"Flows through" vs "Flows in" [closed]

I got this question:

River Mahanadi flows _______ Odisha.

Will it be "in or "through"? Had it been a smaller place, like a forest, or a city, I would've chosen "through"; but since the place is Odisha, which is a state in India, can "in" be suitable too? Implying that the river exists in the state Odisha.

It's usually the case that if a preposition works in a sentence, then any other preposition would also be grammatical. However, which you should use depends on your intent - that isn't something we can reliably predict from the rest of the sentence. Here are some examples:

• The ball bounces on the box.
• The ball bounces in the box.
• The ball bounces through the box.
• The ball bounces behind the box.

Each sentence is grammatical, but they mean different things.

In your example, you are deciding between in and through.

"In" often carries the idea of boundaries. Saying that the a river flows in Odisha means that within Odisha, the river flows. Perhaps it doesn't flow in the next region. Perhaps it doesn't flow into or out of Odisha. But within Odisha itself, the river certainly flows.

"Through" carries the idea of transition. Saying that a river flows through Odisha implies that the river starts outside Odisha, enters Odisha, then goes out of Odisha.