50 Fun Facts About Indian States

Which state was officially called Madras State until it was renamed on 14 January 1969?

Tamil Nadu, meaning 'Tamil country', replaced the name Madras State in 1969, thirteen years after the old Madras Presidency had been redrawn along language lines. Chennai is its capital.

Which state, India's least populous, was the first to convert all its farmland to organic farming?

Sikkim decided in 2003 to go fully organic and finished the switch in 2016, the first Indian state to do so. With about 610,000 people at the 2011 census, it has fewer residents than many Indian cities.

Which state, the smallest by area, rose from union territory to India's 25th state in May 1987?

Goa had been a union territory since India took it from Portugal in December 1961; statehood came on 30 May 1987, and it remains the smallest state by area and fourth-smallest by population.

Which official name did Port Blair, capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, receive in 2024?

Sri Vijaya Puram became Port Blair's official name on 13 September 2024, a change the government framed as freeing the city from colonial imprints. It remains the territory's capital and largest city.

Which state, split from Punjab on linguistic lines in 1966, surrounds Delhi on three sides?

Haryana came into being on 1 November 1966 under the Punjab Reorganisation Act. Because it wraps Delhi to the north, west and south, much of the state sits inside the National Capital Region.

Which big cat, surviving in the wild only around Gir National Park, is the state animal of Gujarat?

The Asiatic lion has been confined to Gir National Park and its surroundings since the turn of the 20th century, and its Indian population numbered just 411 in 2010 before rising steadily.

Which state, India's second most populous at the 2011 census, was created when Bombay State was split on 1 May 1960?

Maharashtra was born on 1 May 1960 when the Bombay Reorganisation Act divided Bombay State between Marathi and Gujarati speakers, and the date is still kept as Maharashtra Day. Its 2011 population passed 112 million.

Which state declared Bathukamma, a nine-day flower festival of Telugu Hindu women, its state festival in 2014?

Telangana's women arrange seasonal flowers into tall conical stacks and circle them singing, over nine days that begin on Pitru Amavasya in September or October. Bonalu is the state's other big festival.

Which Uttar Pradesh city, founded by Akbar as Ilahabas, dropped the name Allahabad in October 2018?

Prayagraj became the official name on 16 October 2018, restoring the ancient Prayag at the river confluence where the Kumbh Mela gathers. Akbar had founded his Mughal city there as Ilahabas in 1584.

Which language did Nagaland's assembly declare the state's official language in 1967?

English was proclaimed Nagaland's official language by the state assembly in 1967 and remains the medium of instruction in its schools. Most of the population speaks it, alongside the tribal languages.

Which state, carved out of Bihar in November 2000, has a name meaning 'the land of forests'?

Jharkhand was created on 15 November 2000 from the southern districts of Bihar, with Ranchi as its capital, and its name literally means the land of forests.

Which state, carved from Madhya Pradesh in 2000, is named, by popular theory, for thirty-six forts?

Chhattisgarh gained statehood on 1 November 2000 with Raipur as its capital, and chhattis garh means thirty-six forts, though historians note that the 36 forts have never been identified.

Which species, the tallest of all flying birds, did Uttar Pradesh declare its state bird in 2013?

The sarus crane stands up to 1.8 metres, making it the world's tallest flying bird, and Uttar Pradesh's flooded paddy fields hold the largest known population.

Which 'City of Lakes', the capital of Madhya Pradesh, suffered the Union Carbide gas leak of 1984?

Bhopal's Union Carbide pesticide plant leaked methyl isocyanate in December 1984, the worst industrial disaster in history. The city had been the seat of the Nawabs of Bhopal until 1947.

Which capital of Bihar occupies the site of Pataliputra, seat of the Maurya and Gupta empires?

Patna stands on ancient Pataliputra, which served as the capital of the Magadha Empire through the Haryanka, Nanda, Mauryan, Shunga, Gupta and Pala dynasties and was a seat of learning and fine arts.

Which union territory, formed from Leh and Kargil districts in late 2019, was set up without an elected assembly?

Ladakh is run by a Lieutenant Governor on behalf of the central government, with no elected assembly or chief minister, under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act. Leh and Kargil each keep an elected Hill Council.

Which capital of Uttar Pradesh, the 'City of Nawabs', became the seat of the rulers of Awadh?

Lucknow became the Nawabs' capital after the reign of the third Nawab of Awadh, and its rulers' refined, extravagant court made it North India's cultural capital. The British annexed Awadh in 1856.

Which union territory of four former French enclaves keeps French as an official language?

Puducherry unites four unconnected coastal enclaves, Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam, that France handed to India de facto in 1954 and formally in 1962. Tamil is official, with Telugu in Yanam and Malayalam in Mahe.

Which state, formed from two hill districts of Assam on 21 January 1972, took Shillong as its capital?

Meghalaya, 'the abode of clouds', was formed from the united Khasi and Jaintia Hills and the Garo Hills, and Shillong, until then the capital of Assam, became its capital instead.

Which planned city replaced Ahmedabad as the capital of Gujarat in 1970?

Gandhinagar, a planned city laid out about 23 km north of Ahmedabad, took over as capital in 1970, a decade after Gujarat was created. Ahmedabad remains the state's largest city.

Which union territory of 36 islands, run as a single district, has its capital at Kavaratti?

Lakshadweep's 36 islands fall into the Amindivi and Laccadive groups and the lone atoll of Minicoy, and the whole territory is governed as one district from Kavaratti. Only ten of the islands are inhabited.

Which hill state, India's 18th, gained full statehood on 25 January 1971 with Shimla as its capital?

Himachal Pradesh became the 18th state of the Union with Yashwant Singh Parmar as its first chief minister, five years after the hill districts of Punjab were merged into it in 1966.

Which state, a kingdom until its 1949 merger with India, is credited with giving polo to Europeans?

Manipur's traditional game sagol kangjei is the ancestor of modern international polo, and the state displays the world's tallest statue of a polo player, dedicated to the Meitei deity Marjing. Its ruler signed the merger in September 1949.

Which state, India's 23rd, won statehood in 1987 under a peace accord with Laldenga's rebel front?

Mizoram became the 23rd state on 20 February 1987 under the 1986 Mizo Accord, which ended a Mizo National Front insurgency that had begun in 1966. Aizawl is its capital.

Which festival unique to Assam comes three times a year, in April, in autumn and in January?

Bihu comes as Rongali or Bohag Bihu in April, Kongali or Kati Bihu in October or November, and Bhogali or Magh Bihu in January. Rongali, the biggest, runs for seven days.

Which animal, whose Kaziranga population is the world's largest, is the state animal of Assam?

The Indian rhinoceros, the greater one-horned rhino, has its largest population at Kaziranga, which held 2,613 of Assam's rhinos in a 2008 count; the species' total passed 4,000 in 2022, with about 3,260 of them in India.

Which classical dance takes its name from a village in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh?

Kuchipudi originated in the village of the same name and is counted among the eight major Indian classical dance forms, alongside Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi and others.

Which two-day kite-flying festival fills Gujarat's skies each January around Makar Sankranti?

Uttarayan marks the sun's passage into Capricorn, and Gujarat stages an International Kite Festival for it over two days each January, tied to Makara Sankranti.

Which city, famed for houseboats on Dal Lake, is the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir?

Srinagar is the largest city and summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, set in the Kashmir Valley along the Jhelum between the Hari Parbat and Shankaracharya hills.

Which amendment to the Constitution gave Delhi an assembly and the title National Capital Territory?

The 69th Amendment inserted Articles 239AA and 239AB, creating an assembly and council of ministers for the National Capital Territory of Delhi from 1 February 1992 while keeping Delhi a union territory.

Which town is the capital of the union territory formed in 2020 from two ex-Portuguese territories?

Daman is the capital of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, the territory created on 26 January 2020, although Silvassa is its largest city. All four areas were once Portuguese India.

How many union territories did India have after Jammu and Kashmir's 2019 split and the January 2020 merger?

The October 2019 division of Jammu and Kashmir into two territories and the January 2020 merger of two western territories left India with 8 union territories and 28 states, 36 units in all.

Which ancient language did Uttarakhand make its second official language in 2010, a first among states?

Sanskrit became Uttarakhand's second official language alongside Hindi in 2010, the first such designation by any Indian state. The state's own name is Sanskrit too, joining uttara, north, with khanda, part.

Which Rajasthan folk dance, begun by the Bhil tribe to worship Saraswati, was later embraced by Rajputs?

Ghoomar takes its name from ghoomna, the twirling of dancers in flowing ghaghara skirts, and was the Bhil tribe's worship dance for Saraswati before Rajput courts took it up.

Which Bihar festival has devotees offer arghya to the sun at dusk and again at the following dawn?

Chhath venerates the sun god Surya and his sister Chhathi Maiya over four days, with households walking to a riverbank or pond for the evening offering and returning before dawn for the morning one.

Which Guwahati suburb became Assam's capital in 1973 after Shillong passed to a newly created state?

Dispur took over in 1973 when Shillong, the old capital, went with the hill districts that had been carved out of Assam the previous year. It is a locality within the city of Guwahati.

Which critically endangered bird, the godawan, down to perhaps 150 birds by 2018, is the state bird of Rajasthan?

The great Indian bustard, once common across India's dry grasslands, was down to an estimated 150 birds by 2018 and now survives mainly in isolated pockets of Rajasthan and a few other states.

Which Punjabi women's folk dance, built on clapping and sung bolis, is the counterpart of bhangra?

Giddha has women stand in a circle clapping out rhythms while a lead dancer recites a boli that the whole ring repeats, and it is reckoned as energetic as bhangra while showing off feminine grace.

Which wetland-loving wild cat, found in the Sundarbans, is the state animal of West Bengal?

The fishing cat, a stocky water-loving hunter, is West Bengal's state animal, though in Howrah district 27 were found dead in a single year around 2010–11 and on Sagar Island it may have been wiped out.

The 1956 States Reorganisation Act redrew India into six union territories and how many states?

14 states and 6 union territories emerged from the Act passed in November 1956, which redrew the map largely on linguistic lines, a count of states that has since doubled to 28.

Which deer, whose Hindi name means 'twelve-horned', is the state animal of Madhya Pradesh?

The barasingha gets its name from the twelve or more tines on a stag's antlers, and the hard-ground subspecies survives only in Kanha, where numbers had fallen to about 66 by 1970. It is also Uttar Pradesh's state animal.

Which raptor, known locally as the baz, is the state bird of Punjab?

The northern goshawk, the baz, shares Punjab's roster of symbols with the Indus river dolphin as state aquatic animal and the shisham as state tree.

Which Tibeto-Burman language is one of Tripura's three official languages alongside Bengali?

Kokborok is the language of the Tripuri people and sits beside Bengali as an official language of the state, and one theory derives the name Tripura itself from the Kokborok words tui, water, and pra, near.

In which year did Arunachal Pradesh, the former North-East Frontier Agency, become a full state?

1987 brought statehood on 20 February, fifteen years after the North-East Frontier Agency had been renamed Arunachal Pradesh and made a union territory in 1972.

Which city was the capital of Andhra State from its creation in 1953 until the 1956 reorganisation?

Kurnool was the capital of Andhra State between 1 October 1953 and 31 October 1956, when the state was enlarged into Andhra Pradesh and the capital moved to Hyderabad.

Which language of the Jammu region became one of Jammu and Kashmir's five official languages in 2020?

Dogri, a Western Pahari tongue of the Dogra people, was declared official by the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Act passed in September 2020, which also elevated Kashmiri and Hindi beside Urdu.

Which common bird, the same species chosen by Delhi, is the official state bird of Bihar?

The house sparrow is Bihar's state bird, and Delhi adopted the same species in 2012 to promote its conservation as numbers fell in Indian cities.

Which constitutional provision lets Parliament form new states and rename or redraw existing ones?

Article 3 covers the formation of new states and the alteration of the areas, boundaries or names of existing ones, and it has been invoked for each of the newer states and for state renamings.

Which dance of a Rajasthan snake-charming community joined UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2010?

Kalbelia songs and dances of Rajasthan were inscribed by UNESCO in 2010; the Kalbelia are a snake-charming tribe of the Thar Desert who follow the Nath sage Kanifnath, said to have drunk poison and gained power over serpents.

Which city, home of the Indian Military Academy, has been Uttarakhand's interim capital since 2000?

Dehradun has been the interim capital since Uttarakhand was formed in 2000 and also houses the Forest Research Institute, the Rashtriya Indian Military College and the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology.