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Coordinates: 21°16′N 81°36′E / 21.27, 81.6
Chhattisgarh (Chhattisgarhi/Hindi: छत्तीसगढ़, IPA: [tʃʰət̪t̪iːsgəɽʰ]) pronunciation (help·info), a state in central India, formed when the sixteen Chhattisgarhi-speaking southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh gained statehood on November 1, 2000. Raipur serves as its capital. It is the 10th largest state of India by area. Chhattisgarh takes its name from 36 (Chattis is thirty-six in Hindi and Garh is Fort) princely states in this region from very old times.controversial, many stories
It borders Madhya Pradesh on the northwest, Maharashtra on the west, Andhra Pradesh on the south, Orissa on the east, Jharkhand on the northeast and Uttar Pradesh on the north.
The Chhattisgarhi language, part of the East-Central group of Indo-Aryan languages, is the predominant language in the region. It is often regarded by linguists to be a dialect of Hindi, which is the official language of the state. People in southern Chhattisgarh, Bastar, speak dialects of Dravidian languages.Other languages spoken in Chhattishgarh are Hindi,Oriya,Marathi and tribal languages.
Geography
The north and south parts of the state are hilly, while the central part is a fertile plain. Forests cover roughly forty-four percent of the state.
The northern part of the state lies on the edge of the great Indo-Gangetic plain: The Rihand River, a tributary of the Ganges, drains this area. The eastern end of the Satpura Range and the western edge of the Chota Nagpur Plateau form an east-west belt of hills that divide the Mahanadi River basin from the Indo-Gangetic plain.
The central part of the state lies in the fertile upper basin of the Mahanadi and its tributaries, with extensive rice cultivation. The upper Mahanadi basin is separated from the upper Narmada basin to the west by the Maikal range, part of the Satpuras, and from the plains of Orissa to the east by ranges of hills.
The southern part of the state lies on the Deccan plateau, in the watershed of the Godavari River and its tributary the Indravati River.
The Mahanadi is the chief river of the state. Other main rivers are Hasdo (a tributary of Mahanadi), Rihand, Indravati, Jonk and Arpa.
Districts
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Chhattisgarh is divided into 18 districts: Bastar, Bilaspur, Dantewada (South Bastar), Dhamtari, Durg, Janjgir-Champa, Jashpur, Kanker (North Bastar), Kawardha, Korba, Koriya, Mahasamund, Raigarh, Raipur, Rajnandgaon, and Surguja.
In May 2007, 2 new districts have been constituted by the statement government to enable better administration. These new districts are Bijapur and Narayanpur. This makes the total count of districts in Chhattisgarh as 18.
Politics
In Chhattisgarh Ajit Jogi, the first Chief Minister of the state, has been the most controversial politician of the State. Prominent leaders, besides him, in the Indian National Congress Party are Vidya Charan Shukla, and Motilal Vora. Dr. Raman Singh has been the second Chief Minister of the State and first of the Bhartita Janata Party after the general elections held in November 2003. Besides him, Ramesh Bais, and Dilip Singh Judeo, both former Union Ministers, are other prominent leaders of the party. Dauram Ratnakar is the Chief of the State Unit of the Bahujan Samaj Party for the last many years. Chhattisgarh has given many prominent leaders in the past which include Pandit ravi Shankar Shukla who was the Prime Minister (as the post was known then) of the state of Central Provinces And Berar before the first general Elections in the country, and later the first Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh; his son Pandit Shyama Charan Shukla was Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh thrice. Naresh Chandra Singh, Raja of Sarangarh and a tribal leader of stature, was Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh once and Motilal Vora twice. Earlier in 1962, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Pandit Dwarka Prasad Mishra was elected to the state assembly from Kasdol assembly segment in Chhattisgarh. Other prominent leaders of that era include Mahant Lakshmi Narayan Das, Sundar Lal Sharma, Mini Mata and Chandu Lal Chandrakar. There are 4 major political parties and many independents with followers in the state:
There is a heavy presence of armed insurgent communists (known as Naxalites) in southern and northern part of the state almost running parallel Government in the hinterland – Chhattisgarh is as of 2006 the most Naxalite-affected state in the country.
History
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Much of this area was part of the Chhattisgarh States, a division of the Eastern States Agency in British India. In 1941 they had an area 37,688 square miles and a population of 4,050,000.[1]. The states were organized in 1936 and merged into either Orissa or Madhya Pradesh in 1948.[2]
Recent events
- Recently a law has been passed requiring conversion from one religion to another to be notified to the authorities 30 days beforehand. Citizens who fail to do this can face up to a year in jail. According to the BBC "conversion is a major political issue in the state." (This, conversion-related law, by the way, is enacted also elsewhere in India as a governmental response to the demand from the majority community of Hindus inasmuch Hinduism does not accept formal converts though its members who were allured into other religions are reconvertible, according to tradition. Chhattisgarh, like several other areas in India, has considerable populations of illiterate, yet uniquely cultured, communities - a fertile ground for missionaries who hold that tribal populations are precisely awaiting their salvational mission for their liberation from backwardness. )
- On March 15, 2007, at least 55 police officers were reported killed in an attack on a police outpost in the village of Radi Bodli by Naxalite Maoist rebels.[3] The dead included 15 personnel of the Chhattisgarh Armed Forces and 34 Special Police Officers (SPOs). 12 others were injured in the attack.[4] The total forces present during the time of the attack were 23 regular officers and 55 SPOs.[5]
Economy
Chhattisgarh is one of the rapidly developing states of India. The per capita income is around 250 USD as of 2001, but that is in part due to the neglect and under investment during it being the part of Madhaya Pradesh. Only 20% of population lives in urban areas.
Chhattisgarh's gross state domestic product for 2004 is estimated at 12 billion USD in current prices. After partition, this mineral-rich state produces 30% of the output of the old Madhya Pradesh state. The state has immense potential to graduate into the league of advanced states provided it gets a far sighted political leadership and adequate planning especially in the area of higher studies as well as technical education.
The state's economy is further fuelled by the presence of the Bhilai Steel Plant, S.E.C.Railway Zone, BALCO Aluminium Plant (Korba), and NTPC Korba (National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd) and S.E.C.L. (South Eastern Coalfields Limited).
The city of Korba is a hub for power generation, from where the electricity is supplied to several other Indian states. Chattisgarh's southern area consists of iron ore available where NMDC is excavating to meet the iron demand in India and as well sending to countries like Japan. NMDC is located in Dantewara district. Recently ESSAR has started transporting iron ore through pipe lines to Vizag.
The state is also launching an ambitious plan to become biofuel self-sufficient by 2015 by planting crops of jatropha.[6]
Education
Educational institutions set-up by the state government are the prevalent education providers in the state from elementary schools to degree colleges. In these institutions and schools (other than engineering and medical colleges), the dominant medium of education is official hindi.
In Chhattisgarh, there are seven government recognized universities:
Most the colleges in the state are affiliated to one of these universities.
In year 2006 Government Engineering College was declared National institute of technology (also known as NIT). First one of its own kind in State.
Transportation
The rail network in Chattisgarh is centered on Bilaspur, which is zonal headquarters of South East Central Railway of Indian Railways. Other main railway junctions include Raipur, Durg and Champa. These junctions are well connected to all the major cities of India.
The roadways infrastructure is also slowly picking up in the state. The National Highway 6 (Bombay to Kolkata) passes through the state. The state also hosts National Highway 43 which starts from Raipur and goes up to Vishakhapatnam. National Highway 16 from Hyderabad ends at Bhopalpatnam in Dantewada district. The state has 11 National Highways (2,225 kilometres).
The air infrastructure as of now in the state is minor. Raipur, the capital city, is the sole commercially operating airport of the state. However, of late, Raipur has shown huge upsurge in passenger traffic . Raipur has links to top four cities of the country i.e. Delhi (4 Flights a day), Bombay (3 Flights a day), Kolkata (2 Flights a day), and Chennai (1 Flight a day) .It is also connected to Jaipur , Indore , Nagpur , Bhubaneshwar , Ahmedabad , Vizag and Ranchi . The state, however, has airport in Bilaspur and air strips in Bhilai, Jagdalpur, Sarguja, Korba. Its rural connectivity is also improving.
Culture
The state hosts many religious sects like Satnami, Kabirpanth, Ramnami Samaj, and others which originated as reaction to caste-based Hinduism practised by outsiders coming to the state. Champaran (Chhattisgarh) is a small town that has religious significance as the birth place of the Saint Vallabhacharya. Champaran is coming up as a big holy place for gujarati community. People from all of Gujarat, Mumbai etc. come to visit this place.
The Oriya culture is prominent in the eastern parts of Chhattisgarh.
Chhattisgarh has a very rich Cultural heritage. Chattisgarh has its unique style of dance, cuisine, and music. This has made Chhattisgarh a favorite of anthropologists and sociologists due to its relevant profile.
Crafts
One can see here decorative pieces carved on wood, Bamboo furniture, Clay pieces, idols carved on wood etc.
Dance
Raut Nacha(The folk dance of cowherds), Panthi "Karma" and Soowa dance styles are very popular in the region.
Music
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Pandavani a musical narration of the epic Mahabharata, Teejan Bai, the Pandavani artist was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2003, for her contribution to Pandavani. Ritu Verma is also a well known name [7].
Chhattisgarh has rich traditional folk songs among which sohar, bihav & Pathoni songs are very famous.
Sohar songs are related to child birth. Bihav songs are related to marriage celebration. The main parts of Bihav songs are Chulmati, Telmati, Maymouri, Nahdouri, Parghani, Bhadoni and other songs related to Bhanver, Vidai songs.
Pathoni songs are related to Gouna that is departure of bride to bridegroom home.
There is a growing presence of Chhattisgarhi music and other cultural material on the web [8]
Status of women
In many ways, the women of Chhattisgarh enjoy a unique position within India. The proportion of women in the population is second highest among states in India (commendable). The percentage of females is higher than males in the rural population as compared to the urban. However, since this State is not a large one and this feature accords well with that of many smaller areas within larger States. The village society is little affected by classical doctrines of Hinduism and some customs and cultural practices may at first look seem unique, but regional variants are indeed common in India's diverse cultural pattern. As viewed in this light, one immediate observation may turn out to be that rural women here are though poor but are more independent, hardy, better organised and socially more vociferous and command more power in general compared to their counterparts in other parts of India, so much so that they can choose and even terminate a marriage at will. This assessment is not a consensual or firm one among sociologists, the other interpretation being that there are sections of women with similar practices, too, elsewhere in India. Most of the old temples/shrines here are related to 'women power' (e.g., Shabari, Mahamaya, Danteshwari, incidentally Hindu deities for rural and conventional 'lower' caste people, as often in the rest of India.).
Another similar feature is that women here generally marry at a younger age than in he big picture. Women aged between 20 to 49 years were found (in one particular study) to have married at median age of 15.4 years; and 34% of girls aged between 15 to 19 years are already married (according to Government). Further, there is widespread social belief in witchcraft in Chhattisgarh. Women are supposed to have access to supernatural forces, and often accused of witchcraft and called 'Tonhi' by people jealous of them. They are barbarically persecuted. Again, this is not a feature 'unique' to Chhattisgarh inasmuch it characterizes many communities which are only since recently coming under the influence of the larger, mainstream population due to what may be called the 'TV culture' which is spreading fast, with both sides of the demand and suupply equation increasing.
Today, with increasing urbanization, industrialization and in- migration , many of the cultural concomitants of female subservience, common to non-rural India but hitherto unknown in Chhattisgarh, have started creeping in here. This cannot be a cause for any 'rural grievance' since populations across India, whether rural or urban, are under the same uniform effects of the aforesaid TV culture which seems inevitable, as India, as a democratically governed country attaines greter uniformity in all aspects of political and social life.
The gender ratio (number females per 1000 males) has been steadily declining over the century in Chhattisgarh: 1046 in year 1901, 1032 in 1941, 996 in 1981 and 990 in 2001; but is better than the ratio for India: 972 in 1901, 945 in 1941, 934 in 1981 and 933 in 2001.
For further information, this 103 page report titled 'A situational analysis of women and girls in Chhattisgarh' can be seen which has been prepared in year 2004 by 'National Commission of Women', a statutory body belonging to government of India.[citation needed]. Chhattisgarh women are a great workforce capable of, rather doing on day to day basis very hard and tough work.
Language
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Chhattisgarhi is a dialect of Hindi language or a language in its own right and it is spoken and understood by the majority of people in Chhattisgarh. Chhattisgarhi was also known as Khaltahi to surrounding Hill-people and as Laria to Oriya speakers. In Koria, Surguja and Jashpur, it appears as Surgujia sub-dialect. Including Chhattisgarhi, a total of 93 dialects or languages are spoken in the state which together represent all three of India's major language families except Tibeto-Burman: Munda (Austro-Asiatic languages), Dravidian and Indo-European. All these dialects use the devanagari script of Hindi irrespective of the language group to which they belong. Chhattisgarhi is mainly an IndoEuropean dialect/language with heavy presence of vocabulary and linguistic features from Munda and Dravidian languages.
Classification
H.L.Shukla has given following classification to place some of dialects of Chhattisgarh in Munda, Dravidian and IndoEuropean language families:
Munda
0)Pre-Munda
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1)Pre-Munda (Southern) 2)Pre-Munda (Northern)
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1)Gadba 2)Kharia 1)Korku 2)Mawasi 3)Nihali 4)Pre-Kherwari
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1)Korba 2)Bidaho
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1)Nagesia 2)Sounta or Toori 3)Majhi 4)Majhwar 5)Kherwari
Dravidian
0)Pre-Dravid
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1)South-Central 2)Central 3)Northern
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1)Dormi 2)Dandami-Maria 3)Bhuria 4)Abujh-Maria 1)Parji or Dhurbi 1)Kurukh or Oraon
Indo-European
0)Indo-European
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0)Pre-Aryan
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1)Half-Magadhi 2)Magadhi 3)Pijani
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1)Eastern Hindi 1)Oriya 1)Halbi 2)Sadri
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1)Chhattisgarhi 1)Bhatri
Language Extinction Issue
Since Sanskritized Khari Boli or Hindi is the language of India (and Chhattisgarh) for official use like recruitment, education and there is lack of local people (at least from all ethno-language groups) in the state/local administration; there is ongoing change in the linguistic profile of the state accelerated with more interaction with outside world and desire to get developed.
In northern Chhattisgarh, dialects from all these three language groups are in use today; in middle part of Chhattisgarh, only Indo-European dialects have survived; and in southern Chhattisgarh, Dravidian and Indo-European dialects are in use.
According to H.L. Shukla: Munda dialects are progressing to the stage of becoming extinct; among Dravidian dialects, Parji is also facing extinction problem, Kurukh (Oraon) and Gondi are struggling; and IndoEuropean dialects are in the process of losing their features differentiating them from official Hindi, Khari Boli.
Munda Language Family
According to 1971 census of India, Korku was the major Munda dialect spoken by more than 200,000 people (It is not clear whether this count is for whole India or is specific to Chhattisgarh). Korku, Kharia and Korba are major Munda dialects in use in Chhattisgarh.
Other than these three, Muasi, Toori (in Raigarh), Nihali-Mankari, Khaerwari, Birhord, Kodaku (Sarguja), Dhelki, Mahto, Kora-Majhi, Munda, Mundari and Santhali are other Munda dialects spoken in Chhattisgarh which are either sub-dialects of above stated three dialects or are different but in the stage of extinction.
The only known speaker of Gadba, a Munda dialect spoken in Bastar district, died at the age of 80 some years back, as noted by H.L.Shukla.
Dravidian Language Family
According to 1971 census of India, Kurukh or Oraon was mother-tongue of 300,609 people in Chhattisgarh and there were around 30,000 speakers of Parja or Dhurbi.
Gondi is the Dravidian language spoken by Gond tribals who call themselves Koitor or Koitol and therefor H.L. Shukla has called their language Koitor. H. L. Shukla identifies dialects such as Dormi, Dandami-Maria, Bhuria, Abujh-Maria, Koya, Ghotul-muriya and others under this language. According to 1961 census of India, there were 3,900,000 Koitor or Gond tribals in India. Two thirds of these Gond/Koitor tribals were distributed over Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh according to 1971 census. As of now, almost more than half of these tribals use the dialects in use in their respective areas (other than Koitor). (Mr. H.L.Shukla found that Near Bhopal (capital of Madhyapradesh) which was once the stronghold of Koitor people, one cannot hear Koitor dialect in the circumference of 100 km).
Indo-European Languages
Among 93 dialects spoken in Chhattisgarh, 70 are classified as belonging to the Indo-European language family. Under Chhattisgarhi group, the dialects spoken by Agariya, Binjhwari, Baigani, Bhuliya, Lariya, Dhanwar, Panka, Dindwar and many other tribals are included.
Sadri is the dialect understood by many of the different tribal groups. Sadri is the name given to the Indo-European dialect that is used by tribal people, when they do not use their own dialect, to communicate with other people. Sadri is in use from Chhattisgarh and Orissa to West-Bengal. Similarly, Halbi is understood by many of the different tribal groups in southern Chhattisgarh (earlier there were many different opinions about the language family of Halbi, but now it is usually accepted as an Indo-European dialect) - in 1951 census, it was found that more than 99% of Halbi speakers can speak at-least two dialects.Other major languages spoken in Chhattisgarh are Hindi,Oriya and Marathi.
Notes
References
- Books on Chhattisgarhi Religion
- Lawrence Babb, "The Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India"
- Saurabh Dube, "Untouchable Pasts: Religion, Identity and Power among a Central Indian Community, 1780-1950" (on the Satnamis)
- Ramdas Lamb, "Rapt in the Name: Ramnamis, Ramnam and Untouchable Religion in Central India"
- Chad Bauman, "Identifying the Satnam: Hindu Satnamis, Indian Christians, and Dalit Religion in Colonial Chhattisgarh, India (1868-1947) (Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton Theological Seminary, 2005)
- Books by Indologist Prof H. L. Shukla :
- Folktales of Chhattisgarh
- "Tribal History of Central India" by R.K. Sharma and S.K. Tiwari, Other link
External links
Photo Galleries
Chhattisgarhi Language and Literature Samples
Newspapers from Chhattisgarh
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