Day 15 of the cycle · West

Maharashtra

Maharashtra was in the forefront of the freedom struggle,. Maharashtra was the home of Gandhiji’s movement, while Sevagram was the capital of nationalistic India during the Gandhian era.

The administrative evolution of the state of Maharashtra is the outcome of the linguistic reorganisation of the States of India, effected on 1 May, 1960. The State was formed by bringing together all contiguous Marathi-speaking areas, which previously belonged to four different administrative hegemonies – the district between Daman and Goa that formed part of the original British Bombay Province; five districts of the Nizam’s dominion of Hyderabad; eight districts in the south of the Central Provinces (Madhya Pradesh) and a sizeable number of petty native-ruled state enclaves lying enclosed within the above areas, which later merged with adjoining districts.

Located in the north centre of Peninsular India, with the command of the Arabian Sea through its port of Mumbai, Maharashtra has a remarkable physical homogeneity, enforced by its underlying geology. The dominant physical trait of the State is its plateau character. Maharashtra is a plateau of plateaus, its western upturned rims rising to form the Sahyadri Range parallel to the sea-coast, and its slopes gently descending towards the east and south-east. Satpuda ranges cover northern part of the State, while Ajanta and Satmala ranges run through central part of the State. Arabian Sea guards the western boundary of Maharashtra, while Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are on the northern side. Chhattisgarh covers the eastern boundary of the State. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are on its southern side.