JVP Committee

Background and evolution

The Indian National Congress had supported linguistic provinces since the 1920s. At its Nagpur session in 1920, it reorganised its own provincial committees on linguistic lines, and the Nehru Report of 1928 endorsed linguistic redistribution of provinces. But Partition in 1947, the integration of princely states and fears of fragmentation made leaders cautious after Independence.

In June 1948, the Constituent Assembly's President appointed the Linguistic Provinces Commission under Justice S. K. Dar. Its report in December 1948 opposed reorganisation on purely linguistic grounds, preferring administrative convenience. Demand for linguistic states, especially for an Andhra state from Madras Presidency, remained strong. The Congress then set up its own committee, made up of Nehru, Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya, the party president, to reconsider the issue in light of the Dar report. Its initials gave it the name JVP Committee.

Key features and provisions

• Priority on unity: the committee said that the first consideration must be the security, unity and economic prosperity of India, and that linguistic reorganisation could encourage separatist tendencies.
• Postponement: it recommended that the creation of new provinces be postponed for some years, so that the country could focus on consolidating unity after Partition.
• Andhra exception: it accepted that if public sentiment was insistent and overwhelming, a case like Andhra could be considered, provided that the Telugu-speaking people agreed to give up their claim on the city of Madras.
• Rejection of language as sole basis: language could be one factor, but not the only criterion; administrative, financial and economic factors also mattered.
• Retreat from old pledge: the report marked a retreat from Congress's earlier commitment to linguistic provinces, reflecting post-Partition anxieties.