States and union territories of India

Uttar Pradesh alone has a population larger than all but a handful of countries, which is why it dominates national electoral arithmetic with the largest bloc of Lok Sabha seats.

The southern states — Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana — have distinctly different demographic and development indicators from the northern belt, with lower fertility, higher literacy and higher per-capita incomes. This divergence is politically consequential, because delimitation of parliamentary seats by population would shift representation towards the states that have grown fastest.

The northeastern states are connected to the rest of India by the narrow Siliguri corridor and have distinct constitutional arrangements: several are covered by the Sixth Schedule's autonomous district councils, and Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur require an Inner Line Permit for visitors from elsewhere in India.

Article 371 and its sub-clauses give special provisions to a number of states — Maharashtra, Gujarat, Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka — covering matters from development boards to land ownership restrictions.

Delhi (the National Capital Territory), Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir have elected legislative assemblies and chief ministers, but with powers narrower than a state's — in Delhi's case, notably, without control over police, public order or land, which remain with the Union through the Lieutenant Governor.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Ladakh, and Lakshadweep have no legislature and are administered directly by the Union through an Administrator or Lieutenant Governor.

Chandigarh is unusual: a planned city designed by Le Corbusier that serves simultaneously as a union territory and as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana.

Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are island groups, the latter far closer to Southeast Asia than to the Indian mainland.

The practical consequence of UT status is that Union law and Union administration reach further into daily life, and the accountability route runs through the Ministry of Home Affairs rather than a state secretariat.

Land, police and public order, public health, agriculture, and state taxes sit on the State List. In a state, these are decided by an elected state government answerable to a state legislature. In a union territory without a legislature, they are decided by the Union.

Practically, this determines: what stamp duty and registration charges you pay on property; what your rent agreement law says; who the police answer to and where you escalate a complaint; what your electricity tariff is and which regulatory commission sets it; what your ration card entitles you to; what road tax and professional tax you pay; and which board your children's school follows.

Union subjects are uniform everywhere: PAN and income tax, Aadhaar, EPFO, passports, banking and RBI regulation, telecom and TRAI, railways, and customs. If your question is about one of those, the answer does not change when you move.

Concurrent subjects — education, criminal law and procedure, marriage and divorce, contracts, forests, electricity — are where both may legislate and Union law prevails in conflict. This is where most confusion lives, because state amendments to central Acts are common and rarely publicised outside the state.

Article 3 gives Parliament the power to form new states, alter boundaries, and change names — by simple majority, after referring the bill to the affected state legislature for its views. Crucially, that legislature's opinion is not binding. India's states exist at Parliament's discretion, which is a sharper difference from a federation like the United States than most descriptions convey.

The States Reorganisation Act 1956 redrew the map on linguistic lines, following sustained agitation, most famously the movement that produced Andhra Pradesh in 1953.

Subsequent creations have followed regional movements based on development grievances rather than language: Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand in 2000, and Telangana in 2014 after a long and contested campaign.

In 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act split the former state into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, and Article 370's special status was read down. Statehood for Jammu and Kashmir remains a live political commitment.

Demands for further states — Vidarbha, Gorkhaland, Bodoland, Bundelkhand and others — continue, which is why the current count is best treated as the current count rather than a permanent one.