India is the largest democratic nation in the world with a population of more than 1.3 billion people spread across 29 states and 7 union territories. However, after gaining Independence on 15th August in 1947, the nation that we look today wasn’t the same at the time of independence. Post our independence, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel and V P Menon did most of the efforts to merge all the princely states and other states into India to stand it as one nation. After the constitution of India was written and India celebrated its first republic day on 26th January 1950, our nation was divided into four different groups. The part A consisted of provinces India, part B had princely states, part C had chief commissioner’s provinces and part D had the sole Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This is how initial India was formed and with the formation of the State Reorganization Act, 1956, the restructuring of the administration of the nation came into effect on 1st November 1956.
After this act, the term of “Parts” was removed and the concept of “States” and “Union Territories” was introduced. In the following years, the demand for formation of states based upon the linguistic basis was high and thus states were divided accordingly. Thus, came the question to everyone’s mind: bharat me kitne rajya hai?
Many states were formed in the era of 1960s and 1970s and many states and union territories were formed after that as well. The state of Bombay was separated into Maharashtra and Gujarat in 1960 and Punjab was also divided based upon the linguistic approach and Haryana was emerged out of it on 1st November.
Himachal Pradesh emerged as an independent state in 1971 and Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura were given the honours on 21 January 1972. Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh became states in 1987 and in the same year, Goa was separated from Daman and Diu and formed as a separate state. Uttranchal, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh were given the status of states in the year 2000 and the most recent state that was added to the Indian map was Telangana, which was formed in 2014.
Let us look at the 5 Newest States in India
1) Goa – Created on 30 May 1987
Goa was a colonial state under the Portuguese province and then it gained freedom in 1961 with the help of Indian Army. Then Goa and Daman & Diu was constituted under a single unit but later in 1987, Goa was given the status of an independent state and Daman and Diu remained as a Union Territory. Goa is the smallest state of India in terms of its area.
2) Chhattisgarh – Created on 1st November 2000
Chhatisgarh is one of the Indian states that was formed back in 2000 and is a part of the Center-East region in India. The state was formed from Madhya Pradesh and is one of the fastest growing states of the nation. In the 1990’s, the demand for a new state witnessed many activities and many organizations and groups were formed which were raising their voice regularly to create Chhattisgarh as a separate state. Keeping all these demands in concern, the government of NDA agreed to the demand and in 2000, the Madhya Pradesh Reorganization Act was passed and in the month of November, the new state was born with the name of Chhattisgarh.
3) Uttranchal – Created on 9 November 2000
Uttranchal, which today is known with the name of Uttrakhand was the 27th state of independent India and was created from the Himalayan region of Uttar Pradesh. When India gained freedom from the rule of Britishers, the kingdom of Garhwal’s was merged into the state of Uttar Pradesh which constituted the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions. In 1998, the Uttrakhand Kranti Dal demanded a separate state for their region and with the roar among the public, the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Bill on 24 September 1998 and began the process of creation of a new state. 2 years later, the parliament of India passed the Uttar Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2000 and thus India got its 27th state – Uttrakhand on 9th November 2000.
4) Jharkhand – Created on 15th November 2000
The state of Jharkhand emerged from the region of Bihar and was founded in the year 2000. The 28th state of Independent India, Jharkhand has remained an under-developed state for many years now and one of the primary reason behind this is its poor literacy rate. The process of forming a separate state for Jharkhand was begun in the late 1990s and the initiative was taken by RJD. With the support of Congress Party, RJD convinced the central government to form the Bihar Reorganizational Act and thus the state of Jharkhand was created.
5) Telangana – Created on 2nd June 2014
Telangana is the most recently created state, which was formed back on 2nd June 2014. The area of Telangana has been separated from Andhra Pradesh and the state is divided into 33 different districts. In 2013, the working committee of Congress Party passed a resolution to form Telangana as a separate state. After many stages and efforts, the bill was shown in the parliament and was passed to form Telangana as the 29th state of India and Hyderabad has been made its capital.