History

During the British era the Indian subcontinent was divided into British Provinces and Princely states.The princely states were governed by the British government while the Princely states were nominally controlled by the raja or loyals of the British.

Post independence the Princely states were integrated into the Union of India.The constitution of India made India divided into the subcontinent into four main types of states. The constitution came into force on the 26 th January 1950. 

Reorganisation of States

In the year 1953 the first Linguistic state Andhrapradesh was formed .The state had people who spoke Telugu population which means a Telugu speaking state was formed.

In the year 1947 India was made of 571 princely states compared to present day 28 states .At that time states where grouped on the basis of -:

• Political
• Historical reasons

There was no use of cultural or linguistic division.The fact that there existed a tussle due to multilingual nature that the states had which latter resulted in mass protest and the temporary arrangement based on the basis of political and historical reasons was done away with and the states were divided on the lines of language.

Various committees were appointed by the government to give suggestions and possible solutions for the issue of reorganisation . The various committees were as follows -:

• Dhar Committee- In the year 1948  SK Dhar commitee was appointed. The committee suggested that the states must be reorganised on the basis of administrative convenience and not on language or linguistic basis.The committee focused on Historical and cultural basis.
• JVP Committee- This committee was formed in the year 1948 and consists of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya as the members. This committee also rejected the linguistic basis division of the states.

Classification of states

The four states that the constitution of India made were as follows -:

• Part A state – These states were the provinces of former governors of the British raj. They were ruled by the state legislature and by a governor.This part includes nine states that are listed as follows-;Assam ,West Bengal,Uttar Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh,East Punjab,Orissa,Bombay ,Bihar and Bombay.
• Part B states- These includes states that where Princely states earlier or groups of Princely states.They are controlled and governed by Rajpramukh.The Rajpramukh is appointed by that President of India and was the ruler of the state .this part contains eight princely states.These states are listed as follows-: Hyderabad, Saurashtra, Mysore, Rajasthan, Travancore – Cochin, Hyderabad,Jammu and Kashmir ,Madhya Bharat ( central India agency ) 
• Part C – This part contains provinces of Chief commissioners . It also contains some princely states.The Governance and control of Part C states is with the chief commissioner . The chief commissioner is appointed by the President of India.The Part C contains ten states . These states are listed as follows -: Ajmer , Bhopal, Vindhya Pradesh,Tripura , Himachal Pradesh, Bilaspur,Coorg state ,Delhi ,Kutch , Manipur.
• Part D states – The part D states are looked after by the lieutenant governor . The lieutenant governor is appointed by the central government . The only area that is in Part D it is the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Four state classification

Language basis

The reason that enabled the government  to take language as a basis of classification is as follows -:

1. Easier and efficient governance- The process of governance will be better and smooth in areas that have a common language base.
2. Boost to vernacular language- The British government curtailed the use and development of the vernacular languages with language as a basis of Division among the states .It will lead to proliferation of these languages and the culture associated with it.
3. Larger participation of locals in administration- Since the division of the states will be on language and hence the communication will also be based on language that most people of that area converse in and hence it will flow of ideas easier and will lead to participation of masses .

Conclusion 

After the independence the government started uniting the territories, the princely states and the provinces. The concept of state classification came up during that time . As a part of it the states were divided into four classes . These were the Part A ,Part B ,Part C and Part D states. Further the process of reorganisation was started off with the state Reorganisation act of 1956 with Andhra Pradesh as the first state and language was chosen as a criteria for division .