Central Provinces

Coordinates: 21°09′N 79°05′E / 21.15°N 79.09°E / 21.15; 79.09
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Central provinces (disambiguation).

Central Provinces
British India
1861–1903
Flag of Central Provinces
Flag
Coat of arms of Central Provinces
Coat of arms

Central Provinces and Berar in 1903, before the 1905 changes to the eastern boundary
CapitalNagpur (primary capital)
Pachmarhi, Hoshangabad district (summer capital)
History 
1861
• Nimar added to Central Provinces
1864
• Creation of the Central Provinces and Berar
1903
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Saugor and Nerbudda Territories
Nagpur Province
Central Provinces and Berar
 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Central Provinces and Berar". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 681–3.
Famine stricken children in Jubbulpore, Central Provinces, in 1897

The Central Provinces was a

Marathas in central India, and covered parts of present-day Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra states. Nagpur was the primary winter capital while Pachmarhi served as the regular summer retreat. It became the Central Provinces and Berar
in 1903.

The Central Provinces was formed in 1861 by the merger of the

Chota Nagpur States and Kalahandi State to the east, and the Nizam's territories of Hyderabad to the south and Berar to the west.[2]

Geography

The Central Provinces was

landlocked, occupying the mountain ranges, plateaus, and river valleys in the centre of the Indian subcontinent
.

The northernmost portion of the state extended onto the

Ganges. The Vindhya Range runs east and west, forming the watershed between the Ganges-Yamuna basin and the Narmada River basin, which occupies the center and west of the province, and flows westward to empty into the Arabian Sea. The upper Narmada valley forms the center of the Mahakoshal region. Jabalpur
(formerly Jubbulpore) lay on the upper Narmada, and was an important railway junction.

The Satpura Range divides the Narmada valley from the Deccan Plateau to the south. The Central Provinces included the northeastern portion of the Deccan, drained by tributaries of the Godavari River including the Wainganga, Wardha, and Indravati. These flow east towards the Bay of Bengal. A portion of Berar lay in the upper basin of the Tapti River, which drains westward into the Arabian Sea. The portion of the Central Provinces on the Deccan Plateau formed the Vidarbha region, which includes Nagpur, the capital of the province.

The eastern portion of the state lay in the upper

Maikal Range separates the basins of the Narmada and the Mahanadi. The Chota Nagpur Plateau
extended into the northeast corner of the province.

Demographics

Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
18669,000,000—    
18729,250,000+0.46%
188111,500,000+2.45%
189113,000,000+1.23%
190111,873,029−0.90%

General censuses were held in 1866, 1872, 1881, 1891 and 1901. The population in 1866 was over 9 million, and in 1872 over 9.25 million. 1869 was a famine year. There were epidemics of smallpox and cholera in 1872, 1878, and 1879. By 1881 the population had risen to 11.5 million, and by 1891 to nearly 13 million. The population in 1901 was 11,873,029, a reduction of 800,000 from 1891. The lack of summer monsoon rains in 1897 and 1900 led to widespread crop failures and huge famines in those years, and there were partial crop failures in four other years in the decade, with epidemics of cholera in seven of the ten years. A portion of the decrease (between one-eighth and one-quarter) was from emigration to Assam and other provinces of India.[3]

Linguistic regions

The central Provinces contained two distinct linguistic regions:

Hindi-speaking districts, and Vidarbha, chiefly, but not exclusively, a Marathi-speaking area. The linguistic regions could not be fully integrated as a unit.[4]

In the 1901 census, 6,111,000 (63% percent) of the population spoke variants of Hindi, chiefly

Sambalpur District to Bengal in 1905 reduced the number of Oriya speakers to 292,000. There were 94,000 Telugu speakers, mostly in Chanda District. Of the 730,000 who spoke other Dravidian languages, the majority spoke Gondi, and 60,000 spoke Korku. 74,000 spoke Munda languages.[5]

Politics and administration

The Central Provinces were administered from 1861 to 1920 by a chief commissioner.

Administratively, the Central Provinces consisted of four divisions (

Hoshangabad District.[6]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 81-85119-58-9
    .
  2. ^ Philip F. McEldowney (1980). Colonial Administration and Social Developments in middle India: The Central Provinces, 1861-1921 - Ph. D. Dissertation. University of Virginia.
  3. ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India, (New ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908-1909. Vol. 10, Page 19.
  4. ^ Raghaw Raman Pateriya, Provincial Legislatures and the National Movement. Northern Book Centre, 1992. pg. 9
  5. ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India, (New ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908-1909. Vol. 10, pp. 24-25.
  6. ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India, (New ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908-1909. Vol. 10, Page 65.
  • Markovits, Claude (ed.) (2004). A History of Modern India: 1480-1950. Anthem Press, London.

21°09′N 79°05′E / 21.15°N 79.09°E / 21.15; 79.09

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