[a] The Indian Empire was a very complex political entity consisting of various imperial divisions and states and territories of varying autonomy.

At the time of its establishment in 1876, it was made up of 584 constituent states and the directly ruled territories of the Crown.

The first three of the lieutenant-governorships were territories annexed to India from other powers and temporarily governed by the erstwhile Bengal Presidency, before being made into their own separate provinces.

Laws passed by these legislatures needed the dual assent of the governor or lieutenant-governor of the province and the governor-general of India, who functioned as the representative of the Emperor.

In addition to these, there were certain territories ruled directly by the Government of India through nominated chief commissioners.

These were former independent states annexed to India and since ruled directly by the Supreme Government.

A vast majority of the Indian states in the late nineteenth century were, in terms of imperial divisions, organised within the provinces.

However a good number of states were organised into imperial structures called agencies, or residencies.

One of the major consequences of this was the creation of many more agencies from the states of the provinces, thus granting them direct relations with the Emperor instead of with the Governors.

This act created the office of a Premier in each province, who functioned as the new head of government and was responsible to the provincial legislature.

The act dissolved the Indian Empire, the Imperial Legislative Council and the Chamber of Princes.

In the same year Pondicherry, comprising the former French enclaves of Pondichéry, Karikal, Yanaon and Mahé, was transferred to India.

[12] The act designated Chandigarh as a union territory and the shared capital of Punjab and Haryana.

[23] Later that year in November, the Government of India introduced legislation to merge the union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli into a single union territory to be known as Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, effective from 26 January 2020.