Reorganisation continued, 1960-1987: Bombay, Punjab and the North-East

Detail

1. How a new state is made (the legal tool)

• Article 3: Parliament can, by an ordinary law, create a new state, change a state's area or boundaries, or change its name.
• Article 4: such a law is not an amendment of the Constitution under Article 368. It passes by a simple majority (more than half of the members present and voting). It can still change the First and Fourth Schedules.
• First Schedule: the list of states and UTs. Fourth Schedule: the number of Rajya Sabha seats each state gets.

Step	What happens	Majority or time limit
1	The President recommends the Bill. Without this, it cannot be introduced in Parliament.	—
2	The President sends the Bill to the affected state legislature for its views.	Within the time the President fixes. The views do not bind Parliament.
3	Both Houses pass the Bill.	Simple majority
4	The President gives assent. The new state comes into being on the appointed day.	—

• Special provisions for a new state, such as Articles 371A, 371G, 371H and 371-I, need a separate constitutional amendment under Article 368. That is why most statehood changes from 1962 to 1987 came as two laws: a state Act and an Amendment Act.

2. Bombay: one bilingual state splits into two (1960)

• Bilingual Bombay state: after the States Reorganisation Act 1956, Bombay was one large state with two main language groups, Marathi and Gujarati speakers.
• Samyukta Maharashtra movement: a mass movement for a united Marathi-speaking state with Bombay city as its capital. The Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti (a coalition of opposition parties) led it.

• Police fired on protesters at Flora Fountain in 1955-56. The square was later renamed Hutatma Chowk ("Martyrs' Square").

• Mahagujarat movement: a parallel movement for a separate Gujarati state, led by Indulal Yagnik.

• Result: the two movements together made the bilingual state impossible to keep.
• Bombay Reorganisation Act 1960:
• Passed on 25 April 1960 [3].
• It created a new State of Gujarat out of Bombay's territory. The rest of Bombay state was renamed Maharashtra [3].

• Both took effect on 1 May 1960. Maharashtra kept Bombay city.

• Exam point: in law, Maharashtra is the residuary (remaining) Bombay state. Gujarat is the new state [3].

3. Punjab: the Punjabi Suba (1966)

• Punjabi Suba demand: a demand for a Punjabi-speaking state. The Akali Dal led it, under Master Tara Singh and later Sant Fateh Singh.
• 1956: the demand was refused. Instead, PEPSU (Patiala and East Punjab States Union, a union of former princely states) was merged into Punjab.
• J.C. Shah Boundary Commission (1966): drew the line between the Punjabi-speaking and Hindi-speaking areas.
• Punjab Reorganisation Act 1966:
• Passed on 18 September 1966. Appointed day: 1 November 1966 [2].
• Haryana was created for Hindi speakers. It included Hissar, Rohtak, Gurgaon, Karnal and Mahendragarh districts, plus the Narwana and Jind tahsils of Sangrur district [2].
• Hill areas of Punjab went to Himachal Pradesh, which was then a UT.
• Chandigarh became a Union Territory made up of the Manimajra and Manauli kanungo circles of Kharar tahsil in Ambala district [2]. It also became the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana.

• One common High Court, the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, was set up for both states and Chandigarh [2].

• Himachal Pradesh: became a full state on 25 January 1971 under the State of Himachal Pradesh Act 1970.

• Disputes that remained: who gets Chandigarh, and how to share river water. Both fed later Punjab politics (→ regional-aspirations).

4. North-East: step-by-step reorganisation of Assam (1963-1987)

• Background: at independence, most of the North-East was one large Assam state. Manipur and Tripura were separate (former princely states). Reorganisation sped up after the 1962 India-China war, which showed how sensitive the border region was.

a) Nagaland, the first new state of the North-East (1963)

• Sixteen-point agreement (July 1960): a meeting of the Naga People's Convention decided that Nagaland should become a state within the Indian Union [9].
• State of Nagaland Act 1962 plus the 13th Amendment 1962 → Nagaland became a state in 1963. The first elected government took office in 1964 [9].
• Article 371A, inserted by the 13th Amendment [8]. It says an Act of Parliament on the following subjects does not apply to Nagaland unless the Nagaland Assembly decides so by a resolution [8]:
• religious or social practices of the Nagas;
• Naga customary law and procedure;
• civil and criminal justice decided under Naga customary law;
• ownership and transfer of land and its resources.

b) Elected assemblies for the UTs (1963)

• Government of Union Territories Act 1963: gave Manipur and Tripura, still UTs, their own elected legislative assemblies and councils of ministers [7].

c) Meghalaya: first an autonomous state (1970)

• The 22nd Amendment (1969) inserted Article 244A. It let Parliament form an autonomous state within Assam for certain tribal areas.
• Meghalaya (the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia hills) became such an autonomous state in 1970.

d) North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act 1971

• It made Manipur and Tripura full states and Meghalaya a full state carved out of Assam [4]. All three took effect on 21 January 1972.
• It created two new UTs out of Assam's territory [4]:
• Mizoram, from the former Mizo District of Assam;

• Arunachal Pradesh, from the tribal areas of Assam, earlier called NEFA (North-East Frontier Agency).

• North Eastern Council: set up under the North-Eastern Council Act 1971 (Act 84 of 1971) [5]. It is a regional body for planning the development of the North-Eastern states. It started working in 1972.

e) Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh become states (1987)

• Mizo Accord (1986): a peace deal between the Centre and the Mizo National Front that ended about twenty years of insurgency. The MHA records the Accord and the grant of statehood to Mizoram as a major event of the year [6].
• State of Mizoram Act 1986 plus the 53rd Amendment 1986 → Article 371G [10]:
• Acts of Parliament on Mizo religious or social practices, customary law, justice under customary law, and land do not apply unless the Mizoram Assembly passes a resolution [10].

• The Assembly must have at least 40 members [10].

• State of Arunachal Pradesh Act 1986 plus the 55th Amendment 1986 → Article 371H [11]:

• The Governor has a special responsibility for law and order [11].

• The Assembly must have at least 30 members [11].

• Both became states on 20 February 1987 [6].

5. Goa (1987)

• Liberation: Goa was freed from Portuguese rule in December 1961 (→ regional-aspirations). It became a UT together with Daman and Diu.
• Opinion poll, January 1967: a special vote, held only once in Indian history, in which Goans voted on whether to merge with Maharashtra. They rejected the merger and kept Goa's separate identity.
• Goa, Daman and Diu Reorganisation Act 1987: Goa became a state on 30 May 1987. Daman and Diu stayed a UT.
• 56th Amendment 1987 → Article 371-I: the Goa Assembly must have at least 30 members [12].

6. Other territorial additions

• Dadra and Nagar Haveli: freed from the Portuguese in 1954. It was formally made part of India by the 10th Amendment 1961.
• Puducherry (French settlements): transferred de facto in 1954 (in practice, the administration was handed over). Transferred de jure in 1962 (legally, under a treaty), and added by the 14th Amendment 1962.
• Sikkim: became a full state in 1975 under the 36th Amendment (→ regional-aspirations).

7. NCERT map exercise (quick key)

New state	Parent state
Gujarat (1960)	Bombay
Haryana (1966)	Punjab
Meghalaya (1972)	Assam
Chhattisgarh (2000)	Madhya Pradesh

• States that were once UTs: Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa.

Prelims Hooks

• Article 371A (Nagaland; 13th Amendment 1962): an Act of Parliament on Naga customary law or land applies only if the state Assembly passes a resolution.
• Article 371G (Mizoram; 53rd Amendment 1986) has the same customary-law and land protection. Article 371H (Arunachal; 55th Amendment 1986) gives the Governor special responsibility for law and order. Do not mix the two up.
• Article 371-I (Goa; 56th Amendment 1987): the Assembly must have at least 30 members. It has no customary-law protection.
• Bombay Reorganisation Act 1960: Gujarat is the new state. Maharashtra is the renamed residuary Bombay. Both formed on 1 May 1960.
• Punjab Reorganisation Act 1966: created Haryana and the UT of Chandigarh, and set up a common High Court of Punjab and Haryana. Appointed day: 1 November 1966.
• Meghalaya was first an autonomous state within Assam (Art. 244A, 22nd Amendment 1969) and became a full state only on 21 January 1972.
• North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act 1971: made three states (Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya) and two UTs (Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh).
• Trap: a new-state law under Article 3 is not an Article 368 amendment (Art. 4). The state legislature's views are not binding.
• Trap: Himachal Pradesh became a state in 1971, not 1966. In 1966 it only received Punjab's hill areas.
• Goa opinion poll (January 1967): the only such vote in Indian history. It rejected merger with Maharashtra.

Mains Points

• Language as a basis for states (GS-I): the Bombay and Punjab cases showed that the 1956 refusals could not last. Accepting language-based demands calmed tension and deepened democracy, which goes against the early fear that it would break up India. Punjab shows a limit, though: the Chandigarh and river-water disputes stayed unresolved and fed the crisis of the 1980s.
• Asymmetric federalism in the North-East (GS-II): Articles 371A and 371G protect customary law and land through a state-Assembly "veto" on Acts of Parliament. This let the Centre bring insurgent regions in through accords, such as the 1960 sixteen-point agreement and the Mizo Accord 1986, instead of only by force. The trade-off is uneven rights across states, and land protections that can clash with national laws.
• Steps from UT to state: UT → elected assembly (Government of Union Territories Act 1963) → autonomous state (Art. 244A) → full state. This step-by-step route let the Centre test whether a region could govern itself. Critics say it delayed democratic self-rule.
• Parliament's power under Article 3: the state's views are not binding, so the Union can redraw the map. This made smooth reorganisation possible from 1960 to 1987, but it raises a federalism concern when the affected state objects.