Madhya Pradesh
(2001 est. pop. 60.4 million). Madhya Pradesh is a central Indian state (named from a Hindi translation of the old British unit called Central Provinces). It is entirely landlocked, being bounded on the south by Maharashtra, on the east by Chhattisgarh, on the north by Uttar Pradesh and on the west by Gujarat. It is virtually bisected from east to west by the Narmada River. The state was formed in 1956, and its reduced area was 273,994 square kilometers in 2000, when the eastern third of the state was sliced off to create Chhattisgarh state. The landscape consists of forested hills with extensive plateaus and steep slopes. The Vindhya and the Satpura Ranges cover much of the northern and southern parts of the state, respectively. The capital is Bhopal (2001 est. pop. 1.4 million), though the largest city is Indore (2001 est. pop. 1.6 million). Although there are numerous towns, three-quarters of the inhabitants are rural. The greatest disaster in modern times in this state was the deadly gas leak on 3 December 1984, at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. This killed some 2,500 residents and injured another 2,000. Most survivors have received virtually no compensation.
Madhya Pradesh was a part of the Mauryan Empire in the fourth to third centuries BCE. Later it was a part of Harsha's Empire (seventh century, and then of the Delhi Sultanate (eleventh century). In 1527 the Mughal empire extended into this area when Babur conquered Chanderi; and in the later seventeenth century, a Bhopal State was formed when the Afghan chief Dost Mohammad conquered the area. In 1817 this was annexed by the East India Company, and was administered by the British until 1947.
Cultivated crops include cotton, rice, wheat, pulses, linseed and other oilseeds, castor, soybean, millet, mustard and tobacco. The diverse industries are located mostly in the western half of the state, and include electronics, aluminum, rayon, fertilizer, petrochemicals, paper, tires and tubes, industrial gases, and cables. But the state is primarily agrarian, with low productivity.
Land use in 1991 was 43.2 percent agriculture, 30.7 percent forest, and 26.1 percent other purposes. Some 93 percent of the population are Hindus, and 86 percent speak Hindi as their first language. Tourist sites of outstanding historical importance include Sanchi, Ujjain, Gwalior, Indore, and Bhopal. The state has 448 colleges but no university of major stature.
Further Reading
Russell, R.V., and Hira Lal ([1916] 1969). The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India. 4 vols. Oosterhout: Anthropological Publications.
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