Union and Its Territories

After independence, the demand for State reorganization on linguistic basis was raised from different regions. To make an exhaustive study of the problem, the Government of India set up the State Reorganization Commission in 1953, which was headed by Fazal Ali and other members of the commission were Mr. H. N. Kanzru and Mr. K. N. Panikkar. 

Statement 1 is wrong: Article 1 of the Indian Constitution says, “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States”. The word 'federation' does not find any mention in the Indian Constitution.
Statement 2 is correct: India opted for the federal form of Government due to its large size and socio-cultural diversities.

After independence, the demand for State reorganisation on linguistic basis was raised from different regions. To make an exhaustive study of the problem, the Government of India took the following initiatives:

The Fazal Ali Commission (States Reorganisation Commission) identified all four factors - national unity and security, linguistic and cultural homogeneity, financial and administrative considerations, and welfare planning - as essential criteria for reorganizing states in India.

Statement 1 is wrong: The States Reorganisation Commission under Fazal Ali did not out rightly reject the idea of linguistic states. Rater it broadly accepted language as the basis of reorganistion of states. It rejected the theory of 'one language-one state'.
Statement 2 is correct: It suggested the abolition of four-fold classification of states under the original Constitution & creation of 16 states & 3 centrally administered territories.

To deal with the demand for creation of states on linguistic basis, the Linguistic Provinces Committee was appointed in December 1948. This Committee consisted of Jwaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramaiah, and hence, it was also known as JVP Committee. The Committee rejected language as the basis for reorganisation of states. It proposed for 'sovereignty, unity & economic prosperity' to be the criteria for creation of new states.

Interpretation based question.

Religion is a great hindrance in the way of national integration. So, the main hindrance to the national integration in India is the absence of strong national consciousness.  

All of the given states, except Meghalaya, are correctly matched with their old names.

This question carries some big traps.

Statement 1 is wrong and statement 2 is correct: The Indian Federation is not the result of agreement of independent and sovereign states and hence, the states do not have the right to secede from the Union.

Concept based question.
Here a student needs to understand the difference between Union of India and Territory of India. While the former includes only the states that share federal powers with the centre, the latter includes the entire territory over which the sovereignty of the country is expressed.

Under Article 3 of the Indian constitution, the Parliament can alter the boundaries of any state or change its name. For this process, the Parliament does not require consent of the state.
Besides, Articles 2, 3 and 4 of Part I of the Indian constitution deal with the relation between the Union and its territory. This relation is very flexible and biased towards the Union.