Karnataka is a state in the southwestern part of India, with its capital and largest city being Bengaluru. The name is generally accepted to be derived from the Kannada words karu and nādu, meaning "elevated land," referring to its location on the Deccan plateau.
The state was created on November 1, 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, which aimed to redraw India's internal boundaries primarily along linguistic lines. This Act solved the problem of unifying the Kannada-speaking regions from the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, Hyderabad State, Madras State, and the entire Coorg State with the existing Mysore State. The formation was a culmination of the Ekikarana movement (unification movement).
The state initially functioned as Mysore State from November 1, 1956, until its name was officially changed to Karnataka on November 1, 1973. This change was enacted by the Parliament through the Mysore State (Alteration of Name) Act, 1973 (Act No. 31 of 1973), which came into force on the appointed day. Section 3 of the Act explicitly states that "the State of Mysore shall be known as the State of Karnataka". The Act also made consequential amendments, such as substituting the word "Mysore" with "Karnataka" in Article 168(1)(a) of the Constitution, which deals with the composition of State Legislatures.
As a state, Karnataka operates with a bicameral legislature, consisting of the Karnataka Legislative Council (75 seats) and the Karnataka Legislative Assembly (224 seats). It connects directly to the principles of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, and the Seventh Constitutional Amendment Act, 1956, which established the framework for the modern Indian federal structure of states and Union Territories. The most significant recent change was the renaming in 1973, which replaced the historical name of the princely state with a name reflecting the broader linguistic and cultural identity of the region.