The process of nation-building did not come to an end with the partition and integration of Princely States. Now the challenge was to draw the internal boundaries of the Indian states. Our leaders felt that carving out states on the basis of language might lead to disruption and disintegration. It was also felt that this would draw attention away from other social and economic challenges that the country faced. The central leadership decided to postpone matters. This decision of the national leadership was challenged by the local leaders and the people. Protests began in the Telugu speaking areas of the old Madras province. The Vishalandhra movement demanded that the Telugu speaking areas should be separated from the Madras province and be made into a separate state of Andhra Pradesh. Finally, the Prime Minister announced the formation of a separate Andhra state in December 1952. The formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1952 triggered the struggle for making of other states on linguistic lines in other parts of the country. These struggles forced the Central Government into appointing a State Reorganisation Commission in 1953 to look into the question of redrawing of the boundaries of states. The Commission in its report accepted that the boundaries of the state should reflect the boundaries of different languages. On the basis of its report, the States Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956. This led to the creation of 14 states and six union territories.

The states created after 1956 are:

Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Telangana.