CHHATTISGARH, a division of the Central Provinces of India. Fifty years ago it was the most remote and isolated quarter of the Provinces, being shut off by the Maikal range from the Nagpur division on the west and by miles of hills and forests in the wilder States bordering it on the north, east and south.
It is a huge, undulating laterite plain, treeless except for the mango groves planted by generations of villagers round the village sites. It includes the three British districts of Raipur, Bilaspur and Drug, the last mentioned formed in after the Uriya dis trict of Sambalpur and the five Uriya States which adjoin it had been presented to Bengal.
Outside the central plain are several feudatory States as well as large Zamindari properties. The five States received in ex change from Chota Nagpur, i.e., Sirguja, Jashpur, Udapur, Korea and Chang Bakhar, were added to the general political supervision of the commissioner of Chhattisgarh. Besides these States there are the true Chhattisgarh States of Raigarh, Sarangarh and Sakti on the east ; Kawardha, Khairagarh, Nandgaon and Chhuikhadan on the west, and Kanker and Bastar on the south. The Mahanadi is the "Great River" which traverses Chhattisgarh on its way to the Bay of Bengal.
The formation of the country and the soil are distinct from all other parts of the Central Provinces. On the crests of the undu lations the red laterite, locally known as "bhata," emerges to the surface. In the depressions between these crests is black soil, gradually turning into brown and then into yellow as the ground rises. The laterite ridges are either barren or produce nothing but catch-crops of coarse rice when the rains are favourable. The depressions between are more fertile and often rich. The rich soils also are mainly under rice, but produce a second crop of pulses and oil seeds if the late rains are propitious. The western portion of the plain produces a fair amount of wheat and cold weather field crops.
Sir Richard Temple described Chhattisgarh as "the last strong hold of cheapness." Indeed, before 186o rice was selling at 120 seers (24o lb.) to the rupee, and a labourer could feed himself on a shilling a month. In bad years there was scarcity, in good seasons a glut of grain, which rotted away for want of export facilities. This old-time isolation permitted a very ancient dynasty, the Hai Hai Bansis of Raipur and Ratanpur, to remain undis turbed for some seven centuries, but in 1743 Mahratta forces took the country without a blow. Aboriginals occupied the hilly and jungly surroundings of the great plain. The open country is popu lated by Hindu Bastes and outcasts, of whom the Chamars, originally leatherworkers but now cultivators, in the 19th century under reforming leaders revolted against the oppression of the Brahmins and high caste Hindus.
The "Satnami" Chamars, as they are called, worshippers of the "true Name" (Satnam) are monotheists and total abstainers from liquor, some sections also prohibiting tobacco. They freely slaughter cattle and have other customs repugnant to Hindus, between whom and them there is hereditary hostility. There are also in Chhattisgarh many disciples of the saint Kabir (Kabir panthis), but this sect is not peculiar to the division.
The great rice crop of Chhattisgarh was almost at the mercy of a droughty season, being broadcasted and unirrigated. It is a country with thousands of shallow village tanks unsuited for irrigation, wells are comparatively few and tank water is used indiscriminately for men and cattle, both for drinking and wash ing purposes. Wells are sparingly used, even when constructed at the expense of public funds, as the water is pronounced "taste less." As a consequence, cholera is apt to be rife in the hot season and at its worst in times of drought and famine. The Bengal Nagpur Railway and Government Irrigation Works have worked wonders in improving the country, and education has made con siderable though slow progress. The Chhattisgarh peasant (ryot) speaks a corrupt dialect of Hindi, akin to the dialect of Ba ghalkund.
Chhattisgarh has often been described as one of the granaries of India, but lack of irrigation, rough cultivation and excessive fragmentation of holdings, whereby one man holds numbers of tiny scattered rice plots instead of compact holding, has resulted in precarious and most uneconomical agriculture. Many storage tanks have been constructed by Government in the Raipur and Drug districts and a few in Bilaspur, and during the last fifteen years two major works, the Mahanadi and Tendula canals, have enabled very large areas to receive protection. Large works are also under construction at Bilaspur, but the people are very slow in learning how to utilize irrigation to the best purpose. In time the agriculture should so improve that the "granary" of Chhattis garh will justify that designation.