The administrative unit is a portion of a country or the region delineated for the purpose of administration and to administer a region, it is essential to know about the geography and the territorial boundaries of that region. The administrative divisions of India are subnational administrative units of India. They are made in a hierarchical manner of a country’s subdivisions.
India and the Administrative Units; the States and Union Territories
To know about the administrative units better, let us have a glance at the geographical aspects of India in brief.
a. Physiography of India
• India lies on the Indian Plate, which is the northern part of the Indo Australian Plate. The continental crust of the Indo-Australian Plate forms the Indian subcontinent.
• India lies in the northern hemisphere of the globe between 8° 4′ N and 37°6′ N latitudes and 68°7′ E and 97°25′ E longitudes.
• The southern extent goes up to 6°45′ N latitude to cover the last island of the Nicobar group of islands. The southern extreme is called Pygmalion Point or India Point.
• The Tropic of Cancer passes through the middle part of India and crosses the eight states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram.
• The total land frontier of 15,200 km passes through marshy lands, desert, plains, mountains, snow covered areas and thick forests.
• The maritime boundary of 6100 km along the main landmass which increases to 7516 km of the coastlines of Andaman-Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands are added to it
• India Command a total geographical area a of 32,87,263 sq.km which is roughly 0.57% of the area of the earth and 2.4% of the total area of the land hemisphere.
• India is the seventh-largest country in the world after Russia, Canada, USA, China, Brazil and Australia (all are mentioned in the descending order).
• India’s area is almost equal to the area of Europe (excluding Russia), one-third of Canada, one-fifth of Russia, eight times of Japan and twelve times of the United Kingdom.
• India has roughly a quadrangular shape. It measures about 3,214 km from north to south and about 2933 km from east to west, the difference between the two is just 281km.
b. Land frontiers of India
As mentioned earlier, the total land frontier is 15, 200 km passes through marshy lands, desert, plains, rugged mountains, snow-covered areas, and thick forests. The land frontier is provided by the high Himalayan Mountains, which are the world’s most elevated ranges.
• The Himalayan ranges from a natural frontier between India and China. In the north-west, Jammu and Kashmir share the international border with Sinkiang and Tibet in China.
• In the east, Himachal Pradesh and the mountain region of Uttarakhand have a common frontier with Tibet.
•Nepal has its border with Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
• West Bengal and Sikkim also touch the Nepalese border for a small distance.
•India-Afghanistan and Pakistan Afghanistan international boundary are called the Durand Line, determined as a ‘military-strategic border’ between British India and Afghanistan.
The boundary between Pakistan and Bangladesh (East Pakistan) was finalized at the time of partition in 1947 through the ‘Radcliff Award’.
• In Punjab, the frontier runs through a smooth and fertile plain, which is purely man-made. The Indian frontier with Pakistan in Kashmir is still disputed and has led to strained relations between the two countries since partition in 1947.
• The eastern boundary of India is formed by a complex chain of the Himalayan offshoots consisting of the Mishmi, the Patkai, the Naga hills, the Barail range, the Mizo hills and finally the Arakan Yoma mountain range.
• The Arakan Yoma is submerged in the Bay of Bengal for a sufficiently long stretch and emerges again in the form of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• The boundary line between India and Bangladesh crisscrosses the vast Ganga-Brahmaputra delta. This boundary runs through an entirely flat country in which there is not even a small mount or hill which could be used for demarcating the boundary between two countries.
•Bangladesh and India share the fifth-longest land border in the world, including Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya, and West Bengal.
• There is a maritime boundary of 6100 km along with the main landmass which increases to 7156 km if the coastlines of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are added to it.
•The nearest neighbour in the south across the seas is Sri Lanka which is separated from India through the narrow channel of Palk Strait.
• Similarly, Eight Degree Channel forms the boundary between the Lakshadweep and Maldives islands.
As seen earlier, India has 15,106.7 Km of land border and a coastline of 7,516.6 Km including island territories. The data shared in the table is as per the Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt of India. [Click here]
| Name of Country | Length in Km |
| Bangladesh | 4,096.7 |
| China | 3,488 |
| Pakistan | 3,328 |
| Nepal | 1,751 |
| Myanmar | 1,643 |
| Bhutan | 693 |
| Afghanistan | 106 |
| Total | 15,106.7 |
The states having a common boundary with the neighbouring countries.
| Country | States |
| Pakistan | 4 States: Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujrat |
| Afghanistan | 1 States: Jammu and Kashmir |
| China | 5 States: Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh |
| Nepal | 5 States: Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim |
| Myanmar | 4 States: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram |
| Bhutan | 4 States: Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh |
| Bangladesh | 5 States: West Bengal, Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura and Mizoram |
Quick Glance at States Area-wise:
List of Indian States and Union Territories and Their Capitals
| State | Capital | Area | Population | Official Languages | Largest Cities | Districts/Admin divisions | Literacy Rate% | Urban Pop.% | Sex Ratio | Estd Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh | Amaravati | 1,60,200 km2 | 49,386,799 | Telugu | Visakhapatnam | 13 | 67.04 | 49.67 | 993 | 1. Nov. 1956 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | Itanagar | 83743 km2 | 1,383,727 | English | Itanagar | 25 | 65.38 | 22.67 | 938 | 20. Feb. 1987 |
| Assam | Dispur | 78438 km2 | 3,12,05,576 | Assamese | Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Nagaon | 33 | 72.19 | 14.08 | 958 | 26. Jan. 1950 |
| Bihar | Patna | 94163 km2 | 10,40,99,452 | Hindi | Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Biharsharif | 38 | 61.8 | 11.3 | 918 | 26. Jan. 1950 |
| Chhattisgarh | Naya Raipur | 1,35,192 km2 | 2,55,45,198 | Chhattisgarhi | Raipur, Bhilai Nagar, Korba, Bilaspur | 27 | 70.28 | 23.24 | 991 | 11. Nov. 2000 |
| Goa | Panaji | 3702 km2 | 14,58,545 | Konkani | Panaji | 2 | 88.7 | 62.17 | 973 | 30. May. 1987 |
| Gujarat | Gandhinagar | 1,96,244 km2 | 6,04,39,692 | Gujarati | Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar | 33 | 78.03 | 42.58 | 919 | 1. May. 1960 |
| Haryana | Chandigarh | 44212 km2 | 2,53,51,462 | Haryanvi | Faridabad, Gurgaon, Rohtak, Hisar, Panipat | 22 | 75.55 | 24.25 | 879 | 1. Nov. 1966 |
| Himachal Pradesh | Shimla | 55673 km2 | 68,64,602 | Hindi | Shimla | 12 | 82.8 | 10.04 | 972 | 25. Jan. 1971 |
| Jharkhand | Ranchi | 79716 km2 | 3,29,88,134 | Hindi | Dhanbad, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bokaro Steel, Mango | 24 | 66.41 | 24.05 | 948 | 15. Nov. 2000 |
| Karnataka | Bangalore | 1,91,791 km2 | 6,10,95,297 | Kannada | Bangalore, Hubli and Dharwad, Mysore, Gulbarga, Belgaum | 30 | 75.36 | 38.57 | 973 | 1. Nov. 1956 |
| Kerala | Thiruvananthapuram | 38852 km2 | 3,34,06,061 | Malayalam | Trivandrum, Kochi, Kozhikode, Kollam, Thrissur | 14 | 94 | 47.72 | 1084 | 1. Nov. 1956 |
| Madhya Pradesh | Bhopal | 3,08,252 km2 | 7,26,26,809 | Hindi | Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Ujjain | 52 | 69.32 | 27.63 | 931 | 1. Nov. 1956 |
| Maharashtra | Mumbai | 3,07,713 km2 | 11,23,74,333 | Marathi | Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Pimpri and Chinchwad | 36 | 82.34 | 45.23 | 929 | 1. May. 1960 |
| Manipur | Imphal | 22327 km2 | 28,55,794 | Meiteilon (Manipuri) | Imphal | 16 | 76.94 | 20.21 | 985 | 21. Jan. 1972 |
| Meghalaya | Shillong | 22429 km2 | 29,66,889 | English | Shillong | 11 | 74.43 | 20.08 | 989 | 21. Jan. 1972 |
| Mizoram | Aizawl | 21081 km2 | 10,97,206 | Mizo | Aizawl | 8 | 91.33 | 51.51 | 976 | 20. Feb. 1987 |
| Nagaland | Kohima | 16579 km2 | 19,78,502 | English | Dimapur | 12 | 79.55 | 28.97 | 931 | 1. Dec. 1963 |
| Odisha | Bhubaneswar | 1,55,707 km2 | 4,19,74,218 | Oriya | Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Brahmapur Town, Raurkela, Puri Town | 30 | 72.87 | 16.68 | 979 | 26.Jan.1950( 1 April 1936 – Utkala Dibasa) |
| Punjab | Chandigarh | 50362 km2 | 2,77,43,338 | Punjabi | Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Bathinda | 22 | 75.84 | 37.49 | 895 | 1. Nov. 1956 |
| Rajasthan | Jaipur | 3,42,239 km2 | 6,85,48,437 | Hindi | Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Bikaner, Ajmer | 33 | 66.11 | 24.89 | 928 | 1. Nov. 1956 |
| Sikkim | Gangtok | 7096 km2 | 6,10,577 | Nepali | Gangtok | 4 | 81.42 | 24.97 | 890 | 16. May. 1975 |
| Tamil Nadu | Chennai | 1,30,060 km2 | 7,21,47,030 | Tamil | Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Salem | 37 | 80.09 | 48.45 | 996 | 26. Jan. 1950 |
| Telangana | Hyderabad | 114840 km2 | 35,193,978 | Telugu, Urdu | Hyderabad | 33 | 66.46 | 38.64 | 988 | 2. Jun. 2014 |
| Tripura | Agartala | 10486 km2 | 36,73,917 | Bengali And Kokborok | Agartala | 8 | 87.22 | 26.18 | 960 | 21. Jan. 1972 |
| Uttar Pradesh | Lucknow | 2,40,928 km2 | 19,98,12,341 | Hindi | Lucknow, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Agra, Meerut | 75 | 67.68 | 22.28 | 912 | 26. Jan. 1950 |
| Uttarakhand | Dehradun, Gairsain (Summer) | 53483 km2 | 1,00,86,292 | Hindi | Dehradun, Haridwar, Haldwani and Kathgodam, Rudrapur | 13 | 78.82 | 30.55 | 963 | 9. Nov. 2000 |
| West Bengal | Kolkata | 88752 km2 | 9,12,76,115 | Bengali | Kolkata, Haora, Durgapur, Asansol, Siliguri | 23 | 76.26 | 31.89 | 9 |
8 Union Territories of India
| Union Territories | Capital | Area | Population | Official Languages | Largest Cities | Districts/Admin divisions | Literacy Rate% | Urban Pop.% | Sex Ratio | Estb Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | Port Blair | 8249 | 380581 | English | Port Blair | 3 | 86.63 | 35.67 | 876 | 1. Nov. 1956 |
| Chandigarh | Chandigarh | 114 | 10,55,450 | Punjabi | Chandigarh | 1 | 86.05 | 97.25 | 818 | 1. Nov. 1966 |
| Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu | Daman | 603 | 585,764 | Konkani, Gujarati, Hindi | 3 | 26. Jan. 2020 | ||||
| Delhi | New Delhi | 1483 | 1,67,87,941 | Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu | Delhi | 11 | 86.21 | 97.5 | 868 | |
| Jammu and Kashmir | Srinagar (Summer), Jammu (Winter) | 12,267,013 | 20 | 31. Oct. 2019 | ||||||
| Ladakh | Leh | 274,289 | Ladakhi | 2 | 31. Oct. 2019 | |||||
| Lakshadweep | Kavaratti | 30 | 64473 | English | Kavaratti | 1 | 91.85 | 78.08 | 946 | 1. Nov. 1956 |
| Puducherry | Puducherry | 490 | 12,47,953 | Tamil,English | Ozhukarai, Puducherry | 4 | 85.85 | 68.31 | 1037 | 1. Nov. 1954 |
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