Before 15 August 1947, most of the Princely States were integrated with the rest of India and some later such as Junagadh, Kashmir and Hyderabad. While India formally got independence, the demand for re-organization of States was holding ground in different parts of India. While the demand for new States was mainly on the basis of language, Constitution makers held varied views. But since, Constituent Assembly did not have sufficient time to look into such an issue of huge magnitude and administrative complexity, they appointed a Commission to look into the matter.

Dhar Commission: Accordingly in June 1948, the Constituent Assembly announced the setting up of the Linguistic Provinces Commission ,under the chairmanship of S.K. Dhar, to examine the feasibility of this. The Commission in its report (December 1948) recommended that the reorganization of States should be on the basis of administrative convenience rather than linguistic basis.

JVP Committee: The Dhar Commission report created generally disappointment and led to the appointment of another Linguistic Provinces Committee by the Congress in December 1948, consisting of three members, namely, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya and hence , was popularly known as JVP Committee . In its report (1949),the committee reaffirmed the position of the Dhar Commission.

The Committee also recommended " to postpone the formation of new provinces for a few years, so that we might concentrate during this period on other matters of vital importance and not allow ourselves to be distracted by this question ". The  report also said that " if public opinion is insistent and overwhelming, we as democrats; have to submit to it subject to certain limitations in regard to the good of India as a whole ."

Arrangement of States as on 26th January 1950: Meanwhile, the new republic of India came into existence on 26th January 1950. The constituent units of Indian Unions found themselves classified into Part A, Part B, Part C and Part D. This was obviously a temporary arrangement as satisfactory solution could not be found yet.

• Part A States included the erstwhile Governors' Provinces . The nine Part A States were Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Madhya Pradesh (formely Central Provinces and Berar), Madras, Orissa , Punjab (formerly East Punjab), Uttar Pradesh (formerly the United Provinces) and West Bengal .

• Part B States included the erstwhile Princely States. The Part B States were Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Bharat, Mysore, Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU), Rajasthan , Saurashtra, Travancore - Cochin and Vindhya Pradesh.   

• art C States included both the former Chief Commissioners' provinces and some princely States. The Part C States were Ajmer, Bhopal, Bilaspur, Cooch-Behar, Coorg, Delhi , Himachal Pradesh , Kutch, Manipur and Tripura.

• The sole  Part D State was the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Continuation of Demands for Linguistic States: The demands for creation of States on Linguistic basis were further intensifying. In October 1953, the Government of India was forced to create the first Linguistic state, Andhra Pradesh, by separating the Telugu speaking areas from the Madras State, following the long drawn agitation and death of Potti Sriramulu, after a 56 day hunger strike for the cause.

Fazal Ali Commission: The creation of Andhra state intensified demand from other region for creation of States on Linguistic basis. In December 1953, the Government announced the formation of a three members States Reorganization Commission under the chairmanship of Fazal Ali to examine the whole question. The other two members of the Commission were H.N. Kunzru and K.M. Pannikar. The Commission in its report sought a balanced approach between regional sentiment and national interest . The Commission suggested the abolition the four-fold classification of states under the original Constitution and recommended creation of 16 states and 3 centrally administered territories.

The Commission also laid down the following four major principles as the basis of reorganization:

1. Preserving and strengthening of the security and unity of the country;
2. Financial, economic and administrative viability;
3. Linguistic and cultural homogeneity; and
4. Scope for successful working of plans of development.

The States Reorganization Act, 1956 came into force in November 1956. By this Act and 7th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1956, the distinction between the Part A and Part B States was done away with Part C States were abolished. Instead those States were classified into two categories: States and Union Territories.

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