Crossword Genius

Moral make up of the Indian state (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ethical

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'moral' is the definition.
(synonyms)

'up of the indian state' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'the' is 'eth' which is present in the answer.
'state' could be 'cal' (short for California) and 'cal' is located in the answer.
A single letter 'i' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

'make' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ethical that I've seen before include "Moral, honest" , "Morally acceptable" , "Conforming to accepted standards of behaviour" , "not advertised to the general public" , "Moral, principled" .)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.
Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.