Central India Madhya Bharat | |
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 States commonly referred to as Central India | |
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Central India refers to ageographical region ofIndia that generally includes thestates ofChhattisgarh andMadhya Pradesh.[1]
TheCentral Zonal Council, established by the Government of India, includes these states as well asUttar Pradesh andUttarakhand to the north.[2] The inclusion of Uttarakhand extends the region to the Himalayan border withTibet/China.
Another approach, historically more usual, is to base "Central India" on a north-south axis, making it the part of India that is south ofNorth India and north ofSouth India; the definition of North India also varies hugely, but that of South India is generally agreed. This definition includes either some or all of theDeccan, in particularMaharashtra, and may or may not include some of theIndo-Gangetic Plain to the north. If Maharashtra is included "Central India" includes a good part of the western coast, includingMumbai, but the eastern coast is never included, asOdisha stretches down to meetAndhra Pradesh, and these are counted inEastern and Southern India respectively (and none of the eastern coast is part of theHindi Belt).
Another definition is "the hill-country south of the Ganges plain", but north of the Deccan.[3] Some official divisions of the country do not recognise any "Central" division at all.[4]
Another definition, which treats the Deccan as a different unit, defines "Central India" as Madhya Pradesh and "eastern and centralUttar Pradesh".[5] "Madhya Pradesh" means "central province", while "Uttar Pradesh" means "northern province", though when adopted in 1950 it had the advantage of preserving the common "UP" abbreviation for what was formerly theUnited Provinces of Agra and Oudh. This definition is rather similar to the territories, allprincely states, grouped by theBritish Raj in 1854 as theCentral India Agency (not to be confused with theCentral Provinces, bordering this to the south).
TheMemoir of Central India by SirJohn Malcolm,Governor of Bombay begins with a definition:
The country termed Central India is, roughly speaking, the region lying between thetwenty-first andtwenty-fifth degrees of north latitude, and theseventy-third andeightieth degrees of east longitude...[6]
Depending on definition,Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, is the largest city in the region. Other majorcities includeRaipur,Bhopal,Gwalior,Jabalpur,Durg-Bhilai andBilaspur. The states share manylinguistic andcultural characteristics withNorth India including the predominance ofHindi.
The Bhimbetka caves show evidence ofPaleolithic settlements in present-day Madhya Pradesh.Stone Age tools have also been discovered at various places along theNarmada river valley. Chalcolithic sites have been discovered at a number of places includingEran, Kayatha, Maheshwar, Nagda, and Navdatoli. Rock shelters with cave paintings, the earliest of which can be dated to 30,000 BCE, have also been discovered at a number of places. The settlements of humans in present-day Madhya Pradesh developed primarily in the valleys of rivers such as Narmada, Chambal, and Betwa. During the early Vedic period, the Vindhya mountains formed the southern boundary of the Indo-Aryan territory.
TheHolkars ofIndore,Scindias ofGwalior,Puars ofDewas Junior,Dewas Senior andDhar State were powerful families of theMaratha Empire which were based in Central India. The territories that now comprisesMadhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh were ruled by numerousprinces who entered intosubsidiary alliance with theBritish.
Afterindependence, the states ofMadhya Bharat,Vindhya Pradesh, andBhopal were merged into Madhya Pradesh in 1956. In 2000, the new state ofChhattisgarh was carved out ofMadhya Pradesh.
The region is part of theHindi Belt, andModern Standard Hindi is the predominant language. Other Hindi belt languages such asChhattisgarhi are also common regionally. Besides theseIndo-Aryan languages, theMunda-family languageKorku is also spoken in Central India.
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