I've found many posts where people try to work around the problem of `SelectedIndexChanged` not working when `EnableViewState='false'`.

Im a little confused why control state doesnt kick in and allow it to work, but thats bonus points if anyone can explain that too. 

Some of the 'hacks' are pretty 'hacky'. Like setting a value on the viewstate of the page itself corresponding to the dropdown value and then comparing that value with the one that is received durin the postback.

I'm lookin for the best most elegant solution (if there is a good one).

I dont know if this would be a clever derived control or something cleverer, but I want to make sure the solution is generic enough to be 'trustable' and not just a hack that only works for the specific page in question (which is common for such hacks!).