REGIONS, LEGIONS

The wheels of the polity can’t choose between hub and spoke, even if the Centre has historically viewed states with wariness. The record is quite clear. Federalism is key: their proximity to the ground means states score on both policy innovation and democratic dialogue-making challenge now is to become

- Amarnath K. Menon

The late N.T. Rama Rao once described the Centre as “a myth”. That was peak federalism, if you will. It’s a spirit that flourishes in India, if you take the swelling in the number of states as the distinct metric. From the 17 provinces and 565 princely states that came together to form the Indian Union, a total of 14 states and six Union Territories (UTs) were formed following the Reorganisation of States in 1956. Agitations for separate statehood increased the count to 29 states and seven UTs by 2014. Now, after the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir, there have been 28 states and eight UTs since October 2019.