Madhya Pradesh, << MUH dyuh pruh DAYSH >>, (pop. 72,626,809) is a state in central India. Its name means middle province. The state capital is Bhopal. Agriculture is the state’s primary economic activity.
Madhya Pradesh covers an area of 119,014 square miles (308,245 square kilometers) and is India’s second largest state in area. Only Rajasthan is larger. It had been the largest state until November 2000, when a new state called Chhattisgarh was formed from the southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh.
About 70 percent of the state’s people live in rural areas. The capital city of Bhopal has a population of 1,798,218. Many ethnic groups, known as tribes, live in Madhya Pradesh.
Most of the people in Madhya Pradesh follow Hinduism. Islam is the next most popular religion, but it has a much smaller following. Hindi is the most widely spoken language, followed by Marathi. About 75 percent of the people in Madhya Pradesh can read and write.
Government.
Madhya Pradesh has 29 elected members in the Lok Sabha (lower house) and 11 nominated representatives in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) of the Indian national Parliament. The regional head of state is the governor, who is appointed by the president of India to a five-year term. Madhya Pradesh has a 231-member Legislative Assembly.
At the district level, the chief administrative officer is called the collector. Local administration is in the hands of the gram panchayat (village councils) of elected members. Some panchayat seats are reserved for women.
Economy.
Farming is the most important sector of the economy of Madhya Pradesh. The main food crops are jowar (sorghum), rice, wheat, and coarse millets, such as kondo, kutki, and sawan. Rice is the major crop in the east, where rainfall is heavy. In the drier western areas, wheat is the main food crop. Madhya Pradesh is the largest soybean producer in India.
Forests cover much of the state. Salai trees are a source of a resin that is used for incense and medicine. Bamboo, teak, and sal are valuable timber trees found in Madhya Pradesh.
Products manufactured in Madhya Pradesh include cement; chemicals, including fertilizers; electronics; paper; pharmaceuticals; processed foods; and textiles. Bhopal is the state’s chief manufacturing center.
Madhya Pradesh has deposits of bauxite, coal, copper, dolomite, iron ore, limestone, manganese ore, and rock phosphate. The country’s largest diamond mine is in Panna.
Land.
Almost all of Madhya Pradesh, with the exception of the river valleys, lies at more than 985 feet (300 meters) above sea level. A number of high plains, including the Malwa and Rewa plateaus, spread across the north of Madhya Pradesh.
Two ranges of hills, the Vindhya and Satpura ranges, extend across the state. The Narmada River Valley divides these hill ranges. The Narmada, the Chambal, and the Tapi (Tapti) are the most important river systems in the state. The several lakes in the state are all artificially constructed reservoirs.
Madhya Pradesh has some pockets of dense forest, mainly in the Vindhya-Kaimur ranges and the Satpura Range. Many animals live in the forests, including bison, black buck, wild buffalo, chital (white-spotted deer), leopard, and sambar (large brown deer). The endangered barasingha (swamp deer) can be found in Kanha National Park. Shivpuri and Bandhogarh parks are important game reserves. Shivpuri was once home to many tigers.
History.
Some of the earliest inhabitants of what is now Madhya Pradesh were tribal groups. They were overwhelmed by waves of invaders who gradually pushed them into the hilly forest parts of the region.
Avanti was one of the earliest states that existed in what is now Madhya Pradesh. It was a center of Buddhism and of Pali, the language of early Buddhist literature. Avanti formed part of the Mauryan Empire, which ruled from about 324 to 185 B.C.
From about 200 B.C. to the A.D. 1500’s, various dynasties ruled part or most of the state. They included the Sunga dynasty (185-73 B.C.), the Ksaptrapas and the Nagas (A.D. 100-300), and the Guptas (300-400). The Chandella king Dhanga, who reigned from 954 to 1002, commissioned the building of the magnificent temples of Khajuraho. The Paramara king Bhoja, who ruled from about 1018 to 1060, was an enlightened monarch, a poet, and a patron of both art and literature.
The Turks conquered Gwalior, in northern Madhya Pradesh, in the 1000’s. The Delhi Sultanate incorporated Gwalior in 1231. Akbar, a great ruler of the Mughal Empire, joined parts of Madhya Pradesh to his empire in the mid-1500’s. A large part of Madhya Pradesh came under Maratha rule with the decline of the Mughal Empire in the 1700’s.
In 1817 and 1818, territories in Madhya Pradesh came under the control of the United Kingdom following the British victory over the Marathas in the Anglo-Maratha wars. The anticolonial movement in Madhya Pradesh was relatively weak.
When India gained independence in 1947, the Central Provinces and Berar became Madhya Pradesh. In 1956, the government detached eight Marathi-speaking districts and added them to Bombay state (now Maharashtra). Bhopal also became part of Madhya Pradesh.
In Bhopal in 1984, poisonous gas leaked from a factory owned by the Union Carbide Corporation of the United States. About 3,000 people died at the time of the accident as a result of the leak. In addition, over 200,000 people were forced to flee their homes, and about 50,000 people suffered severe or permanently disabling injuries.
The demand for a new state called Chhattisgarh first emerged in the Central Provinces in the 1920’s. Supporters argued that the area was culturally and historically distinct from the rest of Madhya Pradesh. The movement gained strength after the establishment of the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (CMM), or Chhattisgarh Freedom Movement, in the late 1970’s.
In July 2000, supporters of the new state introduced the Madhya Pradesh Reorganization Bill, calling for the establishment of Chhattisgarh, to the Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha passed the bill on July 31, and Chhattisgarh was created from the southeastern part of Madhya Pradesh on Nov. 1, 2000.
