The political map of India in 1947 was quite different as compared to the present one. During the British rule, India comprised provinces, which were directly under the rule of the British government and the princely states which were controlled by the local kings. However, these local kings were subservient to the British.
Following the independence of India in 1947, it was a herculean task for the newly formed government to integrate all the princely states into the Indian federation. Between the years 1947 and 1950, all the princely states were integrated within the Indian Union. Many of the former princely states were either made new states or were attached with existing provinces of the country.
On October 1, 1953, the Andhra State was created. The state comprised the Telugu-speaking districts of Madras State. On November 1, 1954, the Union Territory of Puducherry was established. The newly created Union Territory comprised Yanam, Karaikal, Mahé, and Pondichéry, which were former French enclaves.
In 1956, as a part of the States Reorganization Act, the states in India were arranged on linguistic basis. This resulted in the creation of new states. Andhra Pradesh was created by merging Andhra State with the Telugu speaking area of the Hyderabad State. Travancore State was merged with the Malabar district of the Madras State to form Kerala state. Patiala and East Punjab States Union were merged with Punjab. Madhya Pradesh was created with the merger of Vindhya Pradesh, Bhopal State and the Madhya Bharat province.
The Mysore state was expanded as the western Hyderabad state and the Coorg state were added to it. In 1973, Mysore State was renamed as Karnataka. The Bombay State was also expanded with the addition of Hyderabad's Marathwada region, Saurashtra and Kutch, and the Nagpur division of Madhya Pradesh. New areas were added to Rajasthan. These were parts of Madhya Pradesh,Bombay State and the Ajmer State. The Madras State witnessed changes as the Malabar district was merged with Kerala. The Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi islands were made a new Union territory. These were renamed as Lakshadweep in 1973.
Following the States Reorganization Act of 1956, more states were created. On May 1, 1960, Bombay State was divided into the two states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. On August 11, 1961 Dadra and Nagar Haveli was merged with the Union of India and was established as a Union Territory. On December 1, 1963, Nagaland was created. In 1966 the Punjab Reorganization Act was implemented. With this, Haryana was carved out of the state on November 1, 1966, while the northern districts were added with Himachal Pradesh. Chandigarh was established as a Union Territory and was shared by both Punjab and Haryana.
In 1968, Madras was renamed as Tamil Nadu. On January 21, 1972, the three states of Meghalaya, Manipur, and Tripura in the northeast were formed. Sikkim, which was an independent nation, was merged with the Indian Union on May 16, 1975, as the 22nd state. On February 20, 1987, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh became states. Goa which was earlier a part of the U.T. of Goa, Daman and Diu, became a state on May 30 of the same year, while Daman and Diu became a separate Union Territory.
In November 2000, the three states of Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand were created. Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh, Jharkahand from Bihar, and Uttaranchal from Uttar Pradesh. In 2007, the name of Uttaranchal was changed to Uttarakhand. Likewise, Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh on June 2, 2014. It comprises ten districts that were a part of the undivided Andhra Pradesh's north-western region.
| States | Zone | Capital | Founded Year | Official Languages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh | Southern | Amaravati, Hyderabad | 1. Nov. 1956 | Telugu |
| Arunachal Pradesh | North-Eastern | Itanagar | 20. Feb. 1987 | English |
| Assam | North-Eastern | Dispur | 26. Jan. 1950 | Assamese |
| Bihar | Eastern | Patna | 26. Jan. 1950 | Hindi, Urdu |
| Chhattisgarh | Central | Naya Raipur | 1. Nov. 2000 | Hindi |
| Goa | Western | Panaji | 30. May. 1987 | Konkani, Marathi |
| Gujarat | Western | Gandhinagar | 1. May. 1960 | Gujarati |
| Haryana | Northern | Chandigarh | 1. Nov. 1966 | Hindi, Punjabi |
| Himachal Pradesh | Northern | Shimla | 25. Jan. 1971 | Hindi, English |
| Jharkhand | Eastern | Ranchi | 15. Nov. 2000 | Hindi, Urdu |
| Karnataka | Southern | Bangalore | 1. Nov. 1956 | Kannada |
| Kerala | Southern | Thiruvananthapuram | 1. Nov. 1956 | Malayalam |
| Madhya Pradesh | Central | Bhopal | 1. Nov. 1956 | Hindi |
| Maharashtra | Western | Mumbai | 1. May. 1960 | Marathi |
| Manipur | North-Eastern | Imphal | 21. Jan. 1972 | Meitei, English |
| Meghalaya | North-Eastern | Shillong | 21. Jan. 1972 | English, Khasi |
| Mizoram | North-Eastern | Aizawl | 20. Feb. 1987 | English, Hindi, Mizo |
| Nagaland | North-Eastern | Kohima | 1. Dec. 1963 | English |
| Odisha | Eastern | Bhubaneswar | 26. Jan. 1950 | Odia |
| Punjab | Northern | Chandigarh | 1. Nov. 1956 | Punjabi |
| Rajasthan | Northern | Jaipur | 1. Nov. 1956 | Hindi, English |
| Sikkim | North-Eastern | Gangtok | 16. May. 1975 | English, Bhutia, Gurung, Lepcha, Limbu, Manggar, Mukhia, Newari, Rai, Sherpa, Tamang |
| Tamil Nadu | Southern | Chennai | 26. Jan. 1950 | Tamil, English |
| Telangana | Southern | Hyderabad | 2. Jun. 2014 | Telugu, Urdu[38] |
| Tripura | North-Eastern | Agartala | 21. Jan. 1972 | Bengali, Kokborok, English |
| Uttar Pradesh | Central | Lucknow | 26. Jan. 1950 | Hindi, Urdu |
| Uttarakhand | Central | Dehradun | 9. Nov. 2000 | Hindi, Sanskrit |
| West Bengal | Eastern | Kolkata | 1. Nov. 1956 | Bengali, Nepali, Hindi, Urdu, Santali, Odia and Punjabi |
| Union territories | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Union territories | Capital | Founded Year | Official Languages |
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | Port Blair | 1. Nov. 1956 | Hindi, English |
| Chandigarh | Chandigarh | 1. Nov. 1966 | English |
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli | Silvassa | 11. Aug. 1961 | Gujarati, Hindi |
| Daman and Diu | Daman | 30. May. 1987 | English, Gujarati, Hindi, Konkani |
| Delhi | New Delhi | 9. May. 1905 | Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu |
| Lakshadweep | Kavaratti | 1. Nov. 1956 | English, Hindi |
| Puducherry | Pondicherry | 1. Nov. 1954 | English, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu |
| Jammu and Kashmir | Srinagar (Summer), Jammu (Winter) | From 31 Oct 2019 | Urdu |
| Ladakh | Leh | From 31 Oct 2019 | Bhoti |
