The regions that make up for today’s Karnataka were under as many as 20 different administrative units with the princely state of Mysore, Nizam’s Hyderabad, the Bombay Presidency, the Madras Presidency and the territory of Kodagu being some of them.

* Under such circumstances, a need was felt among Kannadigas living in these various administrative units to form one state, which would unify all Kannada-speaking people in the various regions. This movement called the Ekikarana movement was led by litterateurs and thinkers.

* The Karnataka Vidyavardhaka Sangha was established in Dharwad in 1890. This was an important phase in the history of the unification movement. The Sangha was started by R H Deshpande who strove for the revival of Kannada in a region which was part of the Bombay Presidency where Marathi was the language of administration.

* It was later that the Kannada Sahitya Parishat (Bangalore) was set up (1915), which was another driving force in the unification movement.

* Alur Venkata Rao was the leading light of the unification movement. The publication of his Karnataka Gatha Vaibhava in 1912 gave a huge push in terms of a mass movement. He was known as the Kannada Kula Purohita or the ‘High priest of the Kannada family.’

* The States Reorganisation Commission was constituted by the Central government under the States Reorganisation Act and consisted of Hon. Fazal Ali, Kavalam Madhava Panikkar, and HN Kunzru.

* The recommendations of the Fazal Ali Committee was ratified by the Parliament, which meant that several disparate Kannada-speaking regions would now come under the Mysore State.
n The State was formed on November 1, 1956.

n It was on November 1, 1973, under Devaraj Urs as chief minister that the Mysore State was renamed as Karnataka.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com /by DHNS / Home> Supplements> Spectrum / Tuesday, November 01st, 2011