You know that India is a uion of 29 states and seven union territories, but do you know why, and when they were formed? India won Independence from the British on August 15th 1947, and the British system of provinces and princely state was abolished in 1956. New statesa were then created on the basis of ethnicity and language.
Since some of the states that were formed in 1956 where very big, they were split into smaller states later. Bombay State was divided into the state of Gujarath and Maharashtra in 1960. In 1962, the former Portuguese and French colonies were incorporated into the indian Republic as Union Territories of Pondicherry, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu. Nagaland became a state in 1963 while Punjab was splitup, and the new Hindi speaking state of Haryana was formed in 1966.
The year 1971 saw Himachal Pradesh become a state, while Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura became state the next year. The kingdom of sikkim joined the Indian Union in 1975, while Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram became states in 1987, followed by Goa.
The year 2000 saw the creation of 3 new states Chattisgrah, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand. This year a new state was borne its name is Telangana.
