What Comes First - Country or State?

I've been thinking a lot about this... What comes first: India or Tamil Nadu? Think of a scenario where you'll have to choose between the two. Which one would you choose? It's rather difficult if we see it from the subjective point of view... But seeing it objectively, we can get the right answers. Let's take a situation for example:

India is at war with the rest of the countries of the world. What the Indian Government decides to do is against the welfare of the world, but helps the country itself. Which one would you choose to stand up for? India, or the World?

Most of my friends consider me as this serious patriot and anyone around me would say that I would choose to stand with India. But... thinking about it, seriously, I don't think I would. I've just discovered the way the world works. I'm sure you have heard the phrases, "Greater Good" and "Higher Cause".

Universe

World

Country

State

City

Family

Self

My guess is that those phrases came about because there are different levels of good and causes. According to that list above, the Universe comes before the World; the World before the Country; the Country before the State and so on. I guess we can include stuff like religion and community somewhere in between, but we know the level in which they'll belong [somewhere between family and city, is my guess].

However, this list can only used for choosing between two things... not for fixing priorities. This is because every one of the levels are important. If we don't give importance to our own selves, the family won't prosper. If the families don't prosper, the cities won't develop. If cities don't develop, the states will fall... and so on.

So for the example at the top, I would choose the World. As much as someone may love India, one can't give up the world... Because to say it in terms of maths... they are just subsets of a higher cause.