Article 1: Name and Territory of Union
Part 1 ‘The Union and Its Territory’ of the Indian constitution contains Articles 1,2,3
and 4. The original text structure of Article 1 in the bare act of the Indian constitution
in 1949.
Name and territory of the Union
(1) India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.
(2) The States and the territories thereof shall be as specified in the First Schedule
(3) The territory of India shall comprise(a) the territories of the States:
(b) the Union territories specified in the First Schedule and
(c) such other territories as may be acquired.
Explanation of article 1
The draft of Article 1 was discussed in the Constituent Assembly on the 15 and 17
November 1948, and 17 and 18 September 1949.
you would have the question that what is union of state?
Or
Why there were two names Bharat and India for one country?
You must have read the slogans of ‘Hindustan Zindabad‘ in the history of freedom
struggle, so why was the country not named Hindustan?
Let us know what is the difference between Bharat, Indian, and Hindustan? and why
India-Bharat’s name was selected?
Name India That is Bharat-Article 1
The history of India is much earlier than 3000 BC, so before understanding the name,
it was important to understand what India was known in ancient times.
The Aryans arrived in the Harappan civilization around 2000 BC. He used to come
from the western dry region. Seeing the vast water source of the Indus and the
surrounding river, Aryans called it ‘Sindhu’.
The civilization around the Indus River came to be known as the ‘Sindhu
Civilization’. People living in Sindh got fame in the whole world under the name
‘Sindhu‘ and the area known as ‘Sindhustan‘.
Trade of the Sindhu civilization often happens with Mesopotamian and Roman
civilization people, In the language of Persia and Roman, the pronunciation of Sindhu
is different.
In the traditional Persian language, every fourth consonant was missing. Meaning that
‘H‘ was spoken instead of ‘S‘. Instead of pronouncing heavy consonants like ‘DH‘,
they pronounce light consonants ‘D‘. That’s why Sindhu and Sindhustan pronounce
Hindu and Hindustan respectively.
In the Mesopotamian language, only the vowel was used instead of the consonant,
which led to the ‘Indu’ of Hindu and ‘Industaan’ of Hindustan.
You must have come to understand the name India from the above Image. Now let’s
understand where the name Bharat comes from?
The name Bharat is mentioned in the Vishnu Purana written at the beginning of the
Christian era. However, before this name was used. You will find mention of the
name Bharat in Indian literature.
The name of the country Bharat has been written in the literature of all languages
since ancient times. For thousands of years, a large part of the society has been
addressing the name Bharat, due to which in 1950, the name of the country was
accepted as India.
Why did not named Hindustan?
There were three names of the country before the Constitutional Assembly in 1949.
1. Bharat
2. India
3. Hindustan
As we know the history of Indians was associated with the name Bharat and The
name India was prevalent all over the world.
Debate In Constitution Assembly
Some members of the assembly suggested alternative names to India. One member
wanted ‘Bharat’ or ‘Hind’ to gain more primacy and to be placed before ‘India’.
Another member suggested ‘Union of Indian Socialistic republics U. I. S. R.’ on the
lines of the U. S. S. R.
When all the proposals were put to vote, only two Bharat and India get positive.
For Hindustan, the region named as Hindustan gone in Pakistan due to the partition
of India (Above we have seen how the name Hindustan came and for which region)
This was the main reason that the name was prevalent in history, but now it is part of
Pakistan, then the Constituent Assembly finds it is not right to accept it.
As we see above no member advised the name Hindustan. Anyway, the name
Hindustan seems to be associated with the Hindu, if this name were adopted,
questions would have been raised about India’s secularism.
The name Hindustan show Hindu primacy which leads fear in the mind of the minor
community, and that fear harms the unity of the country.
Note: India has only two names. Hindustan is not a formal name for India, we have
combined Hindustan with Hinduism, that is why it is used by people.
Now let’s talk about meaning of India shall be a Union of states
India shall be a Union of states
Instead of a federation why India as a union of states? To understand this topic we
take the help of the treaty of the United States of America.
In the USA 50 states came together to form the whole country through a treaty.
Whereas after independence in India, the states had not formed their own alliance.
The Center had integrated all the states into one country of India.
Constitution-makers knew that it is difficult to put together such a large country of
India and so many diversified states. If they put word United States Of India in article
1 then the center would have to give more power and freedom to states like US states.
In the freedom of states, the state will have its own constitution, flag, policy, and
rules. all these can harm the unity of India which leads the demand for a separate
nation may arise in the future.
India recently had a bad experience with the partition of the country due
to communalism. Constitution makers want to give freedom to states for economic,
educational and cultural development, but they did not want to give more power
which leads demand of a separate nation in the future.
You will further study in the constitution that by selecting the middle path the
constitution creator handled both federalism and unity of the nation.
If the ‘federation of states‘ word written in constitution article 1 than the state may
go to court against the center for demanding more freedom which leads to more
instability, so that avoid this type of conflict maker write the word, ‘Union of State’.
The Federation is a Union because it is indestructible. Though the country and the
people can be divided into different States for convenience of administration, the
country is one integral whole, its people living under a single imperium derived from
a single source.