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Union and Its Territory: Evolution of Indian States and Union Territories

Posted on July 18, 2025 by Enlite Team

On the Eve of Independence

There were around 552 princely states, and among them, 549 immediately joined the Indian Union, while three refused to join initially but were later forced to joined; they are
- Hyderabad: Using police action (Operation Polo)
- Junagarh: Using a referendum
- Kashmir: By the Instrument of Accession (As an result of the Pathan invasion)

Four-Fold Classification of the States and Territories of the Indian Union in 1950 as per the Constitution

Part A States: Comprised nine erstwhile governor’s provinces of British India.
Part B States: Consisted of nine erstwhile princely states with legislatures
Part C States: Consisted of erstwhile chief commissioner’s provinces of British India and some of the erstwhile princely states.
Part D Territories: Andaman and Nicobar Islands

States Formed by States Reorganisation Act 1956

States: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Mysore, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
Union Territories: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands, Manipur, and Tripura

New States and Union Territories Created After 1956

State/UT	Features
Maharashtra and Gujarat	Year – 1960 The bilingual state of Bombay was divided into two separate states–Maharashtra for Marathi speaking people and Gujarat for Gujarati speaking people.
Dadra and Nagar Haveli	Year – 1961 Made a union territory by the 10th Constitutional Amendment.
Goa, Daman and Diu	India acquired these three territories from the Portuguese by means of police action (Operation Vijay) in 1961. They were constituted as a union territory by the 12th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1962. In 1987, Goa was conferred a statehood and Daman and Diu was made a separate union territory.
Puducherry	Puducherry comprises the former French establishments in India known as Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam. It was made a union territory by the 14th Constitutional Amendment Act in 1962.
Nagaland	Year – 1963 This was done to satisfy the movement of the hostile Nagas.
Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh	Year – 1966 On the recommendation of the Shah Commission, the Punjabi-speaking areas were constituted into the unilingual state of Punjab, the Hindi-speaking areas were constituted into the State of Haryana and the hilly areas were merged with the adjoining union territory of Himachal Pradesh.
Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya	Year – 1972 The 22nd Constitutional Amendment Act (1969) created Meghalaya as an ‘autonomous state’ or ‘sub-state’ within the state of Assam with its own legislature and council of ministers. It later received statehood.
Sikkim	The 35th Constitutional Amendment Act (1974) was enacted by the parliament and made Sikkim an associate state. The 36th Constitutional Amendment Act (1975) was enacted to make Sikkim a full-fledged state of the Indian Union.
Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh	Got statehood in 1987
Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand	Created in the year – 2000 from eastern Madhya Pradesh, Northwest Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, respectively.
Telangana	Year – 2014 By bifurcating Andhra Pradesh
Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh	Year – 2019 Bifurcated and made them union territories and abolished Article 370.

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