 In accordance to the established policy of bifurcation on linguistic majority basis, in 1956, the Belgaum district was incorporated into the newly formed Mysore state (now Karnataka) with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, adjoining areas which had majority of Marathi speaking citizens were included in the newly formed Maharashtra state.The Act, which reorganised India's states along linguistic and administrative lines, included Belgaum in the Kannada-majority Karnataka, the district had most of the Marathi-speaking population hence the 'dispute';

According to the Belgaum Gazette published by the British, in the 1881 census, Belgaum had 864,014 people of which 556,397 were Kannada-speaking (64.39%), while 225,008 were Marathi-speaking (26.04%).Belgaum historically has been a part of the Kannada region and has seen many such dynasties ruling over it.