13.1A language divided
At the start of the twentieth century Kannada speakers were split between the princely state of Mysore, the Bombay and Madras presidencies, the Nizam's Hyderabad, and Coorg. The unification (Ekikarana) movement, articulated by Aluru Venkata Rao — later called Karnataka Kulapurohita — and organisations such as the Karnataka Sabha and the Kannada Sahitya Parishat (founded 1915), argued for a single Kannada-speaking province.[1]
13.2Reorganisation, 1956
After independence, the Dhar Committee and the JVP Committee were cautious about linguistic states, but the Fazl Ali Commission (States Reorganisation Commission, 1955) recommended consolidation. The States Reorganisation Act came into force on 1 November 1956, merging the Kannada-speaking areas of Bombay, Hyderabad, Madras and Coorg with the old Mysore State to form an enlarged Mysore State.[2]
13.3Renaming, 1973
Because 'Mysore' named only the historic southern core, northern districts pressed for a name that represented the whole. On 1 November 1973, under Chief Minister Devaraj Urs, the state was renamed Karnataka; the date is observed annually as Kannada Rajyotsava.[3]
In 2014 the Government of Karnataka officially changed the anglicised spellings of several cities, so that Mysore became Mysuru with effect from 1 November of that year.[4]