Union territory | India, Definition, History, & Facts (2024)

union territory, one of the first-order administrative units in the Republic of India. Union territories are governed, in part or wholly, by the union government of India. There are eight union territories in India:

• Andaman and Nicobar Islands

• Chandigarh

• Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu

• Delhi (also called National Capital Territory)

• Jammu and Kashmir

• Ladakh

• Lakshadweep

• Puduch*erry

Government and administration

The Republic of India is made up of eight union territories and 28 states. These two first-order subdivisions have significantly different governments. Each state has its own directly elected government under a chief minister, and the union government is represented by the state’s governor, who is the constitutional head of the state and is appointed by the president of India. Union territories, on the other hand, are governed, partly or wholly, by the union government of India. According to the Constitution of India, union territories are to be administered directly by the president of India, acting through an administrator (typically called a lieutenant governor) appointed by the president. Articles 239–241 of the constitution pertain to the administration of union territories.

The union government has the power to create new states, combine states, change state boundaries, and terminate a state’s existence. The union government may also create and dissolve a union territory, whose powers are more limited than those of the states. The union government also has the power to pass a law to provide a union territory with a legislature consisting of elected members as well as a chief minister, as has been done in the cases of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Puduch*erry. The lieutenant governors of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Puduch*erry play only a ceremonial role because these territories have elected governments. In union territories without an elected governor, the lieutenant governor holds power and can pass ordinances with the approval of the president of India.

In the Lok Sabha, the lower chamber of the union government, union territories have 19 out of 543 total seats. All union territories have representation in the Lok Sabha. In the Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the union government, union territories have 8 seats out of 239. Only Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, and Puduch*erry are represented in the Rajya Sabha because they are the only union territories with elected legislatures.

History and current union territories

When the Constitution of India was adopted in November 1949, Indian states were divided into four categories. Part A states were former governor-ruled provinces of British India, and they continued with governors and elected legislatures. Part B states were former princely states, or groups of princely states, with appointed governors (called rajpramukhs) and elected legislatures. Part C states included some former princely states and former chief commissioners’ provinces. The only Part D state was Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which was administered by a lieutenant governor appointed by the union government.

During the reorganization of Indian states that was carried out through the States Reorganisation Act in 1956, all Part C and Part D states were either merged into other states or combined into a single category called “union territory.” Six union territories were thus created: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep (called the Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands until 1973), Delhi, Manipur, Tripura, and Himachal Pradesh.

Himachal Pradesh is no longer a union territory; it was conferred statehood in 1971. Manipur and Tripura followed suit in 1972. Three regions—Nagaland, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh—were all previously part of the Indian state of Assam and were carved out into union territories. Subsequently all of them became states of the Republic of India. Only Delhi, Lakshadweep, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands have maintained their union territory status from the original list. Delhi was granted a legislature in 1952.

Puduch*erry comprises four distinct locations and was formed out of four former colonies of French India. It includes Puduch*erry (then called Pondicherry) and Karaikal along India’s Coromandel Coast, surrounded by Tamil Nadu state; Yanam, farther north along the eastern coast in the delta region of the Godavari River, surrounded by Andhra Pradesh state; and Mahe, lying on the western Malabar Coast, surrounded by Kerala state. Transfer of these French possessions to the union of India took place on November 1, 1954. In 1962 Pondicherry became a union territory of India. The Government of Union Territories Act of 1963 granted Pondicherry a state legislature. The territory formally took the name Puduch*erry in 2006.

Dadra and Nagar Haveli, situated between Gujarat state to the north and Maharashtra state to the south, was under Portuguese rule. In 1954 local supporters of the Indian union took over the territory from the Portuguese. From 1954 to 1961 Dadra and Nagar Haveli existed as a de facto state, with outside support from the Republic of India. In 1961 it was merged into India and became a union territory.

The Portuguese-controlled region of Goa (bordered by Maharashtra and Karnataka), together with Daman and Diu (both enclaves within Gujarat state), were annexed by the Indian army in 1961. A union territory called Goa, Daman and Diu was formed in 1961 and was granted a legislature in 1963. In 1987 the union territory was split: Goa became a state while Daman and Diu became a union territory. In 2020 the two union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu were merged into a single territory called Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

The pre-independence Indian region of Punjab was divided after partition into West Punjab (in Pakistan) and East Punjab (in India). Lahore, the capital of the united Punjab, became part of Pakistan, so the Indian government created a new planned city called Chandigarh to serve as the capital of the new Punjab state in India. In 1966 Punjab was split into Punjab and Haryana. Straddling the border between Haryana and Punjab, the city of Chandigarh was made the shared capital of the two states and a union territory in its own right as well.

Jammu and Kashmir was formerly a state with a legislature. In 2019, after an outbreak of violence in the region of Kashmir, India’s union government passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, splitting the state into two union territories, one called Jammu and Kashmir and the other called Ladakh. The act followed a presidential order amending Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which in 1954 had conferred on the state of Jammu and Kashmir the power to have a separate constitution, a state flag, and autonomy of internal administration.