How New States Are Created in India: Articles 2, 3 and the History

Here's a fact that surprises many people: Parliament can create a new state, merge states, change a state's boundaries or rename it through an ordinary law passed by a simple majority. The special procedure for amending the Constitution isn't needed.

That flexibility was deliberate. The framers knew the 1950 map was a patchwork of British provinces and princely states that would have to change. It did, many times.

Article 2 and Article 3: two different powers

The first few articles of the Constitution deal with the Union and its territory. Two of them are easy to confuse.

Article 2 lets Parliament admit new states into the Union, or establish them, on whatever terms it thinks fit. This is about territory that was not already part of India. Sikkim becoming a state in 1975 is the usual example.

Article 3 is about rearranging what is already inside India. Under it, Parliament can by law:

• form a new state by separating territory from a state, by uniting two or more states or parts of states, or by uniting any territory to a part of a state;
• increase the area of any state;
• diminish the area of any state;
• alter the boundaries of any state;
• alter the name of any state.

Almost every new state since independence was created under Article 3.

Article 4 completes the picture. It says such a law can also make the supplementary and consequential changes needed, such as seats in Parliament, a legislature and a high court for the new state, and that the law is not treated as an amendment of the Constitution under Article 368. That's why a simple majority is enough.

The process, step by step

1. The bill needs the President's recommendation. A bill under Article 3 can be introduced in either House of Parliament only on the President's recommendation, which in practice means on the advice of the Union government.
2. The President refers it to the affected state legislature. If the bill affects the area, boundaries or name of a state, the President must first send it to that state's legislature so it can express its views within a period the President specifies. That period can be extended.
3. Parliament is not bound by those views. The state legislature can support the bill, oppose it or suggest changes. Parliament considers them and can still go ahead. The state has a voice, not a veto.
4. Parliament passes the law by simple majority in both Houses, the President gives assent, and the new arrangement comes into force on the 'appointed day' named in the Act.

One limit is worth knowing. Article 3 is for changes inside India. In its Berubari opinion of 1960, the Supreme Court said that handing Indian territory to another country needs a constitutional amendment, not just an Article 3 law.

This design is why India is often described as an 'indestructible union of destructible states'. The Union is permanent. The individual state boundaries are not.

Why language became the deciding factor

At independence, states were grouped into categories (later labelled Part A, B, C and D) that mostly reflected colonial history. Telugu speakers, for example, were split between Madras State and the princely state of Hyderabad.

The idea of linguistic provinces was old; the Congress had organised its own provincial committees by language well before independence. But after Partition, the national leadership was wary. A commission headed by S. K. Dhar, and then a committee of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya (the JVP Committee), advised against rushing into linguistic reorganisation, mainly out of concern for national unity.

The turning point came from Madras State. Potti Sriramulu, a Gandhian, went on a fast demanding a separate state for Telugu speakers. He died in December 1952 after fasting for more than fifty days. Protests spread across the Telugu-speaking areas, and the government announced the new state soon after.

Andhra State came into being on 1 October 1953, carved out of Madras State, with Kurnool as its capital. It was the first major state formed mainly on the basis of language.

The States Reorganisation Commission and the 1956 Act

Andhra opened the door, and other demands followed quickly. In late 1953 the government set up the States Reorganisation Commission, chaired by Justice Fazl Ali, with H. N. Kunzru and K. M. Panikkar as members. It submitted its report in 1955.

The Commission accepted language as an important basis for drawing state boundaries but said it should not be the only one. Administrative convenience, economic viability and national unity mattered too.

The result was the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, which came into force on 1 November 1956. Together with the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution, it ended the old Part A/B/C/D system and reorganised the country into 14 states and 6 union territories. Kerala was formed, an enlarged Mysore state (renamed Karnataka in 1973) took shape, and Andhra was merged with the Telugu-speaking parts of Hyderabad to form Andhra Pradesh. That's why 1 November is a formation-day date for several states, Kerala and Karnataka among them.

Later examples that shaped today's map

• Maharashtra and Gujarat, 1960. The 1956 plan kept a large bilingual Bombay State. After the Samyukta Maharashtra and Mahagujarat movements, the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960 split it into Maharashtra and Gujarat on 1 May 1960.
• The 1960s and 1970s. Nagaland became a state in 1963. The Punjab reorganisation of 1966 created Haryana and moved hill areas to Himachal Pradesh, which itself became a state in 1971. Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura became states in 1972.
• Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand, 2000. These three were created in November 2000 from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar respectively. The argument here was less about language and more about regional identity, tribal communities and a feeling that large states were neglecting their hill and forest regions. Uttarakhand was first called Uttaranchal and took its current name in 2007.
• Telangana, 2014. After a long movement, the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 created Telangana as India's 29th state on 2 June 2014, with Hyderabad as the shared capital of both states for up to ten years.

In 2019, Parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, which converted the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, with effect from 31 October 2019.

After Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu were merged into one union territory in 2020, India has 28 states and 8 union territories.

Questions people often ask

Can a state block its own division?

No. Its legislature must be consulted when a bill affects its area, boundaries or name, but Parliament isn't bound by its views. Telangana was created even though the undivided Andhra Pradesh assembly had rejected the draft bill.

Is a new state the same as a new union territory?

No. A state has its own elected government with powers over the subjects in the State List. A union territory is administered by the Union through an administrator or Lieutenant Governor, though some, such as Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir, have legislatures with more limited powers.

What to keep in mind when a new state is demanded

Next time a news debate turns to carving out a new state, three points will help:

• The decision lies with Parliament, through an ordinary law under Article 3.
• The bill needs the President's recommendation, and the affected state legislature must be asked for its views, which are not binding.
• The reasons change with time, from language in the 1950s to regional identity and development in 2000 and 2014, but the legal route has stayed the same.

For the exact wording, read Articles 1 to 4 of the Constitution of India, published by the Legislative Department of the Ministry of Law and Justice. They're short and readable.