Indiana and North Carolina constrained by deepened new autonomy (12)
I believe the answer is:
independence
'autonomy' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'indiana and north carolina constrained by deepened new' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'indiana' could be 'in' (abbreviation) and 'in' is located in the answer.
'and' could be 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and') and 'n' is located in the answer.
'north' could be 'n' (abbreviation) and 'n' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for independence that I've seen before include "lack of bias" , "State of relying only on oneself" , "Freedom from outside control" , "Freedom from another's authority" , "Autonomy" .)