• Article 1 describes India, that is, Bharat as a ‘Union of States’ rather than a ‘Federation of States’. Secondly, the country is described as ‘Union’.
• Article 2 empowers the Parliament to ‘admit into the Union of India, or establish, new states on such terms and conditions as it thinks fit’. Thus, Article 2 grants two powers to the Parliament.
• Article 3, on the other hand, relates to the formation of or changes in the existing states of the Union of India.

EVOLUTION OF STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES

• The Indian Independence Act (1947) created two independent and separate dominions of India and Pakistan and gave three options to the princely states viz., Joining India, joining Pakistan or remaining independent. Of the 552 princely states situated within the geographical boundaries of India, 549 joined India and the remaining 3 (hydrabad, Junagarh and Kashmir) refused to join India.
• Hyderabad by means of police action, Junagarh by means of referendum and Kashmir by the Instrument of Accession.

Dhar Commission and VP Committee

• 1948 the Government of India appointed the Linguistic Provinces Commission under the chairmanship of S.K.Dhar. The Commission submitted its report in December 1948 and recommended the reorganization of states on the basis of administrative convenience rather than linguistic factor.
• Congress in December 1948 itself to examine the whole equation afresh. It consisted of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallahbhai Patel and PattabhiSitaramayya and hence, was popularly known as JVP Committee. It submitted its report in April 1949 and formally rejected language as the basis for reorganization of states.
• However, in October 1953, the Government of India was forced to create the first linguistic state, known as Andhra state, by separating the Telugu speaking areas from the Madras state. This followed a prolonged popular agitation and the death of PottiSriramulu, a Congress person of standing, after a 56- day hunger strike for the cause.

Fazl Ali Commission

• This forced the Government of India to appoint(1953) a three-member States reorganization Commission under the chairmanship of Fazl Ali to reexamine the whole question. Its other two members were K.M.Panikkar and H.N.Kunzru.
• The Government of India accepted these recommendations by the sates reorganization Act(1956) and the 7^th Constitutional Amendment Act(1956), the distinction between Part-A and Part-B states was done away with and Part-C states were
• As a result, 14 states and 6 union territories were created on November 1, 1956.

New States and Union Territories Created After 1956

• Maharashtra and Gujarat in 1960, the bilingual state of Bombay was divided into two separate states. Gujarat was established as the 15^th state of the Indian Union.
• Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1961) It was converted into a union territory of India by the 10^th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1961.
• Goa, Daman and Diu (1961) 12^th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1962. Later, in 1987, Goa was conferred a statehood.
• Puducherry The French handed over this territory to India in 1954. Till 1962 when it was made a union territory by the 14^th Constitutional Amendment Act.
• Nagaland In 1963, 16^th state of the Indian Union
• Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh In 1966, the state of Punjab was Himachal Pradesh In 1966, the State of Punjab was bifurcated to create Haryana, the 17^th state of the Indian Union.
• Manipur, Tripura and MeghalayaIn 1972. (Manipur 19^th Tripura 20^th and Meghalaya 21^st)
• Sikkim Till 1947, Sikkim was an Indian princely state ruled by Chogyal. 35^th Constitutional Amendment Act (1974). 36^th Constitutional Amendment Act (1975) was enacted to make Sikkim a full-fledged state.
• Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa In 1987, three new State of Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa came into being as the 23^rd, 24^th and 25^th state of the Indian Union respectively.
• Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand In 2000, three more new States of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand  26^th, 27^th. In 1969, Madras was renamed ‘Tamil Nadu’. Similarly,  In 1992, the Union Territory of Delhi was redesigned as the National Capital Territory of Delhi being conferred the Status of a full-fledged by the 69^th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1991.