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Regionalism in India is rooted in India's diversity of languages, cultures, tribes and religions. It is also encouraged by the geographical concentration of these identity workers in particular regions and fuelled by a sense of regional deprivation. Indian federalism has been a means of accommodating these regional sentiments.

After independence, initially the Indian state continued with the British-Indian arrangement, dividing India into large provinces, also called 'presidencies'. These were large multi-ethnic and multilingual provincial states constituting the major political-administrative units of a semi-federal state called the Union of India. Language coupled with regional and tribal identity - and not religion - has therefore provided the most powerful instrument for the formation of ethno-national identity in India.

During British period, India was divided into large provinces called:

Presidencies

After Independence, initially the Indian state continued with the British-Indian arrangement dividing India into large provinces, also called ‘presidencies’. (Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta were the three major presidencies)