"The Reorganisation of the States on the basis of language was a major aspect of national consolidation and integration." Comment.

Answer:

Linguistic reorganisation of the states, though initially resisted by the national leadership out of a fear of fragmentation, ultimately strengthened rather than weakened Indian unity by accommodating powerful regional identities within a democratic and federal constitutional framework.

Path to reorganisation

• Nehru and the early committees (Dar Commission, 1948; JVP Committee, 1949) feared linguistic states would encourage fissiparous tendencies.
• Potti Sriramulu's fast unto death and the creation of Andhra in 1953 forced the issue.
• The Fazl Ali States Reorganisation Commission led to the States Reorganisation Act of 1956.

A force for integration

• It accommodated India's diversity democratically, defusing linguistic agitations by giving them constitutional expression.
• Administration and education in regional languages deepened popular participation and bound regions to the Union.
• Critics feared sub-nationalism, and some border and river disputes did persist.

The process after 1956

• Bombay was divided into Maharashtra and Gujarat in 1960 after sustained agitation.
• Punjab was reorganised in 1966, creating Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
• The north-eastern states were reorganised through the 1960s and 1970s.
• Later states such as Jharkhand and Telangana rested on other grounds than language.
• That such demands were pressed constitutionally shows the framework's success.

On balance, as Ramachandra Guha argues, linguistic reorganisation proved a safety-valve that reconciled regional identity with national unity. Far from fragmenting the country, it consolidated it by channelling powerful linguistic sentiments into the constitutional framework of the Union.