i I . \ I I ; A L CITY 



CENTRAL PROVINCES 



65 



tor the admi ion of Costa Rica and Guatemala. 

 mdei s>|i:irute articles ; also AMERICA. 



(Yntral City, the name of several villa;.-- 

 and hamlet- in the United States, and of the 

 rapilal of (lilpin connlx. Colorado, -10 mile* \\ . ol 

 Denser li.v rail, \\iili quartz-mills and rich gold 

 mines, and (1SK) -J4SO inhabitants; also of a 

 mining town of Lawrence ronnlv. Soiilli Dakota, 

 in tlu- Hlack Hills, 280 miles 8W. of Bismarck, 

 with formerly -""" twenty quartz-mills for gold. 

 l'o|.. (I sso) 1008; (1890) 519. 



Central India i* the official term for a group 

 of feudatory states in India, which fall into nine 

 political agencies, hut are all under the super- 

 \i-ion of the governor-general's agent The region 

 in \\liic-li the-e .-tales lie is to the north of the 

 Mriti-h 'Central Provinces ' of India, and touches 

 the North west Provinces, Raj pu tana, Khandesh 

 in the Bombay Province, and Chutia-Nagpur in 

 Bengal. The total area is about 75,000 so. in. ; 

 pop. in 1891, 10,314,787. The nine subordinate 

 agencies comprised in the Central India Agency 

 an- the Indore, Bhil or Bhopawar, Deputy Bhil, 

 Western Mahva, Bhopal, Gwalior, Guna, Bundel- 

 kliand, and Baghelkhand agencies. The intru- 

 sion of two British districts, those of Jhansi and 

 Lalitpur, belonging to the North-west Provinces, 

 separates these nine agencies into two divisions 

 native Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand on the 

 east, and Central India proper or Malwa on the 

 west ; but the whole country lies between the 

 Nerbudda, the Ganges, and the Chambal rivers, 

 and is mostly fertile and well tilled. The Mahva 

 western division is mainly a tableland 2000 feet 

 above the sea; but its rich black soil produces 

 line wheat and much opium. The climate of 

 Malwa is on the whole mild and equable ; but 

 the northern part of Central India is torrid, and 

 unhealthy during the rainy season. The mineral 

 wealth of Central India is great : iron, coal, 

 copper, and lime are plentiful, and diamonds are 

 found in some parts of Bundelkhaud. The in- 

 habitants are very diverse in origin, comprising 

 Mahrattas (the ruling race), Rajputs, Bundelas, 

 Baghelas, Jats, Kols, and hill-tribes such as the 

 <ionds (414,000) and Bhils (217,000). The popu- 

 lation is mainly Hindu in religion, only 510,718 

 being Mohammedans. The agent to the governor- 

 ceneral of India, whose headquarters are at 

 Tndore, has very high and very various duties 

 and powers. He is the adviser of all the native 

 chiefs, and their guardian during minority ; exer- 

 cises the functions of a court of appeal ; has at 

 his command large bodies of troops ; as ' opium- 

 agent ' supervises the opium-tax throughout the 

 agency ; and he is of course the medium of com- 

 munication between the imperial government and 

 the native authorities. The principal states and 

 agencies have separate articles. See INDORE, 

 UAUIIKI.KHAND, &c. The Central Provinces (q.v.) 

 are a British commissionership. 



Centralisation, a term which has come 

 into general use for expressing a tendency to 

 administer by the sovereign or the central govern- 

 ment matters which would otherwise be under 

 local management. The centralising tendency has 

 been a feature in most of the great states recorded 

 in history, though not in all of them. The oriental 

 empires admitted of a large degree of local in- 

 dependence among the subject peoples. The 

 Roman empire was one of the most remarkable 

 instances of centralisation the world has ever seen. 

 That empire grew out of the subjugation of all 

 the states round the Mediterranean by the city 

 of Rome, and the control of it passed by the in- 

 evitable tendency of events into the hands of a 

 single chief, whose power rested on the army, and 

 109 



who centred in himself all the great functions of 

 government. Iu the later days of the empire the 

 tendency increased, until the system broke down 

 with the po\\er that wielded it. Amid the chaos 

 that followed t he downfall of Rome \ at ions systems 

 KOM for the restoration of order, jMilitical or 

 religious, or Ixith. Of these the greatest is still 

 the Papacy ; the greatest in bygone history wan 

 the empire of Charlemagne. In those times of 

 struggle, the natural method was centralisation 

 based on military supremacy. 



Modern attempts to found a great monarchy in 

 Europe on the model of the Roman empire have 

 failed. There have grown up instead a group of 

 powerful states, in the history of which the central- 

 ising tendency is strongly marked. Centralisation 

 was necessary, for in tne great struggles which 

 have incessantly been going on, success or even self- 

 preservation could be secured only through a strong 

 organisation repressing internal division, and 

 through large and efficient armies. As an adequate 

 revenue was required for these objects, there was 

 further involved a strong control by the central 

 power of the economic and industrial functions of 

 the state. Thus it will be seen that centralisation 

 is more or less inevitable in the struggle for exist- 

 ence on the European continent. The most notable 

 examples of the opposite tendency at present are 

 apparent in the colonial empire of Great Britain, 

 and in the United States, where we find extensive 

 groups of self-governing communities with only a 

 limited measure of control by the central govern- 

 ment. Such control is most limited of all in the 

 British colonies. 



On the other hand, in the French commune 

 i and in the Russian mir we see, under govern- 

 ments otherwise strongly centralised, a form of 

 local activity which had been long extinct in 

 Britain. The municipal reform of 1835 has done 

 much to revive local action in the town life of 

 England. The aim of the reform of local govern- 

 ment begun in 1888 is to revive, extend, and 

 systematise local responsibility and freedom of 

 action, particularly in rural districts. It is now re- 

 j cognised that efficiency in the central government 

 can be best secured by transferring local interests 

 to local management oy decentralisation. A wise 

 decentralisation may be subservient to an effective 

 centralisation, a principle which holds good also on 

 the European continent. No absolute rules can, 

 however, be laid down for marking off the re- 

 spective provinces of the central and local powers. 

 Each country must solve the problem in its own 

 way, as its interests and circumstances require. 



Central Provinces, a chief-commissioner- 

 ; ship of India, lying between 17 50' and 24 27' N. 

 i lat., and between 76 and 85 15' E. long., and em- 

 bracing 18 British districts and 15 native states. 

 Area, 115,936 sq. in. ; pop. (1891) 12,932,330. The 

 surface is very broken, straggling ranges of hills 

 cropping up even in the level portions. In the north 

 extend the Vindhyan and Satpura (2000 feet) 

 tablelands, with the Nerbudda between: south of 

 these stretches the great Nagpur plain, with the 



province are the Wardha and Wainganga ; all four 

 are rapid streams, with their crystal waters leaping 

 from point to point, and rushing headlong through 

 the narrow mountain-gorges of their upper course. 

 The climate is hot and dry, except during the 

 south-west monsoon, from June to September, 

 when 41 of the mean annual 45 inches of rain fall. 

 Wheat is grown chiefly in the Nerbudda valley, 

 rice in the Nagp ur P"" 11 5 these are the princi- 

 pal crops, but oil-seeds, cotton, and tobacco are 

 also raised. The only manufactures of note are 



