Central Provinces and Berar

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Central Provinces and Berar, 1903. Princely states are shown in yellow.

Central Provinces and Berar was a province of British India and later the Dominion of India which existed from 1936 to 1950.

Variants

Jat clans

Formation

It was formed by the merger of the Central Provinces with the province of Berar, which was territory leased by the British from the Hyderabad State. Through an agreement signed on 5 November 1902, 6th Nizam Mahbub Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VI leased Berar permanently to the British for an annual payment of 25 lakhs Rupees. Lord Curzon decided to merge Berar with the Central Provinces, and this was proclaimed on 17 September 1903.[1]

The Central Provinces was formed in 1861 by the merger of the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories and Nagpur Province.

Administration of the Berar region of the Hyderabad princely state was assigned to the Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces in 1903, and for administrative purposes, Berar was merged with the Central Provinces to form the Central Provinces & Berar on 24 October 1936.[2]

After Indian Independence in 1947, a number of princely states were merged into the Central Provinces and Berar, which, when the Constitution of India went into effect in 1950, became the new Indian state of Madhya Bharat, merged with Madhya Pradesh in 1956, also meaning Central Province.

As its name suggests, the province was situated in the center of the Indian peninsula. It comprised large portions of the broad belt of hill and plateau which interposes between the plains of the Ganges and the Deccan plateau.

The Central Provinces and Berar were bounded on the north and northeast by the Central India Agency, including the Bundelkhand and Bagelkhand agencies, and along the northern edge of Sagar District by the United Provinces of Agra & Oudh; on the west by the princely states of Bhopal, Indore and by the Khandesh District of Bombay Presidency; on the south by Hyderabad State, and on the east by Orissa (till 1937, a part of Bengal Presidency) and the Eastern States Agency.

History

British India: The Central Provinces comprised 19th-century British conquests from the Mughals and Marathas in central India, and covered much of present-day Chhattisgarh with portions of Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra states. Its capital was Nagpur.[3]

After the defeat of the Marathas in the Third Anglo-Maratha War, the territories north of the Satpura Range ceded in 1817 by the Maratha Peshwa (parts of Saugor and Damoh) and in 1818 by Appa Sahib, were in 1820, formed into the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories under an agent to the governor-general. In 1835 the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories were included in the newly formed North-Western Provinces (which later became the United Provinces of Agra & Oudh). In 1842, in consequence of an uprising, they were again placed under the jurisdiction of an agent to the governor-general. They were restored to the North-Western Province in 1853.

In 1818, the Maratha Bhonsle Maharajas of Nagpur submitted to British sovereignty. In 1853, on the death of Raghoji III without heirs, Nagpur was annexed by the British under the doctrine of lapse. Until the formation of the Central Provinces in 1861, Nagpur Province, which consisted of the Nagpur Division, Chhindwara and Chhattisgarh, was administered by a commissioner under the central colonial government.


The Saugor and Nerbudda Territories were joined with the Nagpur province to constitute the new Central Provinces in 1861. On 1 October 1903 Berar was placed under the administration of the commissioner of the Central Provinces. In October 1905 most of Sambalpur and the princely states of Bamra, Rairakhol, Sonpur, Patna and Kalahandi were transferred from the Central Provinces and Berar to Bengal, while the Hindi-speaking Chota Nagpur States of Chang Bhakar, British Korea, Surguja, Udaipur and Jashpur were transferred from Bengal to the Central Provinces & Berar.

In 1935 the Government of India Act was passed by the British Parliament. This act provided for the election of a provincial assembly, with an electorate made up of men with a minimum of financial resources, and excluding women and the poor. Supervisory powers over the enclaved and attached Princely States were reserved to the Governor and removed from the authority of the popular provincial governments. Elections were held in 1937, and the Indian National Congress took a majority of the seats but declined to form the government. A minority provisional government was formed under E. Raghavendra Rao.[4]

After Indian independence: India became independent on 15 August and the Central Provinces & Berar became a province of the Dominion of India. The princely states, which were under the Central Provinces before 1936, were merged into the province, and organized into new districts. When the Constitution of India went into effect in 1950, the Central Provinces & Berar was reorganized with territorial changes as the state of Madhya Pradesh, which name also means Central Province.

On 1 November 1956, Madhya Bharat, together with the states of Vindhya Pradesh and Bhopal State, was merged into Madhya Pradesh. In 1956, under pressure from Marathi Irredentists, the Berar and Nagpur divisions were transferred to Bombay state. In 1960, the Bombay State was partitioned into Maharashtra & Gujarat. In 2000, the eastern portion of Madhya Pradesh was split off to become the new state of Chhattisgarh.[5]

Administration

The 1941 Census of India counted 16,813,584 persons in the province, of which 2,093,767 were urban and 14,719,817 were rural.[10] Districts

The Central provinces and Berar was made up of 22 districts, grouped into five divisions :


Jubbulpore (Jabalpur) Division (18,950 sq. mi.), which included Jubbulpore, Saugor (Sagar), Damoh, Seoni and Mandla districts.

Nerbudda (Narmada) Division (18,382 sq. mi.), which included Narsinghpur, Hoshangabad, Nimar, Betul and Chhindwara districts.

Nagpur Division (23,521 sq. mi.), which included Nagpur, Bhandara, Chanda, Wardha and Balaghat districts.

Chhattisgarh Division (21,240 sq. mi.), which included Bilaspur, Raipur and Durg (created 1905) districts.

Berar Division, which included Amraoti (Amravati), Akola, Ellichpur, Buldhana, Basim and Wun districts.

Princely States:

The Central provinces and Berar included also 15 princely states, whose native rulers enjoyed indirect rule under British protection.

Salute states, in order of precendence :


  • Patna, title Maharaja, Hereditary salute of 9-guns
  • Sonepur, title Maharaja, Hereditary salute of 9-guns

Non-salute states, alphabetically :

  • Makrai, title Raja (from 1899, Raja Hathiya Rai) (Raj) Nandgaon, title Manhat

विदर्भ

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर[6] ने लेख किया है .....Vidarbha विदर्भ (AS, p.854): विंध्याचल के दक्षिण में अवस्थित प्रदेश जिसकी स्थिति वर्तमान बरार के परिवर्ती क्षेत्र में मानी गई है। विदर्भ अतिप्राचीन समय से दक्षिण के जनपदों में प्रसिद्ध रहा है। वृहदारण्यकोपनिषत में विदर्भी-कौडिन्य नामक ॠषि का उल्लेख है जो विदर्भ के निवासी रहे होंगे। पौराणिक अनुश्रुति में कहा गया है कि किसी ॠषि के श्राप से इस देश में घास या दर्भ उगनी बंद हो गई थी [p.855]: जिसके कारण यह विदर्भ कहलाया। महाभारत में विदर्भ देश के राजा भीम का उल्लेख है जिसकी राजधानी कुण्डिनपुर में थी। इसकी पुत्री दमयंती निषध नरेश की महारानी थी। 'ततो विदर्भान् संप्राप्तं सायाह्ने सत्यविक्रमम्, ॠतुपर्णं जना राज्ञेभीमाय प्रत्यवेदयन्'--वनपर्व 73,1.

विदर्भ नरेश भोज की कन्या रुक्मिणी के हरण तथा कृष्ण के साथ उसके विवाह का वर्णन भी श्रीमद्भावगत में है। श्री कृष्ण रुक्मिणी की प्रणय याचाना के फलस्वरूप आनर्त देश से विदर्भ पहुँचे थे। आनर्तादेकरात्रेण विदर्भानगमध्दयै (श्रीमद्भागवत 10,53,6). महाभारत में भीष्मक को, जो रुक्मिणी का पिता था, विदर्भ देश का राजा कहा गया है। भोजकट में उसकी राजधानी थी। हरिवंश पुराण (विष्णुपर्व 60,32) में भी विदर्भ की राजधानी भोजकट में बतायी गयी है।

कालिदास के समय में विदर्भ का विस्तार नर्मदा के दक्षिण से लेकर (रघुवंश सर्ग 5 के वर्णन के अनुसार अज ने जिसकी राजधानी अयोध्या में थी। विदर्भराज भोज की बहिन इंदुमती के स्वयंवर में जाते समय नर्मदा को पार किया था) कृष्णा के उत्तरी तट तक था। रघुवंश 5,41 में अज का इंदुमती स्वयंवर के लिए विदर्भदेश की राजधानी जाने का उल्लेख है-- 'प्रस्थापयामास ससैन्यमेनमृध्दां विदर्भाधिपराजधानीम्।'

विदर्भ उत्तरी और दक्षिणी भागों में विभक्त था। उत्तरी विदर्भ की राजधानी अमरावती और दक्षिणी विदर्भ की प्रतिष्ठानपुर थी। मालविकाग्निमित्र, अकं 5 के निम्न वर्णन से सूचित होता है कि शुंग काल में विदर्भ-विषय नामक एक स्वतन्त्र राज्य था-- 'विदर्भविषयाद् भ्रात्रा वीरसेनेन प्रेषितं लेखं लेखकरैः वाच्यमानं श्रृणोति'। मालविकाग्निमित्र में विदर्भराज और विदिशा के शासक अग्निमित्र (पुष्पमित्र शुंग का पुत्र) का परस्पर वैमनस्य और युद्ध का वर्णन है। विष्णु पुराण 4,4, में विदर्भ तनया केशिनी का उल्लेख है जो सगर की पत्नी थीं।

मुग़ल सम्राट अकबर के समकालीन अबुल फज़ल ने आइना-ए-अकबरी में विदर्भ का नाम वरदातट लिखा है। संभवतः वरदा नदी (वर्धा) के निकट स्थित होने के कारण ही मुग़ल काल में विदर्भ का यह नाम प्रचलित हो गया था। बरार तथा बीदर नामों की व्युत्पत्ति भी विदर्भ से ही मानी जाती है।

External links

References

  1. ↑ "Gazetteers of the Bombay Presidency-Buldhana district-History-British Period". Buldhana District Gazetteer website.
  2. ↑ http://rulers.org/indprov.html
  3. ↑ Hunter, Sir William Wilson, et al. (1908). Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1908-1931; Clarendon Press, Oxford
  4. ↑ "PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS (MINISTERS)". Parliament.uk.
  5. ↑ Markovits, Claude (ed.) (2004). A History of Modern India: 1480-1950. Anthem Press, London
  6. ↑ Aitihasik Sthanavali by Vijayendra Kumar Mathur, p.854
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