Some friends may say that India was a comparatively bigger State under British rule, but none can deny that at the time there were 562 States in India, with their own systems of Government. No one can deny the fact that before 1857, the Britishers had attempted to establish a strong State by merging the States, but they had succeeded in merging only a few States, when there was a revolution in the country and the Britishers had to give up that idea. But under your Presidentship, under the leadership of our leaders like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel and by following the path shown by Mahatma Gandhi, we have succeeded in persuading all these States to be parts of the Indian Union and our country which was divided into 600 units when this Assembly began to function, would now be having about 27 provinces. I think within a short time there would be only 15 or 20 units in this country. In this way we have laid the foundation of a strong union by reducing the number of component units. None can deny that it has entailed delay but sufficient work has been accomplished during this period. I think, if we had completed the Constitution within a year at our first meeting it would certainly have contained provisions for communal reservations. That dispute or rather disease has been cured and this could be achieved only on account of the tact of our leaders.
