Indian States and Capitals: A Study Guide

India has 28 states and 8 union territories. Learning capitals as a flat list of 36 names is slow and forgettable. It is much easier to learn them by region, then learn the handful of exceptions that quizzes love to ask about.

The 28 states and their capitals, by region

North

• Himachal Pradesh: Shimla (Dharamshala is a second capital used in winter)
• Haryana: Chandigarh
• Punjab: Chandigarh
• Uttarakhand: Dehradun (Gairsain has been declared a summer capital)
• Uttar Pradesh: Lucknow
• Rajasthan: Jaipur

East

• Bihar: Patna
• Jharkhand: Ranchi
• Odisha: Bhubaneswar
• West Bengal: Kolkata

North-east

• Assam: Dispur
• Arunachal Pradesh: Itanagar
• Manipur: Imphal
• Meghalaya: Shillong
• Mizoram: Aizawl
• Nagaland: Kohima
• Sikkim: Gangtok
• Tripura: Agartala

West

• Gujarat: Gandhinagar
• Maharashtra: Mumbai (the winter legislature session is held in Nagpur)
• Goa: Panaji

Central

• Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal
• Chhattisgarh: Raipur

South

• Andhra Pradesh: Amaravati
• Telangana: Hyderabad
• Karnataka: Bengaluru
• Kerala: Thiruvananthapuram
• Tamil Nadu: Chennai

The 8 union territories

Capital-city traps

These are the questions where most players guess the best-known city instead of the capital.

• Chandigarh is the capital of both Punjab and Haryana, and is itself a union territory. It was planned by the architect Le Corbusier.
• Mumbai, not Pune or Nagpur, is the capital of Maharashtra; Gandhinagar, not Ahmedabad, is the capital of Gujarat; Bhubaneswar, not Cuttack, is the capital of Odisha.
• Dispur, not Guwahati, is Assam's capital, although Dispur is part of the Guwahati urban area.
• Hyderabad was the shared capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for ten years after Telangana was created in 2014. Telangana keeps it; Andhra Pradesh's designated capital is Amaravati.
• Delhi vs New Delhi. New Delhi is the seat of the Government of India. The capital of the Union Territory of Delhi's government is Delhi.

How the map was redrawn

• 1947-1950: princely states were merged into the Indian Union, and states were grouped as Part A, B, C and D.
• 1953: Andhra became the first state created on a linguistic basis, after the death of the Telugu leader Potti Sriramulu following a fast.
• 1956: the States Reorganisation Act redrew states broadly along linguistic lines on the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission.
• 1960: Bombay State was split into Maharashtra and Gujarat.
• 1966: Punjab was divided into Punjab and Haryana (with Himachal gaining hill areas).
• 1975: Sikkim became the 22nd state.
• 1987: Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa became states.
• 2000: Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand were carved out of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
• 2014: Telangana became the 29th state.
• 2019: the former state of Jammu and Kashmir was reorganised into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, bringing the number of states back to 28.

Superlatives that appear in quizzes

• Largest state by area: Rajasthan. Smallest: Goa.
• Most populous state: Uttar Pradesh.
• Longest coastline of any state: Gujarat.
• Newest state: Telangana.

Border facts that quizzes ask

• India shares land borders with Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Sri Lanka and the Maldives are maritime neighbours.
• States touching Bangladesh: West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. West Bengal has the longest India-Bangladesh border.
• States touching Nepal: Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim.
• States touching Myanmar: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram.
• Landlocked states (no sea coast) include Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana, along with all eight north-eastern states.
• Island territories: Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Bay of Bengal) and Lakshadweep (Arabian Sea).

Test yourself

1. Which city is the capital of both Punjab and Haryana? Chandigarh.
2. What is the capital of Karnataka? Bengaluru.
3. Which is the newest state? Telangana.
4. Which UT has Kavaratti as its capital? Lakshadweep.
5. Which state's capital is Dispur? Assam.
6. In which year did Goa become a state? 1987.
7. Which is the largest state by area? Rajasthan.
8. How many union territories does India have? Eight.

How to remember them

1. Learn one region a day. Say the state and its capital aloud, then cover the answers and test yourself.
2. Mark the exceptions above on a blank outline map. Place-based memory beats list memory.
3. Re-test after a week. Then try the Places quiz and note which capitals you miss.