When did a States Reorganisation Commission was set up, which recommended the creation of linguistic States on the basis of larger linguistic groups?

Correct — A. The States Reorganisation Commission was set up in December 1953, under the chairmanship of Fazl Ali, with K.M. Panikkar and H.N. Kunzru as its other two members.

It was appointed after Andhra State had been carved out of Madras in October 1953, which forced the government to face the linguistic demand for the country as a whole rather than region by region.

Its report reached the government in 1955 and Parliament acted through the States Reorganisation Act, 1956. That is why option (d) tempts: 1956 is when the States were redrawn, not when the Commission was appointed, which is option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  December 1963 — December 1963 is a decade too late. By then the linguistic reorganisation the Commission recommended had already been carried out under the 1956 Act.
• (c)
  December 1958 — December 1958 falls after the Act, not before the Commission. The Commission had reported in 1955 and its work was over.
• (d)
  December 1956 — December 1956 is the year of the States Reorganisation Act, the outcome of the Commission's work. The question asks when the Commission was set up, which is three years earlier.

Linguistic reorganisation was the first serious test of the Union's internal map.

The Constituent Assembly had left it open. The Dhar Commission (1948) and the JVP Committee (1949) both advised against redrawing States on language alone.

That position collapsed after Potti Sriramulu died on a fast in December 1952 and Andhra State was created in October 1953. The States Reorganisation Commission followed in December 1953 to settle the question once, for every region.

Key facts

• The States Reorganisation Commission was appointed in December 1953 with Fazl Ali as chairman and K.M. Panikkar and H.N. Kunzru as members.
• It submitted its report in 1955.
• The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 gave India 14 States and 6 Union Territories.
• Andhra State, created in October 1953, was the first State formed on a linguistic basis.

Common traps

• Reading the question as asking when the States were reorganised, which is 1956, not 1953.
• Confusing the Fazl Ali Commission with the earlier Dhar Commission, which had argued against language as the basis.

No directly related past PYQ was found.