How Many States and Union Territories India Divided Into

Introduction

India is the seventh largest country in the world. It is the second most populous country in the world after china. It is not possible to manage the entire country and entire population from one location. Hence, India is divided into states and union territories.

Division of India into states and union territories- History

At the time of the Indian independence freedom struggle, Indian National Congress had promised that India would be divided into different provinces based on linguistics in the 1920s. Congress was hesitant to carry out this promise, After independence, as India was already divided on a religious-based and did not want more divisions based on language.

• Both Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel were not in favour of the creation of states based on linguistics.

• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel wanted to take such steps which would help in the growth of nationalism and rejected those steps which would prevent it.

• People speaking Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, and Marathi were very disappointed with this success.

• Most of the opposition came from the Telugu-speaking areas of the Madras province.

• Chaos broke out in the entire Andhra region when a veteran Gandhian named Potti Sriramulu died of a hunger strike.

• Due to strong and widespread protests, the state government decided to create a new state of Andhra Pradesh on 1 October 1953.

What is a state?

When talking about the difference between a state and a union territory, a state is a division under the Indian constituency, which has a separate government.

A state is defined as a higher administrative unit having its own elected government which has the right to make its laws. It has its assembly and chief minister for administration. The Governor acts as the representative of the President in the State.

There is a distribution of sovereign legislative and executive powers between the centre and the states with respect to the territories of those states.

Different states differ in size, population, history, style of dress, culture, language, tradition, etc. Before independence, there were two types of princely states in India,i.e.Provinces and Princely states, wherein provinces are under the control of the British Government while the Princely states are ruled by hereditary rulers.

What is union territory?

Union Territories are ruled directly governed by the central government. As an administrator, there is a lieutenant governor who is the representation of the President of India and is appointed by the central government. There is no representative of Union Territories in the Rajya Sabha except Delhi and Puducherry.

A Union Territory is a small administrative unit that is governed by the Union. Union territories are directly controlled and administered by the central government.

Conclusion

At present, India now has 28 states and 8 union territories. The erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir has been divided into 2 union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The newly formed Union Territory has been formed under the Reorganization Act passed by the Parliament on 5-6 August 2020. At present, there are 8 union territories and 28 states in India.

A list of Union Territories and States with their capital is given below.