Chhattisgarh, << CHUHT tees guhr >> (pop. 25,545,198), is a state in central India. The Indian government created Chhattisgarh in November 2000 by taking land from the southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh. The capital of Chhattisgarh is Raipur. Chhattisgarh has rich deposits of coal and many other minerals, including diamonds, iron ore, bauxite, and limestone. Despite its mineral wealth, Chhattisgarh is a poor state, and much of the population cannot read or write.
People and government
People.
Many of Chhattisgarh’s people belong to ethnic groups often referred to as tribes or tribal groups. The tribal groups in Chhattisgarh include the Gonds, the Halbas (or Halbis), the Kawars, and the Oraons. Special laws protect tribal groups from discrimination, ensure their political representation, and protect tribal language and culture. The government reserves some academic scholarships and government service positions for tribal people. 
The most widely spoken language in Chhattisgarh is Chhattisgarhi. Linguists (scientists who study language) disagree whether Chhattisgarhi is a form of Hindi or a separate language. Tribal languages, such as Gondi and Halbi, are also common in Chhattisgarh.
Hinduism is the main religion in Chhattisgarh. Small numbers of people follow Christianity, Islam, or Sikhism. Many tribal people have converted to Hinduism or Christianity. Other tribal people follow folk religions such as animism—the belief that natural objects have spirits. Followers of folk religions often combine Hindu beliefs with their traditional folk beliefs.
Government.
The head of state is the governor, whom the president of India appoints to a five-year term. Chhattisgarh has a 90-member legislative assembly. The chief minister is responsible for the administration of the government. A cabinet of ministers chosen from the legislative assembly assists the chief minister.
Chhattisgarh elects 11 members to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament. The Chhattisgarh assembly nominates 5 representatives to the Rajya Sabha, the Parliament’s upper house.
At the district level, the chief administrative officer is called the collector. At the local level, there are gram panchayats (village councils), most of which consist of elected members. Some panchayat seats are reserved for women.
Land
Land features.
The central part of the state is known as the Chhattisgarh Plain. It is surrounded by hill ranges with an average elevation of more than 985 feet (300 meters). In the northwestern part of the state, several hill ranges occupy the Baghelkhand Plateau, which has an average elevation of more than 1,970 feet (600 meters). In the northeast lies the Chota Nagpur Plateau, with elevations of more than 4,270 feet (1,300 meters). Just to the northwest of Raipur is the Maikal Range. South of the Kanker, Korba, and Mahanadi basins is the Parasgaon Plateau. Farther south are the Bastar Hills and Dantewara Plateau.
Rivers.
The most important river in the state is the Mahanadi. It flows north and east through the Chhattisgarh Plain before entering the Hirakud Reservoir in Odisha (formerly Orissa). The Indravati River, a tributary of the Godavari, flows through the southern portion of the state.
Climate.
Chhattisgarh is hot most of the year. It has a tropical monsoon climate, with over 75 percent of its rain falling during the monsoon season, which occurs between June and September (see Monsoon). During the monsoon season, the average high temperature is 82 °F (28 °C) and the average low is 73 °F (23 °C). From March to June, the average daily high temperature is 106 °F (41 °C) and sometimes rises to 113 °F (45 °C). May and June, the months before the monsoon season, are the hottest and most humid of the year. In the winter months, November to February, the average high temperature is 82 °F (28 °C), and the average low is 50 °F (10 °C).
Animals and plants.
More than 40 percent of Chhattisgarh is covered by forests. The forests contain a rich variety of wildlife, including gaur (Indian bison), black buck, wild buffalo, chital (white-spotted deer), sambar (large brown deer), and leopards. Chhattisgarh is also rich in herbs and plants used for medicinal or other commercial purposes, such as tamarind, chironji, and karkatiya.
There are several wildlife sanctuaries in Chhattisgarh. Indravati National Park, in far southwestern Chhattisgarh, is a reserve for the endangered Indian tiger.
Economy
Agriculture.
Most of the working population of Chhattisgarh is involved in agriculture. The soil of central Chhattisgarh is fertile, and much rice is grown there. The area has become known as India’s rice bowl. In addition to rice, other important food crops include corn, jowar (sorghum), gram (chickpeas), and millets such as kodon and kutki. Only part of the cropland is irrigated. Chhattisgarh suffered from severe droughts in the late 1900’s and early 2000’s.
In Chhattisgarh’s forests, Salai trees are a source of resin that is used for incense and medicine. Bamboo, teak, and sal are valuable timber trees. Chhattisgarh accounts for much of India’s tendu leaf production, which is used for making bidis, an inexpensive kind of cigarette.
Manufacturing.
Chhattisgarh’s manufacturing sector is underdeveloped. Manufacturing and industry are concentrated in the central parts of the state, particularly in the districts of Bilaspur, Durg, Korba, and Raipur. The main industries of Chhattisgarh include steel and aluminum processing, cement manufacturing, and rice milling. The state produces more electric power than it consumes.
Mining.
Chhattisgarh has rich deposits of coal, copper, dolomite, iron ore, limestone, manganese ore, phosphate, tin, and bauxite, the ore from which aluminum is made. The state holds much of India’s dolomite reserves. Diamond prospecting takes place in the Raipur district, and there is an extensive program to explore gold deposits in the Raipur and Raigarh districts.
Transportation.
Chhattisgarh has limited railway and road networks. Few of the state’s roads are paved. Bilaspur and Raipur are the chief railway centers. Raipur also has an airport. The lack of adequate transportation limits economic development in the state.
History
The earliest inhabitants of the region now known as Chhattisgarh were the Adivasis. They lived as hunters and gatherers or as nomadic farmers. The Adivasis, whose name means original inhabitants, now form Chhattisgarh’s tribal population.
Chhattisgarh became part of the Mauryan Empire, which ruled almost all of India from about 324 to 185 B.C. Sometime after 60 B.C., Chhattisgarh fell under the control of the Satavahana dynasty, which ruled a large empire in central India until around A.D. 400. Local rulers in Chhattisgarh paid tribute (money or gifts acknowledging another group’s authority) to rulers of the Gupta Empire (A.D. 320-c. 500).
Following the period of the Gupta Empire, various dynasties ruled Chhattisgarh. Around 1000, a branch of the Kalachuri dynasty established itself in north-central Chhattisgarh, near what is now Bilaspur. The Kalachuris are also called Chedis. The Kalachuris of Chhattisgarh became an independent dynasty and established a capital in Ratanpur. At about this time, the Nagavamsi dynasty began ruling in southern Chhattisgarh.
In the 1300’s, the Navagamsis were replaced by a branch of the Kakatiya dynasty. The main Kakatiya dynasty was based in Warangal, in what is now Telangana. At the end of the 1300’s, the Kalachuris of Ratanpur split into northern and southern branches, and the southern branch founded the city of Raipur.
The Mughal Empire, a Muslim empire, ruled most of India in the 1500’s and 1600’s. Both the Kakatiyas and the Kalachuris remained in power by accepting Mughal authority and paying tribute to the Mughal rulers. Mughal influence was light in Chhattisgarh, and the area remained largely unaffected by it.
In the late 1600’s, the Marathas of western India, led by the Hindu leader Shivaji, launched attacks against the Mughals and severely weakened the Mughal Empire. The Maratha territory was divided among various clans (groups united by a common ancestor) in the early 1700’s. The Bhonsles, a clan related to Shivaji, took control of the area around Nagpur, in what is now Maharashtra state. The Bhonsle Marathas soon conquered most of east-central India, including Chhattisgarh. It was under the Bhonsles that the name Chhattisgarh was first applied to the region. The last Kalachuri ruler was deposed by the Bhonsles in the 1740’s. The Kakatiyas began paying tributes to the Bhonsles, as they had to the Mughals.
The conquests of the Marathas brought them into conflict with the East India Company, a British trading company on India’s eastern coast. The British East India Company had become the dominant European trading company in India by the 1750’s. In a series of three wars (1775 to 1782; 1803 to 1805; and 1817 to 1819), the British defeated the Bhonsles and reduced the Marathas to a dependent power. When the last Bhonsle ruler died in 1853 without a male heir, the East India Company assumed control over all of the Bhonsle territory, including Chhattisgarh.
The British government dissolved the East India Company during the Indian Rebellion of 1857-1859 and began directly governing the company’s possessions in India. In the 1860’s, northern and central Chhattisgarh became a division of the newly created Central Provinces. Raipur was the administrative center of this division. Bastar, in southern Chhattisgarh, became a dependent state of British India, with the United Kingdom exercising indirect control through the Kakatiya rulers. Under British rule, Chhattisgarh remained an isolated and underdeveloped area.
In the 1920’s, the Raipur district branch of the Indian National Congress, the main political party fighting for Indian independence, made the first demand for a separate state called Chhattisgarh. India achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. In 1956, all of Chhattisgarh became a part of the state of Madhya Pradesh, despite a growing movement for the creation of a separate state. Supporters argued that the Chhattisgarh area was culturally and historically distinct from the rest of Madhya Pradesh.
The movement for a separate state was strengthened by the formation of a political organization called the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (CMM), or Chhattisgarh Liberation Movement. The CMM was formed in the 1970’s to support the rights of women and exploited workers and to improve the conditions of the region’s original inhabitants, the Adivasis. When CMM candidates began to win elections, the movement for a separate Chhattisgarh gained a voice in India’s government.
In July 2000, supporters introduced the Madhya Pradesh Reorganization Bill, calling for the establishment of Chhattisgarh, in the Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha passed the bill on July 31, and Chhattisgarh was created on Nov. 1, 2000. In 2008, construction began on a new capital city called Naya Raipur (now called Atal Nagar), about 12 miles (20 kilometers) east of Raipur.
