India • States & Union Territories
India
36 places: 28 states and 8 union territories, from the Himalaya to the Indian Ocean. A few are small enough to need zooming.
The North
Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh at the top, then down through the hills to Delhi, a small territory of its own. Chandigarh, a speck between Punjab and Haryana, is the capital of both.
The Center and East
The Ganges plain and the middle of the country, from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh east to West Bengal and Odisha on the Bay of Bengal.
The Northeast
Seven states wrapped round the north and east of Bangladesh, joined to the rest by a narrow strip of land, and Sikkim, just above that strip, between Nepal and Bhutan.
The West
Rajasthan's desert, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, with Goa, small on the coast, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, a territory in three small pieces.
The South
The peninsula, from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh down to Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Puducherry is four pieces on three coasts, and two island territories lie offshore: Lakshadweep to the west, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the east.
Where You'll Start
You'll start with the anchors, a few places to hang the rest on: Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Then chapter by chapter, or the whole deck at random.