Challenges of Nation Building 21

Challenges of Nation Building The formation of Andhra spurred the struggle for making of other states on linguistic lines in other parts of the country. These struggles forced the Central Government into appointing a States Reorganisation Commission in to look into the question of redrawing of the boundaries of states. The Commission in its report accepted that the boundaries of the state should reflect the boundaries of different languages. On the basis of its report the States Reorganisation Act was passed in . This led to the creation of states and six union territories. Now, isn’t this very interesting? Nehru and other leaders were very popular, and yet the people did not hesitate to agitate for linguistic states against the wishes of the leaders! Potti Sriramulu ( - ): Gandhian worker; left government job to participate in Salt Satyagraha; also participated in individual Satyagraha; went on a fast in demanding that temples in Madras province be opened to dalits; undertook a fast unto death from October demanding separate state of Andhra; died during the fast on December . Credit: Shankar “Struggle for Survival” ( July ) captures contemporary impression of the demand for linguistic states