States and union territories of India facts for kids

Quick facts for kids States and union territories of India
Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Chhattisgarh National Capital Territory Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jammu and Kashmir Ladakh Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Odisha Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Telangana Tripura Uttarakhand Uttar Pradesh West Bengal Andaman and Nicobar Islands Chandigarh Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Lakshadweep Puducherry
Category	Federated states
Location	Republic of India
Created by	Constitution of India
Created	26 January 1950 (74 years ago) (1950-01-26)
Number	28 States 8 Union territories (as of 2024)
Populations	States: Sikkim – 610,577 (lowest) Uttar Pradesh – 199,812,341 (highest) Union Territories: Lakshadweep – 64,473 (lowest) Delhi – 16,787,941 (highest)
Areas	States: Goa – 3,702 km2 (1,429 sq mi) (smallest) Rajasthan – 342,269 km2 (132,151 sq mi) (largest) Union territories: Lakshadweep – 32 km2 (12 sq mi) (smallest) Ladakh – 59,146 km2 (22,836 sq mi) (largest)
Government	Government of India State governments
Subdivisions	Divisions Districts Tehsils

India is a federal republic comprising 28 states and 8 union territories. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions.

The states are self-governing administrative divisions, each having a state government. The governing powers of the states are shared between the state government and the union government. The union territories are directly governed by the union government though some of the union territories have their own territorial government with certain autonomy.

The framework for the states and union territories were established by the Constitution of India, which came into effect on 26 January 1950. As per the Indian Constitution, the power to demarcate states and union territories in India is solely reserved with the Parliament of India, which can form new states/union territories, separate/merge territories from/to an existing state or convert states to union territories or vice versa.

History

British Raj: before 1947

After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British Crown took over the administration of India from the rule of the British East India Company through the Government of India Act 1858. During the British Raj, India was a complex political entity consisting of various imperial divisions and states and territories of varying autonomy. It was made up of two types of territory: British India and native Princely States. Apart from the provinces directly ruled territories of the Crown, there were 584 constituent states with suzerainty over 175 princely states was exercised by the central government of British India under the viceroy in the name of the British Crown and the remaining states were dependents of the provincial governments of British India under a governor, lieutenant-governor, or chief commissioner. In 1907, there were seven major and three minor provinces within the boundaries of present-day India, which were ruled by a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor or a Chief Commissioner on behalf of the Emperor of India.

Provinces of British India (1907)

Province	Area (km2)	Population in million (1901)	Chief Administrator	Map
Major Provinces
Assam Province	130000	6	Chief Commissioner
Bengal Presidency	390000	75	Lieutenant-Governor
Bombay Presidency	320000	19	Governor-in-Council
Central Provinces and Berar	270000	13	Chief Commissioner
Madras Presidency	370000	38	Governor-in-Council
Punjab	250000	20	Lieutenant-Governor
United Provinces	280000	48	Lieutenant-Governor
Minor Provinces
Ajmer-Merwara	7000	477	ex officio Chief Commissioner
Andaman and Nicobar Islands	78000	25	Chief Commissioner
Coorg Province	4100	181	ex officio Chief Commissioner

In addition, there were two semi-autonomous imperial structures called agencies, Rajputana and Central India, which had an Agent to the Governor-General (AGG) functioning as the Emperor's representative to all the states in the agency. The states of Baroda, Kashmir and Jammu, Nizamate of Hyderabad and Kingdom of Mysore were neither part of a province nor an agency and had direct relations with the Crown through the Governor General of India. In 1911, the capital of India was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi, which resulted in the creation of a special province of Delhi from the existing Punjab province, administered by a special commissioner. In March 1912, Bihar and Orissa was split as a new province from Bengal.

In 1919, the fourth Government of India was enacted by the British Parliament. The act introduced provision for majority of the members to the legislatures of the provinces to be democratically elected. All provinces were elevated to governorship and there were eight governor's provinces apart from the three chief commissioner's provinces of Ajmer-Merwara, Coorg and Delhi. The Chamber of Princes was established by Emperor George V in 1920 as a consequence of the act, thus creating more agencies with representative members who could voice out their opinions to the Viceroy of India directly. Additional imperial agencies were established in the subsequent years: Punjab States, Madras States, Deccan States Agency and Kolhapur Residency, Western India and Gujarat States Agency and Baroda Residency, Eastern States and Gwalior Residency.

In 1935, the British Parliament enacted the Government of India Act which granted more autonomy to the Indian provinces. The act introduced provisions for the provincial legislatures to propagate its own laws in certain subjects without the ascent of the governor-general. The act also created the office of a Premier in each province who functioned as the new head of government and was responsible to the provincial legislature. Bengal, Madras and Bombay presidencies were officially styled as provinces and new provinces of Orissa and Sind were created from Bihar and Bombay respectively.

After Independence: 1947–50

After the Indian Independence Act in 1947, the Indian Empire was dissolved along with the Imperial Legislative Council and the Chamber of Princes and the Union of India was consequently established when the provinces of erstwhile British Raj and princely states were integrated into the Indian Union. The old provinces largely remained the same with the princely states who acceded mostly absorbed into the existing provinces of the union while a few were organized into separate provinces. In 1950, after the adoption of the Constitution of India, these became part of the Republic of India with the constitution classifying the states into four categories.

Administrative divisions of India in 1949

Republic and states re-organization: 1950–59

On 1 July 1954, Bilaspur was merged with Himachal Pradesh and Chandernagore, a former enclave of French India was incorporated into West Bengal in 1955. In 1953, Andhra state was created from the northern districts of Madras state, following the Andhra movement demanding a separate state for the Telugus. In July 1954, Portuguese exclave of Dadra and Nagar Haveli was taken over by pro-India forces and became the Free Dadra and Nagar Haveli state. In November 1954, the French enclaves of Pondichéry, Karikal, Yanaon and Mahé were transferred to India.

Political map of India after re-organisation in 1956

In 1956, the States Reorganisation Act was passed, which re-organized the country into 14 states and six union territories. As a result of the act:

• Andhra Pradesh was created with the merger of Andhra state with the Telugu-speaking districts of Hyderabad State
• Kerala was created by merging Malabar district and Kasaragod taluk of South Canara district of Madras state with Travancore–Cochin; Kanyakumari district and Sengottai taluk were added to Madras State from Travancore–Cochin. The Laccadive Islands, Aminidivi Islands and Minicoy Island, which had been divided between the South Canara and Malabar districts were organized into a union territory
• Mysore State was re-organized with the addition of Bellary and South Canara districts (excluding Kasaragod taluk) and Kollegal taluk of Coimbatore district from the Madras State, Belgaum, Bijapur, North Canara and Dharwad districts from Bombay State, the Kannada-majority districts of Bidar, Raichur and Kalaburagi from Hyderabad state and the Coorg state.
• Bombay State was enlarged by the addition of Saurashtra and Kutch State, the Marathi-speaking districts of Nagpur division of Madhya Pradesh and the Marathwada region of Hyderabad state .
• Rajasthan and Punjab gained territories from Ajmer state and PEPSU respectively and certain territories of Bihar were transferred to West Bengal.
• No changes in boundaries of Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh.
• Part C and Part D territories that were not merged into other states were organized into the six union territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Manipur, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh and Laccadive, Minicoy & Amindivi Islands.

Later years: 1960–present

Political map of India (2014)

Following the Mahagujarat movement, Bombay state was split into Gujarat and Maharashtra on 1 May 1960 by the Bombay Reorganisation Act. Goa, Daman and Diu was established as a union territory, following the liberation of Goa and Daman and Diu and from Portuguese and accession of Daman and Diu in 1961. Pondicherry was formed as a union territory following the de-jure transfer of French enclaves in India in 1962. On 1 December 1963, Nagaland was divided as a new state from Assam. The Punjabi Suba movement, which sought a separate Punjabi-speaking state, resulted in the Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966, which created the state of Haryana and the union territory of Chandigarh with the transfer of the northern districts of Punjab to Himachal Pradesh.

Madras state was renamed as Tamil Nadu in 1969. Himachal Pradesh was elevated to statehood in 1970. The north-eastern states of Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura were established in January 1972. Mysore State was renamed Karnataka in 1973. On 26 April 1975, Sikkim became the 22nd state after the 1975 Sikkimese monarchy referendum which resulted in the Kingdom of Sikkim acceding to India. In February 1987, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram were established as new states. In May 1987, Goa achieved statehood with the northern exclaves of Daman and Diu becoming a separate union territory.

In 2000, three new states were created: Chhattisgarh from eastern Madhya Pradesh, Uttaranchal from north-western Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand from southern Bihar with the enactment of Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000, Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000 and Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000 respectively. In 2006, Pondicherry was renamed as Puducherry and Uttaranchal became Uttarakhand followed by Orissa being renamed as Odisha in 2011. In June 2014, Telangana was separated from Andhra Pradesh as the 29th state of the union, through the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, following the Telangana movement. On 31 October 2019, the state of Jammu and Kashmir was split into two new union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as a result of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. On 26 January 2020, the Union Territory of Daman and Diu and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli were merged into a single union territory of Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

Current proposals

Powers and functions

The framework for the states and union territories were established by the Constitution of India, which came into effect on 26 January 1950. As per the Indian Constitution, the power to demarcate states and union territories in India is solely reserved with the Parliament of India, which can form new states/union territories, separate/merge territories from/to an existing state or convert states to union territories or vice versa. The constitution distributes the sovereign executive and legislative powers exercisable with respect to the territory of any state between the union government and that of the state. Article 73 states that the executive power of the union government shall extend to the matters with respect to which parliament has power to make laws even if it affects the states while Article 162 defines that the executive power of a state shall extend to the matters with respect to which the state legislature has power to make laws. The union territories are directly governed by the union government though some of the union territories have their own territorial government with certain autonomy.

States and union territories

States

Union territories

This section is transcluded from Union territory#Current union territories

Former states and union territories

Former states

Former states of India

State	Capital	Span	Successor(s)	Map
Ajmer State	Ajmer	1950–56	Rajasthan
Andhra State	Kurnool	1953–56	Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh	Hyderabad	1956-2014	Andhra Pradesh, Telangana
Bhopal State	Bhopal	1949–56	Madhya Pradesh
Bilaspur State	Bilaspur	1950–54	Himachal Pradesh
Bombay State	Bombay	1950–60	Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka
Coorg State	Madikeri	1950–56	Karnataka
East Punjab	Shimla (1947–53) Chandigarh (1953–66)	1947–66	Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh
Hyderabad State	Hyderabad	1948–56	Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka
Jammu and Kashmir	Srinagar (Summer) Jammu (Winter)	1952–2019	Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh
Kutch State	Bhuj	1947–56	Gujarat
Madhya Bharat	Indore (summer) Gwalior (winter)	1948–56	Madhya Pradesh
Madras State	Madras	1947–53	Andhra State, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala
Mysore State	Bangalore	1947–73	Karnataka
Patiala and East Punjab States Union	Patiala	1948–56	Punjab, Haryana
Saurashtra	Rajkot	1948–56	Gujarat
Travancore–Cochin	Trivandrum	1949–56	Kerala, Tamil Nadu
Vindhya Pradesh	Rewa	1948–56	Madhya Pradesh

See also

In Spanish: Estados y territorios de la India para niños

• Administrative divisions of India
• Autonomous administrative divisions of India
• List of adjectives and demonyms for states and territories of India
• List of Indian state and union territory name etymologies
• List of states in India by past population