Mr. Vice-President, I have very carefully listened to the speech just delivered by my honourable friend Mr.Hanumanthaiyaopposing the amendment of my honourable friend Mr.Kamath. I must tell at once my honourable friend Mr.Hanumanthaiya that he need not have unnecessarily scented a sort of underhand effort to import Hindi linguism by this amendment. In the course of my speech on the general motion for consideration of the Draft Constitution I dilated at considerable length on the question of States. I pointed out then and point out even now that the expression ‘State’ has got a peculiar connotation in the Constitutional literature of the world. (Cheers). ‘State’ always connotes an idea of sovereignty, absolute independence and things like that. In the United States of America there was a States Rights School. It seriously contended that the States had independent status and the bitterness which was generated by the long drawn out controversy culminated in the bloody civil war. That is the evidence of history. Therefore when we want to describe our country as a Union of States, I apprehend that it is quite possible that the provinces which are now being given the dignified status of States, the native States which had hitherto been under the Indian Princes, but have now either acceded to or merged in, the Indian Union may at a later stage seriously contend that they were absolutely sovereign entities and that the Native States acceded to the Indian Union ceding only three subjects, viz. Communications, Defence and External Affairs. In order to avoid all these likely controversies in the future, I suggested to the House that best efforts should be made to evolve a phraseology in place of ‘States’. We must eliminate the chances of this controversy in the future. I am prepared even now – let my friends ransack and find out a substitute. This word has an unsavory smell about it. In the absence of ‘State’ it has been suggested that the word ‘Pradesh’ should be substituted. Let me tell my friend Mr.Hanumanthaiyaand those of his way of thinking that the word may be used in Hindi but it is a Sanskrit word. It is not an English word but there will be no difficulty if it is used. Here you describe in article 1 sub-clause (2) that –
“The States shall mean the States for the time being specified in Parts I, II and III of the First Schedule.“