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CENTRAL PROVINCES AND BERAR
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CENTRAL PROVINCES AND See also:BERAR , a See also:province of See also:British See also:India, which was formed in See also:October 1903 by the amalgamation of the Central Provinces and the See also:Hyderabad Assigned Districts. The See also:total See also:area of the provinces is 113,281 sq. m., and the See also:population on that area in 1901 was 10,847,325. As is shown by its name the province is situated in the centre of the See also:Indian See also:peninsula, comprising a large proportion of the broad See also:belt of See also: Towards the river, though rich in parts, this See also:tract of country is generally See also:wild and desolate, but nearer the See also:base of the hill range there is a large natural See also:basin of fertile land which is highly cultivated. South of the Satpuras lies the great plain of Chhattisgarh at a mean elevation above the sea of woo ft.; it has an area of 23,000 sq. m., and forms the upper basin of the See also:Mahanadi. Farther to the west and again divided off by hills is the great plain of Nagpur, extending over 24,000 sq. m. Its See also:general See also:surface inclines towards the south from moo ft. above the sea at Nagpur to 750 ft. at Chanda. To the south the province is shut in by the wide mountainous tract which stretches from the See also:Bay of Bengal through Bastar to the See also:Godavari, and west of that river is continued onward to the rocky ridges and plateaus of Khandesh by a See also:succession of ranges that enclose the plain of Berar along its southern border. Berar consists mainly of the valley lying between the Satpura range of mountains in the north and the See also:Ajanta range in the south. The Gawilgarh hills, a range belonging to the Satpura Berar mountains, See also:form the northern border. On the east the frontier is marked by the Wardha river down to its confluence with the Penganga, and on the south by the Penganga for about two-thirds of the frontier's length. The tract is See also:half surrounded on the east, north and north-west by the Central Provinces, with which it is amalgamated. In addition to the Melghat See also:mountain tract which walls it in on the north, Berar is divided into two sections, the Payanghat or See also:lowland country, bounded on the north by the Gawilgarh hills, and on the south by the See also:outer scarps of the Ajanta range, and the Balaghat or upland country above the Ajanta See also:ridge, sloping down southwards beyond the See also:ghats or passes which See also:lead up to it. The Payanghat is a wide valley See also:running up eastward between this ridge and the Gawilgarh hills, varying in breadth from 40 to 50 m., and broader towards the end than at its mouth. It contains all the best land in Berar; it is full of deep, rich, See also:black alluvial See also:soil, of almost inexhaustible fertility, and it undulates sufficiently to maintain a natural See also:system of drainage, but there is nothing picturesque about this broad strip of See also:champaign country. The upland tract, on the contrary, is diversified with See also:low-lying plains, high plateaus, fertile bottoms and rocky wastes, and is rendered picturesque by See also:rivers and groves. Natural Features.—The provinces may be divided into two tracts of upland and three of plain, consisting of the See also:Vindhya and Satpura plateaus, and the Berar, Nagpur and Chhattisgarh plains. To the north the districts of Saugor and Damoh form the southern boundary of the Vindhyan escarpment. In this region the See also:sandstone rocks are generally overlaid with heavy black soil formed from the decaying See also:trap, which is principally devoted to the cultivation of the See also:spring crops, See also:wheat and See also:grain, while See also:rice and hill millets are sown in the lighter and more sandy soils. Next, the See also:long and narrow valley of the Nerbudda from Jubbulpore to Hoshangabad is formed of deep alluvial deposits of extreme richness and excellently suited to the growth of wheat. To the south of the Nerbudda the Satpura range stretches across the province, containing the greater part of five districts, its crystalline and sandstone rocks rising in places through the superficial stratum of trap, and with large areas of shallow stony land still covered to a great extent with See also:forest interspersed by black-soil valleys of great fertility. In the latter are grown wheat and other spring crops, while the lighter kinds of rice and the hill millets are all that the poorer land can See also:bear. To the south of the Satpuras and extending along its base from west to east See also:lie successively the Berar, Nagpur and Chhattisgarh plains. The surface soil of Berar is to a great extent a rich black See also:vegetable See also:mould; and where this surface soil does not exist, there are muram and trap with a shallow upper crust of inferior See also:light soil. The Nagpur country, drained by the Wardha and See also:Wainganga rivers, contains towards the west the shallow black soil in which autumn crops like See also:cotton and the large See also:millet, juar, which do not require excessive moisture, can be success-fully cultivated: The eastern part of the Nagpur country and the Chhattisgarh plain, comprising the Mahanadi basin, form the great rice tract of the province, its heavy rainfall and hard yellowish soil rendering it excellently adapted for the growth of this See also:crop. See also:Climate.—As regards climate the districts of the Central Provinces are generally divided into hot and cool ones. In the latter See also:division are comprised the two Vindhyan districts of Saugor and Damoh, Jubbulpore at the See also:head of the Nerbudda valley, and the four Satpura districts of Mandla, Seoni, Betul and Chhindwara, which enjoy, owing to their greater elevation, a distinctly See also:lower See also:average temperature than the See also:rest of the province. The See also:ordinary variation is from 3 to 4 degrees, the mean maximum See also:reading in the shade in a cooler district being about 105° as against 1o8° in the hotter ones for the See also:month of May, and 79° as against 83° for the month of See also:December. In the See also:cold See also:weather the temperature in Nagpur and the other hot districts is about the same as in See also:Calcutta and substantially higher than that of northern India. The climate of Berar differs very little from that of the Deccan generally, except that in the Payanghat valley the hot weather may be exceptionally severe. The rainfall of the province is considerably heavier than in northern India, and the result of this is a cooler and more pleasant See also:atmosphere during the See also:monsoon See also:season. The average rainfall, before it was affected by the abnormal seasons which followed 1892, was 51 in., varying from 33 in. in Nimar to 65 in Balaghat. In the autumn months malarial See also:fever is prevalent in all thickly forested tracts and also in the rice country; but on the whole the province is considered to be healthy, and as the rains break fairly regularly in See also:June and produce an immediate fall in the temperature, severe See also:heat is only experienced for a See also:period of from two to three months. Agriculturz.—Broadly speaking, the northern districts of the province produce principally cold weather crops, such as wheat and grain, and the eastern ones principally rice. At the beginning of the See also:decade 1891–1901 wheat was the See also:staple product of the Vindhyan and Nerbudda valley districts, and was also grown extensively in all the Satpura districts except Nimar and in Wardha and Nagpur. Cotton and juar were produced principally in Nimar, Nagpur, Wardha and the southern portion of Chhindwara, and the latter also in Chanda. In the Satpura districts the inferior soil was and is principally devoted to hill millets. Rice is an important crop in Damoh, Jubbulpore, Mandla, Seoni and Chanda, and is the See also:chief staple of Bhandara, Balaghat, and the two eastern districts of Raipur and Bilaspur. The staple crops of Berar are cotton and juar. The succession of See also:bad seasons which marked the end of the decade affected the See also:distribution of the See also:principal crops, but with the See also:advent of more prosperous seasons things tend to return to their old level. See also:Industries.—The only important industries are connected with cotton and See also:coal. In 1904 the total number of factories was 391, almost entirely cotton presses and ginning factories, which received an immense impetus from the rise in cotton prices. In 1896 a brewery was established at Jubbulpore. Two coal-mines are worked in the Central Provinces, at See also:Warora and Mopani, to each of which there is a See also:branch See also:line of railway. Ih T903–1904 there was a total yield of 16o,00o tons, valued at about £45,000. In connexion with the Warora colliery there is a See also:fire-See also:clay business. The Mopani colliery, which See also:dates back to 186o, is worked; by a See also:joint-stock See also:company. See also:Trade.—The trade of the Central Provinces is conducted mainly by See also:rail with Bombay and with Calcutta. The chief imports are cotton. piece goods, cotton twist, See also:salt, See also:sugar, provisions, railway materals, raw cotton, metals, coal, See also:tobacco, spices and kerosene oil. The chief exports are raw cotton, rice, wheat, oilseeds. hides andlac. The exports of wheat are liable to extreme fluctuations, especially during See also:famine periods. See also:Railways.—Until recently, the only railway in the Central Provinces was the Great Indian Peninsula, with two branches, one terminating at Nagpur, the other at Jubbulpore, whence it was continued by the East Indian system to See also:Allahabad. The Bengal-Nagpur line has now opened up the eastern portion of the country, bringing it into See also:direct connexion with Calcutta; and a new branch of the Indian Midland, from Saugor through Damoh, has been partly constructed as a famine See also:work. Large portions, however, in the hilly centre and in the south-east, are still remote from railways. See also:Administration.—The administration of the province is conducted by a chief See also:commissioner on behalf of the See also:governor-general of India in See also:council, assisted by members of the Indian See also:civil service, provincial civil service, subordinate civil service, district and assistant superintendents of See also:police, and See also:officers specially recruited for various departments. The form of the administration of Berar was in 1903 entirely reorganized. Under the See also:original See also:settlement concluded by the See also:treaties of 1853 and 186o the revenues of the province were assigned primarily for the See also:maintenance of the Hyderabad contingent, such surplus as accrued from See also:year to year being made over to the See also:nizam, while the province itself was administered in See also:trust by the See also:government of India through the See also:resident at Hyderabad. In See also:November 1902 a fresh settlement was arranged and Berar was leased in See also:perpetuity to the British government in return for an See also:annual rental of 25 lakhs. It remained under the administration of the resident until the 1st of October 1903, from which date it was amalgamated with the Central Provinces for administrative purposes. As the immediate result of this See also:change the offices of heads of departments in Berar, except the judicial commissionership and the conservatorship of forests, were amalgamated with the corresponding appointments in the Central Provinces, and Berar is now treated as one of the divisions of that province for purposes of See also:revenue administration, with a divisional commissioner as its immediate See also:heart!' Population.—The population of the Central Provinces and Berar as now defined according to the See also:census of 1901 was 10,847,325, and is of very diverse ethical construction, having been recruited by See also:immigration from the countries surrounding it on all sides. There are six See also:main divisions of the See also:people: the See also:Dravidian tribes, who formerly held the country; Hindi-speaking immigrants from the north and north-west into Saugor, Damoh, the Nerbudda valley and the open country of Mandla and Seoni; See also:Rajasthani-speaking immigrants from Central India into Nimar, Betul and parts of ' Hoshangabad, Narsinghpur and Chhindwara; See also:Marathi-speaking immigrants from Bombay into Berar, the Mahratta districts and the southern tahsil of Betul; the See also:Telugu castes in the Sironcha and Chanda tahsil of Chanda and the south of Bastar; and the See also:Hindu immigrants into Chhattisgarh, who are supposed to have arrived many centuries ago when the Haihaya See also:dynasty of Ratanpur See also:rose into See also:power. See also:Language.—Owing to the diversity of See also:race, the diversity of language is equally great. See also:Thirty See also:languages and a See also:hundred and six dialects are found in the Central Provinces alone, and twenty-eight languages and sixty-eight dialects in Berar. The chief of these languages are Western Hindi, Eastern Hindi, Rajasthani, Marathi, Oriya, Telugu and Dravidian dialects. Of these last the chief dialects are Gondi, Oraon or Kurukh, Kandhi and See also:Kanarese, of which Gondi is by far the most important. There are also the Munda languages, of which the chief are Korku, Kharia and Munda or Kol. The chief languages of Berar are Marathi, See also:Urdu, Gondi, Banjari, Hindi, Marwari, Telugu, Korku and See also:Gujarati.
See also:History.—The See also:authentic history of the greater part of the country embraced in the Central Provinces does not begin till the 16th See also:century A.D. By the people of northern India the country was known as See also:Gondwana, after the See also:savage tribes of Gonds by whom it was inhabited. The Mussulman invaders of the Deccan passed it by, not caring to enter its mountain fastnesses and impenetrable forests; though occasional See also:inscriptions show that parts of it had fallen from See also:time to time under the dominion of one or other of the great kingdoms of the north, e.g. of See also:Asoka, of the Guptas of Maghada, or of the See also:ancient Hindu See also:kingdom of Vidarbha (Berar); and inscriptions and numerous discoveries of coins prove that, during the See also:middle ages, the open spaces were occupied by a See also:series o See also:Rajput dynasties. Of these the most important was that of the Haihayas of Ratanpur, a See also:family which, settled from time immemorial in the Nerbudda valley, had towards the See also:close of the loth century succeeded the Pandava dynasty of Maha Kosala (Chhattisgarh) and ruled, though from the 16th century onwards over greatly diminished territories, until its overthrow by the See also:Mahrattas in 1745. The second ruler of this dynasty, Ratnaraja, was the founder of Ratanpur.
The inscriptional records cease abruptly in the 12th century, and no more is known of the country until the rise of the Goad
dynasties from the 14th to the 16th centuries. The first of these is mentioned in 1398, when Narsingh Rai, See also:raja of Kherla, is said by See also:Ferishta to have ruled all the hills of Gondwana. He was finally overthrown and killed by Hoshang Shah, See also: The 16th century saw the See also:establishment of a powerful Gond kingdom by Sangram Sah, who succeeded in 1480 as the 47th of the See also:petty Gond rajas of Garha-Mandla, and extended his dominions so as to include Saugor and Damoh on the Vindhyan plateau, Jubbulpore and Narsinghpur in the Nerbudda valley, and Seoni on the Satpura See also:highlands. Sangram Sah died in 1530; and the break up of his dominion began with the enforced cession to the See also:Mogul See also:emperor by Chandra Sah (1563–1575) of Saugor and Damoh and of that portion of his territories which after-wards formed the See also:state of Bhopal. About 200 years after Sangram Sah's time, Bakht Buland, the Gond chieftain of a principality seated at See also:Deogarh in Chhindwara, having visited See also:Delhi, set about introducing the See also:civilization he had there admired. He founded the See also:city of Nagpur, which his successor made his See also:capital. The Deogarh kingdom, at its widest extent, embraced the See also:modern districts of Betul, Chhindwara, Nagpur, with parts of Seoni, Bhandara and Balaghat. In the south of the province Chanda was the seat of another Gond dynasty, which first came into prominence in the 16th century. The three Gond principalities of Garha-Mandla, Deogarh and Chanda were nominally subject to the Mogul emperors. In addition to the acquisitions made in the north at the expense of Garha-Mandla, the Moguls, after the See also:annexation of Berar, established See also:governors at Paunar in Wardha and Kherla in Betul. Having thus hemmed in the Gond states, however, they made no efforts to assert any effective See also:sovereignty over them; the Gond rajas for their part were content with See also:practical See also:independence within their own dominions. Under their peaceful See also:rule their territories flourished, until the weakening of the Mogul See also:empire and the rise of the predatory Bundela and Mahratta See also:powers, with the organized forces of which their semi-barbarous feudal levies were unable to See also:cope, brought misfortune upon• them. In the 17th century Chhatarsal, the Bundela chieftain, deprived the Mandla principality of part of the Vindhyan plateau and the Nerbudda valley. In 1733 the See also:peshwa of See also:Poona invaded See also:Bundelkhand; and in 1735 the Mahrattas had established their power in Saugor. In 1742 the peshwa advanced to Mandla and exacted the See also:payment of chauth (tributary See also:blackmail), and from this time until 1781, when the successors of Sangram Sah were finally overthrown, Garha-Mandla remained practically a Mahratta dependency. Meanwhile the other See also:independent principalities of Gondwana had in turn succumbed. In 1743 Raghoji Bhonsla of Berar established himself at Nagpur, and by 1751 had conquered the territories of Deogarh, Chanda and Chhattisgarh. In 1741 Ratanpur had surrendered to the Mahratta See also:leader Bhaskar Pant without a See also:blow, and the ancient Rajput dynasty came to an end. In Chanda and Deogarh the Gond rajas were suffered by Raghoji Bhonsla and his successor to carry on a shadowy existence for a while, in See also:order to give them an excuse for avoiding the claims of the peshwa as their overlord; though actually decisions in important matters were sought at Poona. Raghoji died in 1755, and in 1769 his son and successor, Janoji, was forced to acknowledge the peshwa's effective supremacy. The Nagpur state, however, continued to grow. In 1785 Mudhoji (d. 1788), Janoji's successor, bought from the Poona See also:court the cession of Mandla and the upper Nerbudda valley, and between 1796 and 1798 this was followed by the acquisition of Hoshangabad and the larger part of Saugor and Damoh by Raghoji II. (d. 1816). Under this latter raja the Nagpur state covered practically the whole of the See also:present Central Provinces and Berar, as well as See also:Orissa and some of the Chota Nagpur states. In 1803 Raghoji joined Sindhia against the British; the result was the defeat of the See also:allies at See also:Assaye and. Argaon, and the treaty of Deogaon, by which Raghoji had to cede See also:Cuttack, Sambalpur and part of Berar. Up to this time the rule of the Bhonsla rajas, rough warriors of See also:peasant extraction, had been on the whole beneficent; but, soured by his defeat, Raghoji now set to work to recover some of his losses by a ruthless exploitationof the peasantry, and until the effective intervention of the British in 1818 the country was subjected to every See also:kind of oppression. After Raghoji II.'s See also:death in 1816 his See also:imbecile son Parsaji was deposed and murdered by Mudhoji, known as Appa See also:Sahib. In spite of a treaty signed with the British in this year, Mudhoji in 1817 joined the peshwa, but was defeated at Sitabaldi and forced to cede the rest of Berar to the nizam, and parts of Saugor and Damoh, with Mandla, Betul, Seoni and the Nerbudda valley, to the British. After a temporary restoration to the See also:throne he was deposed, and Raghoji III., a grandchild of Raghoji II., was placed on the throne. During his minority, which lasted till 184o, the country was well administered by a British resident. In 1853, on the death of Raghoji III. without heirs, Nagpur lapsed to the British See also:paramount power. Until the formation of the Central Provinces in 1861, Nagpur province, which consists of the present Nagpur division, Chhindwara and Chhatisgarh, was administered by a commissioner under the central government. The territories in the north ceded in 1817 by the peshwa (parts of Saugor and Damoh) and in 1818 by Appa Sahib were in 182o formed into the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories under an See also:agent to the governor-general, and in 1835 were included in the newly formed North-West Provinces. In 1842, in consequence of a rising, they were again placed under the See also:jurisdiction of an agent to the governor-general. Restored to the North-West Provinces in 1853, they were finally joined with the Nagpur province to constitute the new Central Provinces in 1861. On the 1st of October 1903 Berar also was placed under the administration of the commissioner of the Central Provinces (for history see BERAR). In 1905 the greater part of Sambalpur district, with the feudatory states of See also:Bamra, Rairakhol, Sonpur, See also:Patna and See also:Kalahandi, were transferred to Bengal, while the feudatory states of Chang Bhakar, Korea, Surguja, Udaipur and Jashpur were transferred from Bengal to the Central Provinces. During the decade 1891–1901 the Central Provinces suffered from famine more severely than any other part of India. The See also:complete failure of the See also:rain in the autumn of 1896 caused scarcity to develop suddenly into famine, which lasted until the end of 1897. The total number of persons in See also:receipt of See also:relief reached its maximum of nearly 700,000 in May 1897. The See also:expenditure on relief alone was about a million See also:sterling; and the total cost of the famine, including loss of revenue, amounted to nearly twice that amount. During 1897 the death-See also:rate for the whole province rose to sixty-nine per thousand, or See also:double the average, while the See also:birth-rate See also:fell to twenty-seven per thousand. The Central Provinces were stricken by another famine, yet more severe and widespread, caused by the complete failure of the rains in 1899. The maximum of persons relieved for the whole province was 1,971,000 in June 1900. Ph addition, about 68,000 persons were in receipt of relief in the native states. During the three years 1899–1902 the total expenditure on famine relief amounted to about four millions sterling. Berar also suffered from the famines of 1897 and 'goo. See The Imperial Gazetteer of India (See also:Oxford, 1908), x. 99, for See also:list of authorities. 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