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| 1987 |
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| India expanded its number of states: Mizoram and Arunachal were admitted as the 23rd and 24th states of India in February; Goa became the 25th state in May. | 1 |
| New regionalist movements also began to emerge in other parts of India. The Tribal National Volunteers (TNV) had begun demanding an autonomous state in part of Tripura; in late 1986 more than 100 people had been killed by TNV guerrillas, and in Jan. 1987 the TNV was declared illegal. The central government sent paramilitary troops to Tripura in Jan. 1988, and order returned in the wake of the general elections, won by Congress (I). | 2 |
| The Gurkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) emerged in Darjeeling and West Bengal, and it organized violent disturbances and a general strike. Rajiv met with the GNLF leader but dismissed their demand for a separate Gurkha state. (Agitation collapsed in July 1988.) | 3 |
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| May, June |
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| Communal (Hindu-Muslim) riots in Old Delhi and Meerut marked further advances of fundamentalist Hindu political agitation. (This political philosophy was called Hindutva.) | 4 |
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