Interrogating reorganisation of states : culture, identity, and politics in India / editors, Asha Sarangi, Sudha Pai.

Based on presentations at a seminar organized at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, on Sept. 25-26, 2008.

Contributed articles.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Acknowledgements -- Foreword -- Part I. Historical and Political Context of Reorganisation 1. Nehru and the Reorganisation of States: Making of Political India Asha Sarangi 2. Rule, Governmental Rationality and States Reorganisation Ranabir Samaddar Part II. Reorganising the Hindi Heartland 3. 'Making of a Political Community': The Congress Party and the Integration of Madhya Pradesh Sudha Pai 4. Reorganising the Hindi Heartland: The Deep Politic of State Formation Louise Tillin Part III. Languages and States: Western and Southern India 5. The Paradox of a Linguistic Minority Rita Kothari 6. Political Currents in Maharashtra: Language and Beyond Usha Thakkar and Nagindas Sanghavi 7. Discourses on Telangana and Critique of the Linguistic Nationality Principle K. Srinivasulu 8. Competing Imaginations: Language and Ant-colonial Nationalism in India Tharakeshwar V.B. Part IV. Culture and Identity: Reorganisation in the East and the North East 9. Revisiting the States Reorganisation Commission in the Context of Orissa: Today's Perspective Nivedita Mohanty 10. 'Linguistic Provinces' to 'Homelands': Shifting Paradigms of State Making in Post-colonial India Sajal Nag 11. Assam through the Prism o Reorganisation Experience: Fragmentation of Identities and Political Disintegration Ivy Dhar.

The volume analyses the complex historical and political context for the processes of state formation in independent India. It provides both a conceptual and empirical framework for an understanding of Indian democracy through the perspective of reorganisation of states. Following the recommendations of the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) in 1956, the territorial boundaries of the states were redrawn. However, within a decade, the geo-linguistic and cultural-ideological criteria could not be considered satisfactory for the future division of states.