After Independence, it was felt that our political units lacked linguistic and cultural synthesis: they ought to be restructured mainly on the basis of language. In northern India, the Akali Dal advocated the cause for a separate Punjabi speaking State on the grounds that Punjabis have a distinctive culture and a common mother tongue. This was the beginning of the genesis of a State called Haryana. Going into the history of Haryana, Gulshan Rai has delineated details of the origin of the word 'Haryana', its land and its people. He has given a well-rounded account of the various Committees which were appointed to study the justification for the formation of Haryana and the heterogeneous factors that led to the development of the State.