Why does Maharashtra have two capitals?

Why does Maharashtra have two capitals?

Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra. Nagpur is the winter capital of Maharashtra. As Mumbai is located about 1000 km from Vidarbha, the people of this region were worried about fair treatment and development in Vidarbha. Hence, Nagpur was chosen as the second capital.

The capital of Maharashtra, Bombay (formerly Mumbai) is an island city on the west coast, connected to the mainland by road and rail. Aptly called the Gateway of India, Maharashtra is one of India's largest commercial and industrial centers and plays a significant role in the country's social and political life.

Maharashtra is a leader among Indian states in terms of agricultural and industrial production, trade and transport, and education. Its ancient culture, at one stage largely obscured by British rule, survives largely through a strong literary heritage. In fact, communal literature in Marathi, the predominant language of the state, played an important role in cultivating a sense of unity among Maharashtrians. Area 118,800 sq mi (307,690 sq km). Pop. (2011) 112,372,972.

Around Nagpur, the Deccan Traps give way to rolling uplands (about 270 to 330 meters high) underlain by ancient crystalline rocks. Part of the larger Godavari basin, the Wardha-Wainganga valley faces south and has many lakes.

Much of Maharashtra is covered with black soil derived from decomposed lava rocks, commonly called "black cotton soils" (because cotton is often grown in them). Drifts along the slopes have eroded into medium brown and light colored sandy soils. Saline soils in river valleys are the result of limited soil drainage followed by intense evaporation.

Climate

The climate is subtropical to tropical (depending on altitude) and characteristically monsoonal (ie wet-dry), with local variations. India's southwest monsoon rains usually appear on the Mumbai coast in the first week of June and last until September, during which time they account for about four-fifths of the annual rainfall. Four seasons are normal: March–May (warm and dry), June–September (hot and humid), October–November (warm and dry), and December–February (cool and dry).

The Western Ghats and the mountain ranges on the northern borders greatly influence the climate, separating the humid Konkan coast from the dry inland highlands, the region called the Desh. Rainfall is extremely heavy in the Konkan, averaging about 100 inches (2,540 mm), with some of the wettest places receiving as much as 250 inches (6,350 mm), but it rapidly diminishes to one-fifth that amount east of the Ghats. Rainfall increases again in eastern areas, reaching about 40 to 80 inches (1,000 to 2,000 mm) in the extreme east.

Coastal regions have uniform temperatures; monthly averages in Mumbai are in the low 80s F (about 27–28 °C). A change of more than about 7°C between day and night temperatures is unusual. Pune (Poona), higher up on the plateau, benefits from cooler temperatures throughout the year. Inland, summer temperatures average as low as 100 F (about 38–41 °C) and winter temperatures average 21–23 °C.

Which region of Maharashtra does it belong to?

The state of Maharashtra is located in the western and central part of India.

How did Maharashtra get its name?

According to one interpretation, the name is derived from the word maharathi (great charioteer), which refers to the agile northern fighting force that migrated south into the region.

History of Maharashtra

Daulatabad: Yadava stronghold

The name Maharashtra, denoting the western Deccan plateau, first appeared in a 7th-century inscription and description by the contemporary Chinese traveler Xuanzang. According to one interpretation, the name is derived from the word maharathi (great charioteer), which refers to the agile northern fighting force that migrated south into the region. The language of the group, mixed with the speech of earlier Naga settlers, became Maharastri, which evolved into Marathi in the 8th century. There was also a constant influx of people from distant Greece and Central Asia.

During this early period, the territory forming today's Maharashtra state was divided among several Hindu kingdoms: Satavahana, Vakataka, Kalacuri, Rashtrakuta, Chalukya, and Yadava. After 1307, a number of Muslim dynasties ruled. Persian, the court language of the Muslims, had a far-reaching influence on the Marathi language. By the middle of the 16th century, Maharashtra was again divided between several independent Muslim rulers who fought each other endlessly. It was in the midst of this chaos that the great leader Shivaji was born in 1627. Shivaji showed amazing prowess by establishing a great Maratha empire that shook the Mughal supremacy based in Delhi.

By the 16th century, almost all of western and central India, as well as large parts of the north and east, had come under the rule of the Maratha confederacy, an alliance formed after the breakup of Shivaji's kingdom. However, Europeans had been present along the coast since the early 16th century. Britain gained control of Bombay Island in 1661, and from the early 19th century the Marathas gradually succumbed to British expansion on the mainland. The British proceeded to establish an administrative province known as the Bombay Presidency. After India's independence in 1947, the province became Bombay State (1950). A number of former princely states (notably Baroda [now Vadodara]) were subsequently merged into a new state.

In November 1956, as part of a major linguistic and political reorganization of the states of peninsular India, the state of Bombay received large parts of Madhya Pradesh as well as the north-western part of the dismembered state of Hyderabad (which was created after India's independence from the former princely state of Hyderabad). However, the result of this reorganization was still a linguistically divided state, in which most of the Gujarati peoples lived in the north and most of the Marathi-speaking peoples lived in the south. The demands of the two linguistic groups for the state to be divided into two parts led to the creation of Gujarat in the north and the newly renamed Maharashtra in the south on 1 May 1960. Bombay, the remaining part of Maharashtra, became the capital of the new state. In the mid-1990s, the name of the city was changed to Bombay.