India’s States and Union Territories on 1 November 1956

Introduction

On 1 November 1956, India’s internal map changed more extensively than at any time since independence. The States Reorganisation Act and the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act took effect together, merging some territories, transferring districts between others, and replacing the earlier Part A, Part B, Part C, and Part D classification with a simpler division between states and Union Territories.

The reorganisation was closely associated with language. The creation of Andhra State in 1953, after the death of Potti Sreeramulu following a 56-day hunger strike, demonstrated the political force of demands for states organised around linguistic communities. The subsequent settlement did not produce a map based on language alone, but linguistic identity became its central organising principle.

The 1956 map therefore represents a constitutional and administrative transformation rather than an imperial frontier. It shows the territorial structure of the Indian Union after the integration of former British provinces and princely states, and after Parliament acted on the recommendations of the States Reorganisation Commission.

Historical Context

At independence on 15 August 1947, the territories connected with British India had inherited a complicated political geography. British provinces were governed directly by officials responsible to the Governor-General. Indian States, commonly called princely states, were ruled by hereditary authorities who acknowledged British suzerainty while retaining authority within their own realms.

The end of British rule dissolved treaty relations with more than 500 princely states. Most acceded to India, while some acceded to Pakistan. Bhutan, Hyderabad, and Kashmir initially occupied distinct positions: Bhutan and Hyderabad sought independence, while Kashmir’s status became the subject of conflict between India and Pakistan. Hyderabad was later annexed by India, and Bhutan remained independent.

Between 1947 and approximately 1950, the Government of India integrated princely territories into the Union. Some were merged into existing provinces. Others were grouped into unions such as Rajputana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Bharat, and Vindhya Pradesh. Mysore, Hyderabad, Bhopal, and Bilaspur remained separate states for a time.

The Constitution that came into force on 26 January 1950 described India as a sovereign democratic republic and a “Union of States.” It divided the country into four constitutional categories:

• Part A states were former governors’ provinces of British India, administered by a Governor and an elected legislature.
• Part B states were former princely states or unions of princely states, administered by a rajpramukh and an elected legislature.
• Part C states included former chief commissioners’ provinces and certain princely states, governed by a chief commissioner.
• Part D territory consisted of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, administered by a Lieutenant Governor appointed by the central government.

This arrangement preserved distinctions inherited from the transition to independence. It was not, however, a settled answer to the question of how India’s internal boundaries should correspond to its linguistic and cultural regions.

The Movement for Linguistic States

The demand for linguistic provinces had begun before independence. In 1886, a movement developed in the region that is now Odisha. It sought a separate Orissa Province by dividing the existing Bihar and Orissa Province. Through the efforts of Madhusudan Das, regarded as the Father of Odia nationalism, the campaign achieved its objective in 1936, when Orissa Province became the first Indian state of the pre-independence period organised around a common language.

After 1947, similar demands became more politically powerful. Telugu-speaking communities sought a separate state from the northern districts of Madras State. The movement reached a decisive moment in 1952 when Potti Sreeramulu died after a 56-day hunger strike. His death triggered widespread unrest, and the Government of India created Andhra State in 1953. Sixteen northern Telugu-speaking districts of Madras State formed the new state.

Andhra’s creation established a precedent for other linguistic movements. A Linguistic Provinces Commission, also called the Dhar Commission, had been established in June 1948 but rejected language as the sole basis for dividing states. In December 1953, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appointed the States Reorganisation Commission to examine the issue afresh.

The commission was chaired by Fazal Ali, a retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Its other members were H. N. Kunzru and K. M. Panikkar. Govind Ballabh Pant, serving as Home Minister from December 1954, oversaw the commission’s work. It submitted its report on 30 September 1955. Parliament then debated the recommendations and passed legislation to reorganise the states and amend the Constitution.

Territorial Extent and Boundaries

The 1956 map covers the whole Indian Union, from the Himalayan and north-western regions to the southern peninsula and the island territories. Its boundaries are administrative rather than the frontiers of a single historical empire. The settlement included both large-scale mergers and relatively small transfers of territory.

Northern and north-western India

Punjab was enlarged through the addition of the Patiala and East Punjab States Union, or PEPSU. Rajasthan expanded through the addition of Ajmer and parts of Bombay and Madhya Bharat. Jammu and Kashmir experienced no boundary change under the 1956 reorganisation.

Uttar Pradesh also had no boundary change in 1956. Himachal Pradesh, formerly a Part C state, became a Union Territory. Delhi likewise became a Union Territory, as did Manipur and Tripura.

Western and central India

Bombay State grew substantially. It absorbed Saurashtra State and Kutch State, the Marathi-speaking districts of Berar and Nagpur divisions of Central Provinces and Berar, and Aurangabad Division of Hyderabad State. At the same time, the southernmost districts of the former Bombay Presidency were transferred to Mysore State.

Madhya Pradesh was enlarged through the merger of Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh, and Bhopal State. The Marathi-speaking districts of Nagpur Division, however, were transferred from this enlarged Madhya Pradesh to Bombay State.

These changes reveal the effort to align administrative borders with linguistic regions, particularly Marathi-speaking and Kannada-speaking areas, while also consolidating several earlier princely-state unions.

Southern India

Andhra Pradesh was formed by merging Andhra State with the Telugu-speaking areas of Hyderabad State. This was a major step in the development of a larger Telugu-speaking administrative region.

Kerala was created through the merger of Travancore-Cochin with Malabar district and Kasaragod taluk of South Canara district, both transferred from the Madras Presidency. The southern part of Travancore-Cochin, including Kanyakumari district and Sengottai taluk, moved in the opposite direction and was added to Madras State.

Madras State also received the transferred territories from Travancore-Cochin. Malabar district went to Kerala, while South Canara was divided between Mysore State, Kerala, and the new island Union Territory.

Mysore State was enlarged by the addition of Coorg State and Kannada-speaking districts from the western Madras Presidency, the southern Bombay Presidency, and western Hyderabad State.

Eastern and north-eastern India

Bihar was reduced slightly. Minor territories were transferred to West Bengal, including Purulia from Manbhum district and Islampur from Purnea district. West Bengal was enlarged by the addition of Purulia district.

Assam and Orissa experienced no boundary change in 1956. The map nonetheless places them within a new national structure in which the former constitutional categories had been removed.

The Laccadive, Minicoy, and Amindivi Islands were separated from Malabar district and constituted as a Union Territory. Along with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, these islands demonstrate that the 1956 settlement included maritime territories as well as mainland administrative regions.

Administrative Structure

The Seventh Amendment ended the distinction between Part A and Part B states. These became simply “states.” A new category, the Union Territory, replaced the former Part C and Part D classification.

The states shown on 1 November 1956 were Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Bombay State, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Madras State, Mysore State, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

The six Union Territories were the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Manipur, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, and Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands.

This arrangement represented a major administrative simplification. It removed the constitutional hierarchy between Part A and Part B states and established a common category for territories administered more directly by the Union. The available record identifies the constitutional categories and the territorial changes, but does not provide a detailed account of the internal provincial departments, district headquarters, or administrative capitals of every state on the map.

Infrastructure and Communications

The 1956 reorganisation was fundamentally a boundary and constitutional reform. It was not a programme for building roads, railways, ports, or postal systems. Consequently, the map should not be read as a representation of transport infrastructure or communication networks.

The territorial changes did affect the administrative geography through which roads, railways, postal services, and other institutions operated. Districts and former princely territories that had previously belonged to different administrative systems were brought together. Malabar, South Canara, Hyderabad, Saurashtra, Kutch, Coorg, Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh, and Bhopal all figured in these transfers or mergers.

No specific road routes, trade roads, postal corridors, or maritime networks are identified in the historical record used for this map. The island territories, however, make clear that the Union’s administrative geography extended beyond the mainland.

Economic Geography

The Act changed the political jurisdictions governing agricultural and commercial regions, but the surviving account does not provide a commodity-by-commodity economic map. It identifies no detailed production zones, market hierarchies, revenue districts, or port systems for 1956.

The territorial transfers nevertheless joined or separated regions with different administrative histories. Bombay State absorbed Saurashtra and Kutch, parts of Hyderabad, and Marathi-speaking districts from Central Provinces and Berar. Kerala combined Travancore-Cochin with Malabar and Kasaragod, while Mysore incorporated Coorg and Kannada-speaking territories from three neighbouring administrative areas.

These changes were shaped principally by linguistic and administrative considerations rather than by a documented economic plan. The map therefore shows the jurisdictions within which economic policy would be administered, not the full geography of trade and production.

Cultural and Religious Geography

Language was the central cultural principle behind the 1956 settlement. Andhra Pradesh brought together Telugu-speaking areas from Andhra State and Hyderabad State. Kerala united Malayalam-speaking areas associated with Travancore-Cochin and Malabar, while Mysore expanded through the incorporation of Kannada-speaking districts.

Bombay State included Marathi-speaking districts transferred from Berar and Nagpur divisions and from Hyderabad State, although the state also contained other linguistic regions. The transfer of Kanyakumari and Sengottai to Madras State similarly reflected the effort to adjust boundaries around linguistic communities.

The earlier creation of Orissa Province in 1936 provided an important precedent. The 1956 settlement extended the principle of linguistic organisation across much of the Union, but it did not eliminate every multilingual or historically inherited boundary. Nor was the map a religious partition of territory. It was a constitutional reorganisation based primarily on language, administration, and political negotiation.

No specific temples, monasteries, monuments, religious centres, or philosophical institutions are identified in the administrative account. The map is therefore best understood as a cultural-linguistic political map, not as a map of religious expansion.

Military Geography

The 1956 map does not depict a military campaign, battlefront, garrison system, or strategic stronghold. Its boundaries were established through legislation rather than conquest. No battles or army deployments are associated directly with the Act in the territorial list.

The wider background did include major questions of political integration. Hyderabad’s incorporation into India and the conflict over Kashmir had shaped the post-independence political landscape before the 1956 settlement. Yet Jammu and Kashmir had no boundary change under the Act, and the reorganisation itself did not redraw India’s international frontiers.

The map should therefore be read as a record of internal federal administration. It distinguishes states and Union Territories rather than military zones, tributary kingdoms, or directly occupied territories.

Political Geography

The reorganisation transformed relationships among regions that had emerged from British provinces, princely states, and unions of princely states. Former princely territories such as Saurashtra, Kutch, Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh, Bhopal, Coorg, and PEPSU were merged into larger states or converted into new administrative arrangements.

The political force behind the reform came from linguistic movements, especially the Telugu movement that produced Andhra State in 1953. The States Reorganisation Commission attempted to provide a national framework for responding to such demands. Parliament then converted that framework into law.

The 1956 map does not show tributary states. All the listed states and Union Territories formed part of the Indian Union, although they differed in their constitutional status before the Seventh Amendment. The new arrangement strengthened the federal structure by recognising states as the principal units while retaining Union Territories under closer central administration.

Legacy and Change

The States Reorganisation Act was enacted on 31 August 1956 and came into effect on 1 November. Together with the Seventh Amendment, it created the most extensive change in India’s internal state boundaries since independence.

The configuration did not remain permanent. Later legislation reorganised Punjab in 1966, Himachal Pradesh in 1970, and the north-eastern region in 1971. Further changes followed through the Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh reorganisation Acts of 2000, the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019.

Even after these later changes, the 1956 map remains a foundational moment in the history of the Indian Union. It converted a complex post-independence arrangement of provinces, princely states, and constitutional parts into a more recognisable system of states and Union Territories. Above all, it established linguistic reorganisation as a durable principle in India’s political geography.