Thursday, November 1, 2012

State Formation Days

Today on 1st November, Karnataka celebrates its state formation day... Then AP also celebrates it as Andhra Pradesh formation day. Many of us won't know that even Haryana Day is also today. Chhattishgarh Day, Madhya Pradesh Day, Kerala Day, are all on 1st Nov. Not only states, even Andaman & Nicobar Islands celebrates formation day today only! A major reason is that States Reorganization Act of 1956 came into effect from 1st November. There were many other re-orgs through this, e.g. some territories were transferred from Bihar to West Bengal on this date, but of course it won't be celebrated.

It is a wonderful case of unity amongst diversity. Each state will celebrate this date individually, calling it "Formation Days", but actually it was also division day in a sense. Inter-state conflicts and rivalries, regional politics, linguistic chauvinism, these are all which are challenges to India which are there because of state boundaries. Let us all celebrate our state formation days but with strengthening our resolve to remain united and appear as “one” when it comes to our national identity – we as Indian first and then only belonging to states.

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