Indian State
| Indian States and Union territories | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Category | Federated state |
| Location | Republic of India |
| Number | 29 States 7 Union territories |
| Populations |
States: 607,688 Sikkim – 199,581,477 Uttar Pradesh Union Territories: 64,429 Lakshadweep – 11,007,835 National Capital Territory |
| Areas |
States: 3,700 km2 (1,429 sq mi) Goa – 342,269 km2 (132,151 sq mi) Rajasthan Union territories: 31 km2 (12 sq mi) Lakshadweep – 8,070 km2 (3,117 sq mi) Andaman and Nicobar Islands |
| Government | State government, Union Government (Union territories) |
| Subdivisions | District, Divisions |
India is a federal union comprising twenty-nine states and seven union territories. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and further into smaller administrative divisions.
The Constitution of India distributes the sovereign executive and legislative powers exercisable with respect to the territory of any State between the Union and that State.
The Indian subcontinent has been ruled by many different ethnic groups throughout its history, each instituting their own policies of administrative division in the region. During the British Raj, the original administrative structure was mostly kept, and India was divided into provinces (also called Presidencies) that were directly governed by the British and princely states which were nominally controlled by a local prince or raja loyal to the British Empire, which held de facto sovereignty (suzerainty) over the princely states.
Between 1947 and 1950, the territories of the princely states were politically integrated into the Indian Union. Most were merged into existing provinces; others were organised into new provinces, such as Rajputana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Bharat, and Vindhya Pradesh, made up of multiple princely states; a few, including Mysore, Hyderabad, Bhopal, and Bilaspur, became separate provinces. The new Constitution of India, which came into force on 26 January 1950, made India a sovereign democratic republic. The new republic was also declared to be a "Union of States". The constitution of 1950 distinguished between three main types of states:
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