Demands for statehood in independent India are not a new phenomenon and there are about 40 such ongoing movements in India as of date. It is said that India is likely to have 50 states or more if all demands of new states were to be conceded. As of today, India has 28 states and 8 Union Territories. With the demand for Frontier Nagaland state gaining momentum, many diverse opinions have surfaced in the public domain – some for it, some against it while others call for rethinking it. However, there have not been many commentaries on the technicalities involved with formation of new states, or dissolution of existing states as in the case of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state. It is very unlikely that the Union government would grant statehood to just about everyone demanding one unless there is a very strong political will. Further, the formation of new states must be competent in terms of their economic, administrative and ethnic viability. Carving out smaller states is too complex an issue to be taken in the heat of inflamed passions and under the pressure of agitations. In the absence of a political consensus, and when concerns are raised above the wider implications for the other parts of the states, decisions will have to be made after wide-ranging consultations and on the basis of a well-laid out roadmap for the creation of new states. Possibility of increase in the inter-State water, power, and boundary disputes will have to be taken into consideration before carving out new states. It is indeed amenable to say that it is time for India to initiate a major reorganization of the states but that would entail a constitutional States Reorganization Act as it was done in 1956. Being a country as diverse as it is, demands for statehood, union territory or autonomous regions will keep surfacing from time to time. Most of these demands will be because of regional disparities in terms of progress and development and regional political consciousness.
With so many active demands for statehood, granting statehood to one of the demands under the pressure of agitation would have a domino effect and the center will obviously think twice before granting statehood. As stated above, there are around 40 demands for statehood that are ongoing. Most prominent are the likes of Gorkhaland in West Bengal, creation of a separate Vidarbha state by carving out the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra and the demand for creation of Saurashtra by carving that region out of Gujarat. However, except the state of Uttar Pradesh, which during the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party government proposed to create four states dividing the country’s most populous state, no other state government has given any recommendation for carving out a new state. Even in the NE region, there are statehood demands for Barak State, Bodoland, Karbi Anglong, Dimaraji and Kamtapur in Assam; Bruland, Chakmaland and Hmarland statehood demands in Mizoram; Kukiland in Manipur; Taniland in Arunachal Pradesh; Tipraland in Tripura and Garoland in Meghalaya. All these demands just like the demand for Frontier Nagaland state. Surely, the center has a handful of decisions to make.