The Central Provinces and Berar was a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

and later the

Dominion of India The Dominion of India, officially the Union of India,* Quote: “The first collective use (of the word "dominion") occurred at the Colonial Conference (April to May 1907) when the title was conferred upon Canada and Australia. New Zealand and N ...

which existed from 1903 to 1950. 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 Hyderabad State () was a princely state located in the south-central Deccan region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and ...

. Through an agreement signed on 5 November 1902, 6th

Nizam The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...

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. 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 Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...

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 and Berar on 24 October 1936. After Indian Independence in 1947, a number of

s were merged into the Central Provinces and Berar, which, when the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ...

went into effect in 1950, became the new Indian state of

Madhya Bharat Madhya Bharat, also known as Malwa Union, was an Indian state in west-central India, created on 28 May 1948 from twenty-five princely states which until 1947 had been part of the Central India Agency, with Jiwajirao Scindia as its Rajpramuk ...

, merged with

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital city, capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar, and Rewa, India, Rewa being the othe ...

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 Bundelkhand (, ) is a geographical and cultural region and a proposed state and also a mountain range in central & North India. The hilly region is now divided between the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, with the larger portion lying ...

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 Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It ...

Indore Indore () is the largest and most populous city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of both Indore District and Indore Division. It is also considered as an education hub of the state and is the only city to ...

and by the Kandesh District of

Bombay Presidency The Bombay Presidency or Bombay Province, also called Bombay and Sind (1843–1936), was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India, with its capital in the city that came up over the seven islands of Bombay. The first mainl ...

; on the south by

, and on the east by

Orissa Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of S ...

(till 1937, a part of

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

) and the

Eastern States Agency The Eastern States Agency was an agency or grouping of princely states in eastern India, during the latter years of the Indian Empire. It was created in 1933, by the unification of the former Chhattisgarh States Agency and the Orissa States Agen ...

History

British India

The Central Provinces comprised 19th-century British conquests from the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

and

Maratha The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a ...

s in central India, and covered much of present-day Chhattisgarh with portions of

, and Maharashtra states. Its capital was

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...

. After the defeat of the

Marathas The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a ...

in the

Third Anglo-Maratha War The Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1819) was the final and decisive conflict between the English East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. The war left the Company in control of most of India. It began with an invasion of Maratha ter ...

, the territories north of the

Satpura Range The Satpura Range is a range of hills in central India. The range rises in eastern Gujarat running east through the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and ends in Chhattisgarh. The range parallels the Vindhya Range to the north, and th ...

ceded in 1817 by the Maratha

Peshwa The Peshwa (Pronunciation: e(ː)ʃʋaː was the appointed (later becoming hereditary) prime minister of the Maratha Empire of the Indian subcontinent. Originally, the Peshwas served as subordinates to the Chhatrapati (the Maratha king); later ...

(parts of Saugor and Damoh) and in 1818 by

Appa Sahib Mudhoji (Madhoji) II Bhonsale (died 15 July 1840), also known as Appa Sahib, of the Bhonsale dynasty, ruled the Kingdom of Nagpur in central India from 1816 to 1818. His reign coincided with the Third Anglo-Maratha War between the Maratha Empi ...

, were in 1820, formed into the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories under an agent to the

governor-general Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

. In 1835 the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories were included in the newly formed

North-Western Provinces The North-Western Provinces was an administrative region in British India. The North-Western Provinces were established in 1836, through merging the administrative divisions of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces. In 1858, the nawab-ruled kingdo ...

(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 The doctrine of lapse was a policy of annexation initiated by the East India Company in the Indian subcontinent about the princely states, and applied until the year 1858, the year after Company rule was succeeded by the British Raj under the ...

. 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 Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

and Kalahandi were transferred from the Central Provinces and Berar to

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

, while the Hindi-speaking Chota Nagpur States of

Chang Bhakar Changbhakar State, also known as Chang Bhakar, was one of the princely states of British Empire in India in the Chhattisgarh States Agency. It included 117 villages and had an area of with a 1941 population of 21,266 people. Bharatpur was the c ...

, British Korea, Surguja,

Udaipur Udaipur () (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura''), historically named as Udayapura, is a city and Municipal corporation (India), municipal corporation in Udaipur district of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is the administrative headquarter of Udaipur dis ...

and Jashpur were transferred from Bengal to the Central Provinces & Berar. In 1903, the Marathi-speaking Berar region of the

was placed under the administration of the Governor of the Central Provinces, although it officially remained part of Hyderabad, leased in perpetuity by the Government of India. In 1905, most of Sambalpur district and the

s of Bamra, Rairakhol, Sonpur,

, and Kalahandi were transferred to Bengal Province and the princely states of Changbhakar,

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republi ...

, Surguja,

, and Jashpur were transferred from Bengal to the Central Provinces. The

Government of India Act 1912 The Government of India Act 1912 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which made changes to the governance of British India. It received royal assent on 25 June 1912. The act addressed several problems related to the reorganizatio ...

permitted the creation of legislative councils for provinces under a chief commissioner, and on 8 November 1913 the Central Provinces Legislative Council was formed. The

Government of India Act 1919 The Government of India Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5 c. 101) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was passed to expand participation of Indians in the government of India. The Act embodied the reforms recommended in the report of ...

changed the administrator of the province from a chief commissioner to a governor, and enlarged the legislative council and expanded the voting franchise. The first elections for the Legislative Council under the 1919

Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms The Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms or more briefly known as the Mont–Ford Reforms, were introduced by the colonial government to introduce self-governing institutions gradually in British India. The reforms take their name from Edwin Montagu, th ...

were in November and December 1920. The Council consisted of 71 members - 53 elected members, 2 ex-officio members (members of Executive Council), and 16 official and non-official nominated members (Zamindar owners declared as backward, Depressed Classes, Europeans and Anglo-Indians). Out of the 53 elected members, 40 came from general constituencies (30 rural and 10 urban), 7 communal constituencies and 6 special constituencies (Central Provinces & Berar Mining Association, Central Provinces & Berar Commerce & Industry Association, Berar Commerce & Industry, and Central Provinces & Berar Landholders). The Indian National Congress had decided at its Calcutta Conference to boycott the elections as part of the

Non-cooperation Movement The Non-cooperation movement was a political campaign launched on 4 September 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of persuading them to grant self-governance.Ravishankar Shukla Ravishankar Shukla (2 August 1877 — 31 December 1956) was a leader of the Indian National Congress, Indian independence movement activist, the Premier of the Central Provinces and Berar from 27 April 1946 to 25 January 1950, first Chief Minis ...

E. Raghavendra Rao E is the fifth letter of the Latin alphabet. E or e may also refer to: Commerce and transportation * €, the symbol for the euro, the European Union's standard currency unit * ℮, the estimated sign, an EU symbol indicating that the wei ...

B. S. Moonje Balakrishna Shivram Moonje (B.S.Moonje, also B.S. Munje, 12 December 1872 – 3 March 1948) was a leader of the Hindu Mahasabha in India. Career Moonje was born into a Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin (DRB) family in 1872 at Bilaspur in Centr ...

, Daulat Singh,

Makhan Lal Chaturvedi Pandit Makhanlal Chaturvedi (4 April 1889 – 30 January 1968), also called Pandit ji, was an Indian poet, writer, essayist, playwright and a journalist who is particularly remembered for his participation in India's national struggle for indep ...

, and Vishnudutta Shukla, either decided not to run, or withdrew their candidacies. The legislative seats went mostly to Liberals and loyalists. Gangadhar Rao Chitnavis was nominated as the President of the Council. The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms also introduced the principle of

dyarchy Diarchy (from Greek , ''di-'', "double", and , ''-arkhía'', "ruled"),Occasionally misspelled ''dyarchy'', as in the '' Encyclopaedia Britannica'' article on the colonial British institution duarchy, or duumvirate (from Latin ', "the office o ...

, whereby certain responsibilities such as agriculture, health, education, and local government, were transferred to elected ministers but some responsibilities such as home, finance and revenue were reserved with the Members of the Executive Council of the Governor. Some of the Indians who served as members of the Governor's Executive Council were Moropant Vishvanath Joshi (Home) and E. Raghavendra Rao. By 1923, the nationalists had decided to participate in the legislative elections, and in the November and December 1923 election, and the

Swaraj Party The Swaraj Party, established as the ''Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party'', was a political party formed in India on 1 January 1923 after the Gaya annual conference in December 1922 of the National Congress, that sought greater self-government and ...

, which advocated Indian independence, won 41 of the 54 elected seats. 4 seats went to independents who generally allied with the Swarajists, four to the Liberals, and five to independents allied with the Liberals. The Swarajists were led by B. S. Moonje from Vidarbha, E. Raghavendra Rao from Mahakoshal, and S. B. Tambe and B. G. Khaparde of Berar. S. M. Chitnavis was leader of the Liberals. Despite winning a majority of seats, the Swarajists, consistent with the party's policy of obstruction and non-acceptance of office, refused to form a government, and Governor Frank Sly selected Chitnavis and Syed Hifazat Ali, a Muslim independent, as ministers. In the 1926 election, the Swarajists split, with one faction continuing with the policies of obstruction and non-acceptance of office, while the

Responsive Cooperation Party The Responsive Cooperation Party was a political party operating in the Indian independence movement and was established by M. R. Jayakar, B. S. Moonje, N. C. Kelkar and others. The party was a splinter from the Motilal Nehru-led Swaraj Party, whic ...

which chose to participate in government. After the election B. S. Moonje formed a ministry by uniting Responsive Cooperation, Independent Congress, Liberal, and independent legislators into a National Party, with 33 members. The ministry collapsed in 1933 due to infighting among the ministers and a new ministry was formed under Raghavendra Rao with Muhammad Yusuf Shareef and V. B. Choubal as ministers. This ministry collapsed in 1934 and a new ministry was formed with B. G. Khaparde as Chief Minister and K. S. Naidu as the other minister. This ministry remained in office till 1937. In 1933 the princely states in Chhattisgarh Division were transferred to the

, and Makrai to the Central India Agency. On 24 October 1936, the Central Provinces became the Central Provinces and Berar when it was fully merged with Berar Division, although it remained under the nominal sovereignty of Hyderabad.Olson, James S. and Robert Shadle, eds. ''Historical Dictionary of the British Empire, Vol. 1.'' Greenwood Publishing Group, UK 1996. P. 227. 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 The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British ...

took a majority of the seats but declined to form the government. A minority provisional government was formed under E. Raghavendra Rao. The Congress reversed its decision and resolved to accept office in July 1937. Therefore, the Governor invited

N. B. Khare Dr. Narayan Bhaskar Khare (19 March 1884, in Panvel – 1970, in Nagpur) was an Indian politician. He was Chief Minister of Central Province (present day Madhya Pradesh) in 1930s as Congress politician. Later he left Congress and joined Hindu Mah ...

to form the government in August 1937. Khare resigned in 1938, and Ravi Shankar Shukla next became Premier. In 1939, along with Congress leaders from other provinces, Shukla resigned in protest of the Governor-General's declaration of war on Germany without consulting with Indian leaders, and the Central Provinces & Berar came under Governor's Rule. Another round of elections were held in 1946, yielding another Congress majority, and Shukla again became Premier.

After Indian independence

India became independent on 15 August and the Central Provinces & Berar became a province of the

. The princely states, which were under the Central Provinces before 1936, were merged into the province, and organized into new districts. When the

went into effect in 1950, the Central Provinces & Berar was reorganized with territorial changes as the state of

, which name also means ''Central Province.'' On 1 November 1956, Madhya Bharat, together with the states of

Vindhya Pradesh Vindhya Pradesh was a former state of India. It occupied an area of 23,603 sq. miles. It was created in 1948 as Union of Baghelkhand and Bundelkhand States, shortly after Indian independence, from the territories of the princely states in the ea ...

and

Bhopal State Bhopal State (pronounced ) was an Islamic state, Islamic principality founded in the beginning of 18th-century India by the Afghanistan, Afghan Mughal Empire, Mughal noble Dost Mohammad of Bhopal, Dost Muhammad Khan. It was a tributary state du ...

, was merged into Madhya Pradesh. In 1956, strong demand due to linguistic similarity from

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

Irredentists, the Berar and Nagpur divisions were transferred to

Bombay State Bombay State was a large Indian state created at the time of India's Independence, with other regions being added to it in the succeeding years. Bombay Presidency (roughly equating to the present-day Indian state of Maharashtra, excluding S ...

. In 1960, the Bombay State was partitioned into Maharashtra &

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the nin ...

. In 2000, the eastern portion of Madhya Pradesh was split off to become the new state of Chhattisgarh.

Demographics

The 1911 census counted a population of 16,033,310 for the Central Provinces and Berar. Droughts in 1917 and 1920 caused famine in several districts, and the Central Provinces were affected by bubonic plague in 1911, 1912, 1915, 1917, and 1918, and by the 1918 influenza pandemic. In the 1921 census, the population declined by 0.3% from 1911 to 15,970,660. The 1931 census found a total population of 17,990,937 for the Central Provinces and Berar - 12,065,885 for the British districts, 3,441,838 for Berar, and 2,483,214 in the princely states.

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.Census of India 1941, accessed 12 November 2013
/ref>

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 Narsinghpur is a city in Madhya Pradesh in central India. It comes under Jabalpur division. Narsinghpur has a large temple dedicated to Lord Narsingh As of 2001, Narsinghpur is the most literate district of the state. History Prehistory ...

, Hoshangabad, Nimar, Betul and Chhindwara districts. * Nagpur Division (23,521 sq. mi.), which included

, Bhandara, Chanda, Wardha and

Balaghat Balaghat is a city and a municipality in Balaghat district, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Balaghat District. Wainganga River flows beside the town. Geography Balaghat is located at . It has an a ...

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 A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...

, whose native rulers enjoyed

indirect rule Indirect rule was a system of governance used by the British and others to control parts of their colonial empires, particularly in Africa and Asia, which was done through pre-existing indigenous power structures. Indirect rule was used by vario ...

under British protection.

Salute state A salute state was a princely state under the British Raj that had been granted a gun salute by the British Crown (as paramount ruler); i.e., the protocolary privilege for its ruler to be greeted—originally by Royal Navy ships, later also ...

s, in order of precendence : * Kalahandi (Karond), title Maharaja, Hereditary salute of 9-guns *

, title Maharaja, Hereditary salute of 9-guns * Sonepur, title Maharaja, Hereditary salute of 9-guns Non-salute states, alphabetically : * Bamra, title Raja * Bastar, title (Maha) Raja * Chhuikandan (Kondka), title Mahant * Kanker, title Raja * Kawardha, title Thakur * Khairagarh, title Raja * Makrai, title Raja (from 1899, Raja Hathiya Rai) * (Raj) Nandgaon, title Mahant * Raigarh, title Raja Bahadur * Rairakhol State, title Raja * Sakti, title Rana * Sarangarh, title Raja

References

* This contains a more-detailed account of the geography and history of the provinces up to the 19th century. {{DEFAULTSORT:Central Provinces And Berar Subdivisions of British India Provinces of British India History of Chhattisgarh 1950 disestablishments in India History of Vidarbha History of Madhya Pradesh States and territories established in 1936 States and territories disestablished in 1950 1936 establishments in India