Describe the difficulties that the Election Commission of India faced in holding the first general elections after independence.

OR

After the integration of the Princely States, what was the basis of drawing the internal boundaries of the Indian States? How was this task and reorganization of the States done?

The difficulties that the Election Commission of India faced in holding the first general elections after independence were:

a. India was a country with very large size. This was the first problem in the country to conduct the election.

b. It was also a difficulty to form the boundaries of the electoral constituencies.

c. Out of all the total voters, only 15% were literate.

d. The large population of India was also a problem.

e. The name of 40 lakh women were not included in the list. So the list had to be remade.

f. The 17 crore eligible voters had to elect a large number of 3200 MLAs and 489 MPs.

OR

a. The government of India had appointed a commission in 1953 to look into the matter of redrawing the boundaries of the states of the country.

b. The report of the committee recommended that the boundaries of the state should reflect the boundaries of different languages.

c. Redrawing of the boundaries of state was done immediately after gaining independence. However, the central government decided to postpone the formation of linguistic States.

d. This led to a protest in Telugu speaking areas of Madras who demanded a separate state for themselves.

e. This movement was led by Sriramulu. He went on an indefinite fast and eventually died after 56 days.

f. Andhra Pradesh was finally created in 1952.

g. The demand for the formation of linguistic states in other parts of the country also began to increase.

h. The government formed the state reorganization commission in 1953.

i. The commission recommended that the states must be formed on the basis of the language.