An act of partition is redrawing India’s political geography more than 60 years after Pakistan was split out of British India. The move this week to carve up India’s most populous state is a reminder that the contours of the world’s largest democracy are a work in progress. Its 28 states are protean enough to divide and subdivide along ethnic, linguistic and social lines to keep India inward-looking for decades to come. Why not 52 states?

Should New Delhi approve the division, India will take a step closer to a patchwork akin to Lord Curzon’s time and away from the purposeful centrality required to be a global superpower .

Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state with 200m people, has opted to disintegrate and re-form as four new states. A lightning vote in its local assembly – orchestrated by Kumari Mayawati, the champion of India’s lower castes and the state’s chief minister – is awkward for the leadership in New Delhi.