Our series on Federations takes us to India, the most populated federal country in the World as of 2022.
Before India was independent, it was rule by Great Britain for several centuries, and was organized as a mix of colonies and states under protection, grouped as a whole into provinces. The 1947 partition and subsequent independence of India led the new Dominion to reorganized its provinces and absorb the nominally independent states into a federated structure. India became a republic in 1950 and the provinces were converted to States. A number of cities and small territories were granted the status of Union Territories, with a level of autonomy from the central government more limited than that of States.
While there were only seven States in 1950, their number grew with time to reach 28 in 2014, with the accession of Telangana. There are also 8 Union Territories as of 2022.
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India in 2022
