States and territories of India
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India is subdivided into twenty-eight states, six union territories and the National Capital Territory.
Contents |
History
Pre-independence
British India, which included all of modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan, but not Ceylon, Nepal or Sikkim, was made up of two types of territorial divisions, provinces and Princely States.
Provinces
Provinces of India were ruled directly by British officials; a Governor, Chief Commissioner, or Administrator, who were appointed by the Viceroy. When power was transferred from the British East India Company to the British Crown, India was divided into six provinces, but by 1947, the entire territory had been further divided into seventeen provinces. These provinces were administered by either a Governor, or a Chief Commissioner.
The eleven provinces administered by a Governor included Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Bombay, Central Provinces and Berar, Madras, Orissa, North West Frontier Province, Punjab, Sind, and the United Provinces.
The provinces run by a Chief Commissioner were the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Baluchistan, Coorg, Ajmer-Merwara, Panth-Piploda, and Delhi.
Princely States
Princely states were ruled by local, hereditary rulers, who acknowledged British sovereignty in return for local autonomy and British India had hundreds of princely states, which varied greatly in size, from Hyderabad, with a population of over ten million, to tiny states. Most of the princely states were under the authority of a British political agent responsible to the governor of a province. Two divisions, the Central India Agency and Rajputana Agency, consisted of numerous princely states which were governed by a political agent appointed by the Governor-General of India, rather than the governor of a province, and the four largest princely states, Hyderabad, Baroda, Mysore, and Jammu and Kashmir, were directly under the authority of the Governor-General.
Other European Possessions
As of 1947, France and Portugal still possessed colonies in India.
- Portuguese India included the coastal enclaves of Goa, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli,
- French India included five enclaves, Pondichery, Chandernagore, Yanaon, Karikal, and Mahe.
See also: Danish India
Post-independence
With the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the provinces and princely states were assigned to one country or the other. The provinces of Baluchistan, North-West Frontier, and Sind went to Pakistan, and two provinces, Punjab and Bengal, were partitioned between India and Pakistan along religious lines. Hyderabad's Muslim ruler attempted to remain independent, but the Indian army intervened and Hyderabad was annexed to India. India and Pakistan contested for control of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir; the state had a Muslim majority, but its Hindu ruler acceded to India.
The period from independence in 1947 to the beginning of the Indian republic in 1950 saw the consolidation of the former princely states into new provinces, usually governed by a rajpramukh, (governor) appointed by the Governor-General of India. In 1950, the Indian constitution took effect, the office of the Governor-General was abolished, and India created several different categories of states.
- The nine Part A states, which were the former provinces, were ruled by an elected governor and state legislature. They were Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Bombay, Madhya Pradesh (formerly Central Provinces and Berar), Madras, Orissa, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh (formerly United Provinces).
- The eight Part B states were former princely states or groups of princely states, governed by a rajpramukh. They were Hyderabad, Saurashtra, Mysore, Travancore-Cochin, Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh, Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU), and Rajasthan.
- The ten Part C states included both former chief commissioners' provinces and former princely states. They were governed by a chief commissioner. The Part C states included Delhi, Kutch, Himachal Pradesh, Bilaspur, Coorg, Bhopal, Manipur, Ajmer, and Tripura.
Jammu and Kashmir had special status until 1957. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands was established as a union territory, ruled by a Lieutenant Governor appointed by the central Indian government.
The French enclave of Chandernagore voted to join India in 1949, and officially became part of India in 1952, becoming part of the state of West Bengal in 1954. The remainder of French India, Pondichery, Yanaon, Karikal, and Mahe, were administered by India after 1954, formally becoming a union territory in 1962. Dadra and Nagar Haveli was occupied by India 1954, and Goa, Daman, and Diu in 1961, and they subsequently became union territories.
In 1953, the Telugu-speaking northern portion of Madras state voted to become the new state of Andhra Pradesh, the first of India's linguistic states.
The States Reorganisation Act of 1956
In 1956, the States Reorganisation Act took effect, which erased the distinction between parts A, B, and C states, and reorganized state boundaries along linguistic lines. The new states, mostly the former Part A states, were Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Bombay, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Mysore (later renamed Karnataka), Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura,, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the Laccadive, Mincoy, and Amandivi Islands became union territories. The remainder of the states were merged into the new states or became union territories.
After 1956
The former French and Portuguese colonies in India were incorporated into the Indian Republic as the union territories of Pondicherry, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Goa, Daman, and Diu in 1962.
Several new states and union territories have been created out of existing states since 1956. Bombay State was split into the linguistic states of Gujarat and Maharashtra on May 1 1960 by the Bombay Reorganisation Act. The Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966 divided the Punjab along linguistic and religious lines, creating a new Hindu and Hindi-speaking state of Haryana, transferring the northern districts of Punjab to Himachal Pradesh, and designating Chandigarh, the shared capital of Punjab and Haryana, a union territory. Nagaland was made a state in 1962, Meghalaya and Himachal Pradesh in 1971, and Tripura and Manipur in 1972. Arunachal Pradesh was made a union territory in 1972. The Kingdom of Sikkim was annexed to India as a state in 1975. Mizoram was made a state in 1986, and Goa and Arunachal Pradesh in 1987, while Goa's northern exclaves of Daman and Diu became a separate union territory. In 2000 three new states were created; Jharkhand was created out of the southern districts of Bihar, Chhattisgarh was created out of eastern Madhya Pradesh, and Uttaranchal was created out of northwestern Uttar Pradesh.
See also
- List of states of India by population
- List of states of India by area
- List of capitals of subnational entities,
- List of Indian state and UT capitals
- States of India by size of economy
External links
- Article on sub-national governance in India
- Haryana Online
- Interactive Map of Indiacs:Seznam indických států (vícejazyčně)
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