District Data Visualizations
Welcome! This page presents six interactive dashboards that help you to visualize and track the evolution and changes in the Indian districts right from the colonial period in 1872 up until 2024! These dashboards provide a comprehensive overview of the evolution of administrative districts in India, tracing their development from the British colonial era to the present day. They highlight various ways in which the districts were created and changed over time, such as splits, carve-outs, mergers and name changes. They reveal the complexity in district formations by taking a granular approach and tracking the changes decade wise. These visualizations are created by our team with painstaking details, primarily sourced from the Census data between 1872 to 2011 and other official and news reports.
Dashboard 1: The above chart tracks the decade-wise transition of administrative units in the colonial era from 1872 to 1941. It includes districts within both British provinces and Princely States. Follow the path with highlights to track the changes over decades.
Dashboard 2: The above chart tracks the evolution of colonial administrative units between the period of 1941 to 1951. There was a rapid transformation post independence in 1947, which merged the princely states into British provinces, forming the first states of Independent India. Use the filters to track the district formations in each state.
Dashboard 3: This chart tracks the transition of districts of modern Indian states and UTs from 1951-2024. This period saw major reorganization of states and creation of several new states. The number of districts also expanded, doubling in number. Follow the path of each district either from beginning, or the end and explore its linkages in other decades!
Dashboard 4: Explore the new districts created across different states by decades, by clicking on the dendogram. The final layer shows the new district with its root. Clicking it on it will show you the history of its creation.
Dashboard 5: Track the district splits in each state from the period 1951 to 2023. The colour code represent particular decade, the dots within show original districts and the outer layer presents the new districts split from the original and its history.
Dashboard 6: Trace the district name changes in each state from 1951 to 2024. The dots in the innermost part of the dendogram are the states, followed by a second layer which tracks the decades in which the changes took place. The second outermost layer denotes the old name of the district and the outermost layer shows the revised name. Click on each dot to see additional information.