How many states in India: the administrative division of the country

Not many can immediately answer the question: "How many states in India?" The administrative division determines the federal structure of this state. In India, there are 29 states, as well as as many as 7 territories, which are considered allied. The administrative units also include the Delhi National Capital District. India on the world map is a federal state in which the states are also divided into districts. Each of the states has its own government, appointed by election (its own government can be in the union territory). On the peculiarities of administrative division in India, border disputes, language problems and separatism, we will talk further.

Administrative division of India

India became an independent state in 1947, while the former British colony was divided into India and Pakistan proper, in accordance with the confessional identity of the population. According to the new constitution, the country has twenty-nine states. They were divided into three categories: A, B and C. States of different types had different management. In 1956, a law was passed in the country, according to which the administrative division was reorganized. The category system was eliminated, and if you ask yourself the question: "How many states are in India?", You already know the answer to it, based on the above information. The border of administrative units was determined in accordance with the linguistic and ethnic areas.

State management in India

The states have their own bodies responsible for the executive and legislative power. Above all, in the hierarchy of posts - the governor, who is appointed for five years. It is he who is involved in the formation of the government, which is governed by the Prime Minister. The latter is chosen among the members of the party that wins the state elections. In this case, each has its own unicameral or bicameral parliament. The lower one is called "vidhan sabha", and its number can reach from sixty to 500 deputies. She is elected in the general elections for a five-year term. The name of the highest chamber in the parliament is "vidhan parishad", and its members have been working for six years. But every two years a third of the deputies are re-elected. The state parliament deals with any internal issues, but it does not include foreign policy, the problem of defense and trade with other states, because all this is already in the jurisdiction of the central authority of the country.

India on the world map: allied territories

Based on the above information, it is already possible to form an idea of the administrative division of this state. But on how many states in India, everything does not end, because in this country there are also allied territories, while the latter do not have the same parliaments as the states, and they are governed by the central government (or rather by officials who are endowed with certain Powers). Of course, there are exceptions. Some allied territories have their own parliament, but its power is largely limited, and small units of such parliaments do not, as already mentioned above.

The problem of languages in India

Some states and allied territories recognize as official languages, other than English and Hindi, also those spoken by the local population in a particular region. These issues can affect the problem of administrative distribution in India. For example, in October 1956, in the state of Madras, in accordance with the language principle, a new staff was created called Andhra. However, the story did not end there. In November 1956, the staff was given the name Andhra Pradesh, when the territory of Andhra was combined with Hyderabad. But this is not the only case involving language problems. This issue largely affects how many states in India. Interesting in this connection is the history of the division of the Punjab in 1966. Then in November its part, in which the population speaks mainly Hindi, was assigned to the state under the name of Haryana. The border area between the new administrative unit and the Punjab was declared allied.

Border disputes

In the 60s of the last century, there was a conflict, which is called the border war between India and China. For the first state, the disputed region became the allied territory of Arunachal Pradesh. As early as the 1980s, the Indian government upgraded it to statehood. However, the Chinese still do not recognize such a division of territory and insist on recognizing the state in their jurisdiction, insisting on fuzzy contracts between the British and Tibet at the beginning of the last century. The issue of the entry of foreign nationals into Arunachal Pradesh is strictly regulated.

Separatism in India

For this state, today the problem of separatism still remains urgent. Some territories, in the opinion of participants in such movements, should be singled out as separate states.

The most active in this regard is the Bodo people. In the state of Assam, there is a guerrilla war for the separation of the new state of Bodopand. In fact, such separatism is quite unusual for world history. Because here the struggle is not for the independence of any territory, but only for the creation of a separate administrative unit. In 2014, the new state of Telengan was also formed from the protest movement. In addition, there are disputes about whether the capital district should be divided.