In 1920, the Congress first endorsed the idea of linguistic states. The first linguistic states to be formed were Orissa and Sindh in 1936. After Independence when the demand for a separate Telugu State was voiced, in 1948 the Linguistic Provinces Commission was appointed. The Committee, in paragraph 125 of its Report said “Linguistic homogeneity in the formation of new provinces, is certainly attainable within certain limits, but only at the cost of creating a fresh minority problem. And nowhere will it be possible to form a linguistic province of more than 70 to 80 percent of the people speaking the same language, than leaving in each province a minority of at least 20% of people speaking other languages”. This aspect of the Commission’s views was not sufficiently deliberated. The various language movements taking place now are result of such negligence.

Andhra was carved out in October 1953. Mounting pressure for creation of other States resulted in the formation of the States Re-organisation Commission in December 1953, which submitted its report in October 1955. This Report was neither binding nor ever fully implemented. But its impact was felt in the Seventh Amendment of the Indian Constitution, where language was a major consideration if not the sole consideration in re-ordering the political boundaries of states.

The establishment of the Naga Hills-Tuensang area in 1957 was departure from the linguistic principles and a concession to the ethnic movement. This area achieved statehood in 1963 and was known as Nagaland. The partitioning of Bombay into Maharashtra and Gujarat was the second landmark. It was natural that the Government acceded to Punjabi Suba. The partition of Punjab in 1966 and creation of Himachal Pradesh was a natural sequel to this. Most political changes after this have taken place in the North-East. Meghalaya was instituted in 1970 and attained full status in 1972. At the same time Union Territories of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram were instituted and Manipur and Tripura, Union Territories since 1956 became States. Sikkim became an Indian state in 1975.

It is true that besides linguistic factors, factors like ethnic and religious composition, geographical factors including distance from the capital and economic and social backwardness of regions played a part in carving out States. Whatever may have been the consideration, the fact remains that according to one estimate by the 1971 Census there were 96 million persons who are linguistic minorities which leaves scope for further political re-organisation. This estimate is most conservative. It is important to know that areas and groups taken for granted as one because of a single language label obtained through Census are not communicationally homogeneous. If this is taken into consideration, then on the basis of the emerging patterns one could call the whole country a country of minorities, Bengali and Telugu constituting the largest minorities are about 8% each of the total population of the country. In this context linguistic rights of peoples are bound to play a significant role in the debate on development and on preservation of culture. The founding fathers of the Indian Constitution did anticipate some of these problems and tried to incorporate provisions relating to language use. A compilation of these and a look at the totality of provisions is expected not only to highlight the underlying assumptions, but also to bring out their inadequacies and act as a pointer towards further possibilities of change.