<P> The States Reorganisation Commission rejected the demand for a Punjabi - majority state saying that it lacked a majority support and that Punjabi was not grammatically very distinct from Hindi . The Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU) was merged with Punjab, though . Akali Dal continued its movement, and in 1966 the Punjab Reorganisation Act split Punjab into the Sikh - majority Punjab state and the Hindu - majority state of Haryana, with Chandigarh, administered as a separate union territory, as the shared capital of the two states . </P> <P> After India became independent in 1947, the Belgaum district (which was in the erstwhile Bombay Presidency) became a part of the Bombay State . The award of the Belgaum district to the Kannada - majority Mysore State (later Karnataka) was contested by the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti, which wanted it to be included in the proposed Marathi - majority Maharashtra state . </P>

The recognization of states on linguistic basis was done in