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After the formation of Andhra in 1953, various linguistic groups demanded their own states. This included the Marathi-speaking, Malayalam speaking and Kannada speaking communities.

The States Reorganisation Committee was set up in 1956 to look into these demands, and redraw the map of India with new states. In its first round, separate states were given to Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, Kannada speakers. Even north Indian Hindi-speaking zones were sub-divided.

In 1960, the state of Bombay was divided to accommodate the Marathi speakers. Consequently, Maharashtra and Gujarat emerged.

In 1966, Punjab was divided to separate the Punjabi speaking community in the north from the Hindi speaking Haryana in the south.