Step 1: Purpose:
The States Reorganisation Commission (Fazl Ali Commission, 1953) was tasked with examining the demand for the reorganisation of state boundaries in India.
Step 2: Main functions:
It studied demands for separate states, primarily assessing whether boundaries should be redrawn along linguistic lines; it consulted the public and state governments; and it recommended a rational basis for regrouping the states of the Union.
Step 3: Outcome:
Its 1955 report formed the basis of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, which redrew most state boundaries on linguistic lines and created several states largely as they exist today.