usually governed by a rajpramukh (governor), appointed by the governor-general of India. In 1950, the Indian constitution took effect, the office of the governor-general was abolished and India created several different categories of states.
Part- A states, which were the former provinces, were ruled by an elected governor and state legislature. The part A states (nine) were Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Bombay, M.P. (formerly central provinces and berar), Madras, Orissa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh (formerly united province).

The part B states (eight) were fomer princely states or groups of princely states, governed by a rajpramukh. They were Hyderabad, Saurashtra, Mysore, Travancore-cochin, Madhya bharat, Vindhya Pradesh, Patiala and east Punjab states union (PEPSU), and Rajasthan.

The part C states (10) included both former princely states and provinces. They were governed by a chief commissioner. They are Delhi, Kutch, Himachal Pradesh, Bilaspur, Coorg, Bhopal, Manipur, Ajmer and tripura. J&K had special status until 1957.

The former French and Portuguese colonies in India were incorporated as the union territories of Pondicherry, Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Goa, Daman and Diu in 1962.
In 1953, the telugu- speaking portion of Madras state voted to became the new state of Andhra Pradesh, the first of India’s linguistic states.
In 1956, when the state Re-Organization Act took effect, the distinction between part A, B, and C states were gone and state boundaries were drawn along linguistic lines. Many new states and union territories have been created out since 1956.

Bombay state was split into the linguistic states of Gujarat and Maharashtra on 1 may, 1960 by the Bombay Re-Organization Act. The Punjab Re-Organization Act of 1966 divided the Punjab along linguistic and religious lines, creating a new Hindu and Hindi speaking state of Haryana, transferring northern district of Punjab to Himachal Pradesh and designating, Chandigarh, the shared capital of Punjab and Haryana, a union territory.
Nagaland was made a state in 1962, Meghalaya and Himachal Pradesh in 1971, and Tripura and Manipur in 1972.
The Kingdom of Sikkim joined the Indian union as a state in 1975. Mizoram was made a state in 1986 and Goa and Arunachal in 1987, while Goa’s northern exclaves of Daman and Diu became a separate union territory.
In 2000, three states were created, chattisgarh(nov.1 2000) was created out of eastern Madhya Pradesh, Uttaranchal (nov. 9, 2000) since renamed Uttarakhand (jan.1, 2008) was created out of hilly regions of north west UP and Jharkhand (15 nov. 2000) was created out of the southern district of Bihar.
National capitol territory of Delhi comes under the union Territory of India. The NCT of Delhi and pondicherry, are the only UT which has their own elected legislative assemblies and council of minister, but their powers are limited, certain legislation must be reserved for the consideration of assent of the president of India.
So this is the Formation of states in India, as it was a long process but I have written it in a brief way, so that everybody can understand this article of mine. Next time, if anybody asks you about the states and Union territory of India, so make sure him in a correct way.

THANK YOU,
From,
Mohammed Farhan Khan