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www.GOALias.blogspot.com22 Politics in India since IndependenceCredit: Shankar“Coaxing the Genie back” (Published in 1956) asked if the State Reorganisation Commissioncould contain the genie of linguism.One of the most important concerns in the early yearswas that demands for separate states would endangerthe unity of the country. It was felt that linguisticstates may foster separatism and create pressures onthe newly founded nation. But the leadership, underpopular pressure, finally made a choice in favour oflinguistic states. It was hoped that if we accept theregional and linguistic claims of all regions, the threat ofdivision and separatism would be reduced. Besides, theaccommodation of regional demands and the formationof linguistic states were also seen as more democratic.Now it is more than fifty years since the formation oflinguistic states. We can say that linguistic states andthe movements for the formation of these states changedthe nature of democratic politics and leadership in somebasic ways. The path to politics and power was nowopen to people other than the small English speakingelite. Linguistic reorganisation also gave some uniformbasis to the drawing of state boundaries. It did not lead