Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to the southeast and Chhattisgarh to the east, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh to the north, and the Indian union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu to the northwest. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India, the third-most populous country subdivision in South Asia, and the fourth-most populous in the world.
The region that encompasses the modern state has a history going back many millennia. Notable dynasties that ruled the region include the Asmakas, the Mauryas, the Satavahanas, the Western Satraps, the Abhiras, the Vakatakas, the Chalukyas, the Rashtrakutas, the Western Chalukyas, the Seuna Yadavas, the Khaljis, the Tughlaqs, the Bahamanis and the Mughals. In the early 19th century, the region was divided between the Dominions of the Peshwa in the Maratha Confederacy and the Nizamate of Hyderabad.
Early in the 19th century, the British East India Company defeated the Marathas and brought most of present-day Maharashtra under its control, both directly and indirectly through many princely states. After 1858, the British crown assumed control of the area from the company. During the periods of Company and British rule, the region was divided between the Bombay Presidency, the Central Provinces, Berar, and many princely states including Hyderabad.
After Indian independence in 1947, the Bombay Presidency became Bombay State in the Indian Union. Between 1950 and 1956, Berar, the Deccan states and the Gujarat states were annexed into Bombay State. Aspirations of a separate state for Marathi-speaking peoples were pursued by the United Maharashtra Movement; their advocacy eventually borne fruit on 1 May 1960, when the State of Bombay was bifurcated into the modern states of Maharasthra and Gujarat.
The state is divided into 6 divisions and 36 districts. Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra and the most populous urban area in India, with Nagpur serving as the winter capital. The Godavari and Krishna are the state's two major rivers, and forests cover 16.47% of the state's geographical area.
The economy of Maharashtra is the largest in India, with a gross state domestic product of and GSDP per capita of ; it is the single-largest contributor to India's economy, being accountable for 14% of all-India nominal GDP. The service sector dominates the state's economy, accounting for 69.3% of the value of the output of the country. Although agriculture accounts for 12% of the state GDP, it employs nearly half the population of the state.
Maharashtra is one of the most industrialised states in India. The state's capital, Mumbai, is India's financial and commercial capital. The Bombay Stock Exchange, India's largest stock exchange and the oldest in Asia, is located in the city, as is the National Stock Exchange, which is the second-largest stock exchange in India and one of world's largest derivatives exchanges. The state has played a significant role in the country's social and political life and is widely considered a leader in terms of agricultural and industrial production, trade and transport, and education. Maharashtra is the ninth-highest ranking among Indian states in the human development index.
The state is home to seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Ajanta Caves, Ellora Caves, Elephanta Caves, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai, the Maratha Military Landscapes of India and the Western Ghats, a heritage site made up of 39 individual properties, of which four are located in Maharashtra.
Etymology
Pre-independence era writers state that the term "Maharashtra" was derived from "the country of Mahars". Irawati Karve also noted that Mahars were found in all regions of Maharashtra.The modern Marathi language evolved from Maharashtri Prakrit, and the word Marhatta is found in the Jain Maharashtrian literature. The term Maharashtra along with Maharashtrian, Marathi, and Maratha may have derived from the same root. However, their exact etymology is uncertain.
Another theory among the linguistic scholars is that the words Maratha and Maharashtra ultimately derived from a combination of Mahā and Rāṣṭrikā, the name of a tribe or dynasty of chiefs ruling in the Deccan region. An alternate theory states that the term is derived from mahā and ratha/''rathi, which refers to a skilful northern fighting force that migrated southward into the area.
In the Harivamsa, the Yadava kingdom called Anaratta is described as mostly inhabited by the Abhiras. The Anartta country and its inhabitants were called Surastra and the Saurastras, probably after the Rattas akin to the Rastrikas of Asoka's rock Edicts, now known as Maharastra and the Marattas.
An alternative theory states that the term derives from the word mahā and rāṣṭra''. However, this theory is somewhat controversial among modern scholars who believe it to be the Sanskritised interpretation of later writers.
History
Numerous Late Harappan or Chalcolithic sites belonging to the Jorwe culture have been discovered throughout the state. The largest settlement discovered of the culture is at Daimabad, which had a mud fortification during this period, as well as an elliptical temple with fire pits. In the Late Harappan period there was a large migration of people from Gujarat to northern Maharashtra.Maharashtra was ruled by Maurya Empire in the fourth and third centuries BCE. Around 230 BCE, Maharashtra came under the rule of the Satavahana dynasty which ruled it for the next 400 years. The rule of Satavahanas was followed by that of Western Satraps, Gupta Empire, Gurjara-Pratihara, Vakataka, Kadambas, Chalukya Empire, Rashtrakuta Dynasty, and Western Chalukya and the Yadava dynasty. The Buddhist Ajanta Caves in present-day Aurangabad display influences from the Satavahana and Vakataka styles. The caves were possibly excavated during this period.
The Chalukya dynasty ruled the region from the sixth to the eighth centuries CE, and the two prominent rulers were Pulakeshin II, who defeated the north Indian Emperor Harsha, and Vikramaditya II, who defeated the Arab invaders in the eighth century. The Rashtrakuta dynasty ruled Maharashtra from the eighth to the tenth century. The Arab traveller Sulaiman al Mahri described the ruler of the Rashtrakuta dynasty Amoghavarsha as "one of the four great kings of the world". Shilahara dynasty began as vassals of the Rashtrakuta dynasty which ruled the Deccan plateau between the eighth and tenth centuries. From the early 11th century to the 12th century, the Deccan Plateau, which includes a significant part of Maharashtra, was dominated by the Western Chalukya Empire and the Chola dynasty. Several battles were fought between the Western Chalukya Empire and the Chola dynasty in the Deccan Plateau during the reigns of Raja Raja Chola I, Rajendra Chola I, Jayasimha II, Someshvara I, and Vikramaditya VI.
In the early 14th century, the Yadava Dynasty, which ruled most of present-day Maharashtra, was overthrown by the Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khalji. Later, Muhammad bin Tughluq conquered parts of the Deccan, and temporarily shifted his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad in Maharashtra. After the collapse of the Tughluqs in 1347, the local Bahmani Sultanate of Gulbarga took over, governing the region for the next 150 years. After the break-up of the Bahamani sultanate in 1518, Maharashtra split into five Deccan Sultanates: Nizamshah of Ahmednagar, Adilshah of Bijapur, Qutubshah of Golkonda, Bidarshah of Bidar and Imadshah of Elichpur. These kingdoms often fought with each other. United, they decisively defeated the Vijayanagara Empire of the south in 1565. The present area of Mumbai was ruled by the Sultanate of Gujarat before its capture by Portugal in 1535 and the Faruqi dynasty ruled the Khandesh region between 1382 and 1601 before finally getting annexed in the Mughal Empire. Malik Ambar, the regent of the Nizamshahi dynasty of Ahmednagar from 1607 to 1626, increased the strength and power of Murtaza Nizam Shah II and raised a large army.Ambar is said to have introduced the concept of guerrilla warfare in the Deccan region. Malik Ambar assisted Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in Delhi against his stepmother, Nur Jahan, who wanted to enthrone her son-in-law. Both Shivaji's grandfather, Maloji and father Shahaji served under Ambar.
In the early 17th century, Shahaji Bhosale, an ambitious local general who had served the Ahmadnagar Sultanate, the Mughals and Adil Shah of Bijapur at different periods throughout his career, attempted to establish his independent rule. This attempt was unsuccessful, but his son Shivaji succeeded in establishing the Maratha Empire. Shortly after Shivaji's death in 1680, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb launched a campaign to conquer Maratha territories as well as the Adilshahi and Govalkonda kingdoms. This campaign, better known as Mughal–Maratha Wars, was a strategic defeat for Mughals. Aurangzeb failed to fully conquer Maratha territories, and this campaign had a ruinous effect on Mughal Treasury and Army. Shortly after Aurangzeb's death in 1707, Marathas under Peshwa Bajirao I and the generals that he had promoted such as Ranoji Shinde and Malharrao Holkar started conquering Mughal Territories in the north and western India, and by 1750s they or their successors had confined the Mughals to city of Delhi.
After their defeat at the hand of Ahmad Shah Abdali's Afghan forces in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, the Maratha suffered a setback. However, they soon reclaimed the lost territories and ruled central and north India including Delhi until the end of the eighteenth century. The Marathas also developed a potent Navy circa in the 1660s, which at its peak under the command of Kanhoji Angre, dominated the territorial waters of the western coast of India from Mumbai to Savantwadi. It resisted the British, Portuguese, Dutch, and Siddi naval ships and kept a check on their naval ambitions. Charles Metcalfe, British Civil servant and later Acting Governor-General, said in 1806:
The British East India Company slowly expanded areas under its rule during the 18th century. The Third Anglo-Maratha War led to the end of the Maratha Empire and the East India Company took over the empire. The Maratha Navy dominated till around the 1730s, was in a state of decline by the 1770s and ceased to exist by 1818.
The British governed western Maharashtra as part of the Bombay Presidency, which spanned an area from Karachi in Pakistan to northern Deccan. A number of the Maratha states persisted as princely states, retaining autonomy in return for acknowledging British suzerainty. The largest princely states in the territory were Nagpur, Satara and Kolhapur State; Satara was annexed to the Bombay Presidency in 1848, and Nagpur was annexed in 1853 to become Nagpur Province, later part of the Central Provinces. Berar, which had been part of the Nizam of Hyderabad's kingdom, was occupied by the British in 1853 and annexed to the Central Provinces in 1903. However, a large region called Marathwada remained part of the Nizam's Hyderabad State throughout the British period. The British ruled Maharashtra region from 1818 to 1947 and influenced every aspect of life for the people of the region. They brought several changes to the legal system, built modern means of transport including roads and Railways, took various steps to provide mass education, including that for previously marginalised classes and women, established universities based on western system and imparting education in science, technology, and western medicine, standardised the Marathi language, and introduced mass media by utilising modern printing technologies. The 1857 war of independence had many Marathi leaders, though the battles mainly took place in northern India. The modern struggle for independence started taking shape in the late 1800s with leaders such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Pherozeshah Mehta and Dadabhai Naoroji evaluating the company rule and its consequences. Jyotirao Phule was the pioneer of social reform in the Maharashtra region in the second half of the 19th century. His social work was continued by Shahu, Raja of Kolhapur and later by B. R. Ambedkar. After the partial autonomy given to the states by the Government of India Act 1935, B. G. Kher became the first chief minister of the Congress party-led government of tri-lingual Bombay Presidency. The ultimatum to the British during the Quit India Movement was given in Mumbai and culminated in the transfer of power and independence in 1947.
After Indian independence, princely states and Jagirs of the Deccan States Agency were merged into Bombay State, which was created from the former Bombay Presidency in 1950. In 1956, the States Reorganisation Act reorganised the Indian states along linguistic lines, and Bombay Presidency State was enlarged by the addition of the predominantly Marathi-speaking regions of Marathwada from erstwhile Hyderabad state and Vidarbha region from the Central Provinces and Berar. The southernmost part of Bombay State was ceded to Mysore. In the 1950s, Marathi people strongly protested against bilingual Bombay state under the banner of Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti. The notable leaders of the samiti included Keshavrao Jedhe, S.M. Joshi, Shripad Amrit Dange, Pralhad Keshav Atre and Gopalrao Khedkar. The key demand of the samiti called for a Marathi speaking state with Mumbai as its capital. In the Gujarati speaking areas of the state, a similar Mahagujarat Movement demanded a separate Gujarat state comprising majority Gujarati areas. After many years of protests, which saw 106 deaths among the protestors, and electoral success of the samiti in 1957 elections, the central government led by Prime minister Nehru split Bombay State into two new states of Maharashtra and Gujarat on 1 May 1960.
The state continues to have a dispute with Karnataka regarding the region of Belgaum and Karwar. The Government of Maharashtra was unhappy with the border demarcation of 1957 and filed a petition to the Ministry of Home affairs of India. Maharashtra claimed 814 villages, and 3 urban settlements of Belagon, Karwar and Nippani, all part of then Bombay Presidency before freedom of the country. A petition by Maharashtra in the Supreme Court of India, staking a claim over Belagon, is currently pending.