The Case for Smaller Indian States

One of June’s biggest stories in South Asia was an alleged Indian raid into Myanmar to hunt down rebels based there. While that story generated a lot of commentary on India’s growing might and international posture, it also offers a window into India’s complicated state situation. One of the goals of the rebel group – whose leader belongs to the Naga ethnicity that dominates the Indian state of Nagaland – is the inclusion of Naga-majority areas in the neighboring Indian state of Mizoram in a greater Nagaland called Nagalim. As in Nagaland, there are many other political and even military conflicts throughout India involving state boundaries, the creation of new states, and subregional state movements.

India is a federation of 29 states and seven union territories. States have considerable autonomy, both politically and culturally, so there is a lot of incentive for statehood. Many of India’s states have populations that rival those of major countries, like Uttar Pradesh, with its 200 million people (comparable to Brazil). This makes some of India’s states simultaneously powerful and unwieldy.