India now has 28 States and eight Union Territories .But that was not the case when the country became independent in 1947
Over 75 years, the Indian map has undergone several changes. States have been reorganised in multiple phases, and there were different factors behind it.
Consolidation of the princely States
As early as the 1930s, the Indian National Congress had mooted the idea that independent India would be a union of states
Sardar Vallabbhai Patel and his Secretary VP Menon of the States Department got to work. Their task was to integrate over 550 princely states into India.
While a majority of the provinces and native Indian states had acceded to India before August 1947, some resisted
The princely state of Hyderabad, under Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan, even fancied its chances of being an independent country
But it eventually surrendered in September 1948 after Indian troops intervened, and it joined the Indian union
Reorganisation on linguistic basis
By 1950, States were grouped based on forms of governance. But people wanted change, and thus, the demand to redraw the map based on linguistic basis grew stronger
After much pressure, the government eventually agreed and in 1953, Telugu speaking people had their own State - Andhra Pradesh. Carved out of Madras, it was India’s first linguistic state
