States of India at a Glance

The map of India you see today was not drawn in one day. In 1950 the country was divided into old categories of states, and then, one by one, language, tribal identity, administrative convenience and politics redrew the lines. The question 'which came first, and why' is the key to the whole chapter. Remember also the numbers as of 2025: India has 28 states and 8 Union Territories, and Article 1 of the Constitution calls India 'a Union of States'.

Why is Article 3 so powerful? Because India is an 'indestructible Union of destructible States'. Parliament can redraw a state by an ordinary law, though the President must first refer the bill to that state's legislature for its views, and Parliament is not bound by those views. This is how Telangana (2014) and the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh (2019) were created.

The northern belt is where most students lose marks, because five of these six states share Hindi as an official language and two share a capital. Learn each state on four hooks: capital, date of formation, High Court seat and language. Then attach one dance, one festival and one famous place to each state. That is exactly the pattern in which SSC and Railway papers ask 'Luddi belongs to which state?'.

Central and western India holds the Deccan plateau, the Konkan coast and the Gujarat peninsula, and its states were mostly born in 1956, 1960 and 2000. Two pairs give you quick marks: Maharashtra and Gujarat were created together on 1 May 1960, and Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were split on 1 November 2000. Goa is the odd one, a small state with its own Konkani and Portuguese-era culture.

The eastern states are the old heart of Indian history: Magadha in Bihar, Kalinga in Odisha, and Bengal as the seat of the British capital until 1911. Their questions mostly come from culture, because this belt has some of the richest dance traditions in India. Notice also that two of them are very young as states: Jharkhand (2000) and Odisha as a province (1936).

Chhau is one dance with three faces. Mayurbhanj Chhau (Odisha) is danced without a mask, Seraikela Chhau (Jharkhand) and Purulia Chhau (West Bengal) are danced with masks. UNESCO inscribed Chhau on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2010. So a question like 'Chhau belongs to which states?' has the answer Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Five southern states share one family of languages, the Dravidian, but each has its own capital story. Andhra Pradesh lost Hyderabad as its capital in 2024 to Telangana's exclusive use, Tamil Nadu was called Madras State until 1969, and Karnataka was Mysore until 1973. South India also gives the examiner the richest set of 'which state?' items: Yakshagana, Kambala, Jallikattu, Velakali and Onam.

The North-East, the 'Seven Sisters' plus Sikkim, is a gift to the examiner because small states, many tribes and recent dates are easy to turn into questions. Three clusters help you: Assam as the parent state from which Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram were carved, the 1972 trio of Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura, and the 1987 pair of Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. Sikkim stands alone as the 22nd state of 1975.

Mizoram's dances are the high-scoring cluster: Cheraw is the bamboo dance (people step between clapping bamboo poles), Chheih Lam, Chawng Laizawn and Tlanglam are other popular Mizo dances. Whenever the exam names a dance with 'Ch', 'Tl' or 'Lai', think Mizoram first.

A Union Territory is run directly by the Centre through an administrator, which is why UTs have no governor of their own, with a few exceptions. As of 2025 India has eight Union Territories. Learn them in two groups: the three with legislatures (Delhi, Puducherry, Jammu and Kashmir) and the five without (Andaman and Nicobar, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Ladakh, Lakshadweep).

Ladakh and Lakshadweep sound alike but are opposite in everything: Ladakh is a cold mountain desert in the north with Buddhist monasteries and festivals (Hemis, Dosmoche), while Lakshadweep is a hot coral archipelago in the Arabian Sea in the south-west with the Lava dance. Match the festival with the landscape and the answer comes by itself.