Madhya Bharat (1948-1956)

Indian Princely States had always been one of the most complex geographical entities in the ladder of Indian history. While certain states were so large that it was easy to map them, some were fragmented tiny pieces of lands scattered all over the subcontinent, especially in the central part of the country. What today is Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat  with 55 and 33 districts each, was once a plethora of 113 and 354 Princely States (including Chhattisgarh), making it the most complex geographically administrated units of the Indian subcontinent. There were states like Indore, Ujjain, Baroda, Tonk etc. that had enclaves away from the main headquarters and the area adjoining the three states - Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh - is where the complexities were even higher. Hence, after independence in 1947, it became even a greater task to reorganise and rearrange these cluster of tiny fragments into continuous districts, and to club them under new states, the predecessors to what today are Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The entire landmass comprising of today's Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Vidarbha region of Maharashtra were divided into four intermediary states - Madhya Bharat, Bhopal, Vindhya Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. This post, shall focus on Madhya Bharat. 

The Central India Agency was one of the biggest Princely States conglomeration in pre-independent India, created in 1854. Close to 90 Princely States, the Central India Agency geographically spread over Malwa and Bundelkhand regions of central India and a strong cultural continuation of a strong Hindi belt region with dialects such as Bundeli and Malvi language, a hub of Rajput rulers whose ancestry goes back to the medieval era. But more than that, the one strong historical narrative that's attached to this region was the heart of Maratha Confederation that rose in the 18th century with the fall of the Empire and disintegration into several factions across the country, majorly the Shindes (wrongly misspelt by the British as Sindhias), Holkars, Bhosles, the Peshwas and the Gaikwads. The Shindes occupied territories beyond the Chambal River and the Malwa plateau, between Ujjain to Gwalior. 

With the fall of the Maratha Empire in 1818, the Shinde clan was virtually uninterrupted and undisturbed although surrounded by territories where there were constant Pindari raids and annexation of states to the British dominions. The largest state in this region was Gwalior (or Gwaliyar) whose power dynamics worsened in 1844, leading to British intervention and takeover, thus laying grounds of creating the Central India Agency. And thus, several smaller states became a subsidiary to Gwalior (similar was with Indore), thus making it look like a jigsaw of states allied to each other. 

With independence, this labyrinth was resolved and western part of CIA was made as Madhya Bharat, while the Bundelkhand region got a new name as Vindhya Pradesh. According to Absorption of Enclaves Act 1950, all the smaller enclaves of CIA scattered in the neighbouring states got merged with them. Hence, enclaves of Indore and Gwalior in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh got merged with them respectively. Enclaves within Madhya Bharat remained the same, later to be acquired by bigger districts eventually. Smaller enclaves such as one in today's Khargone district and the tiniest former British province of Panth Piploda also got merged with Madhya Bharat. But, a part of disintegrated Tonk district that integrated with Rajasthan, lied as an 'island' between Bhilsa (former name for Vidisha) and Isagarh districts. Indore district twas scattered in what today are Khargone, part of Barwani, Indore, Dewas and part of Mandsaur districts. Ujjain, on the other hand, was spread in today's Ujjain (called as Ujjain-Gwalior) and parts of Dewas district. What today are Guna and Ashoknagar districts, were once collectively called as Narwar, while Morena was known as Tonwarghar. Rajgarh, Ratlam, Shajapur and Mandsaur were also distributed among various smaller fragments of towns, later cleared up to make proper districts. 

Madhya Bharat existed between 1948 to 1956, after which it was integrated into the redefined Madhya Pradesh, thus vanishing the existence of Madhya Bharat along with Bhopal State and Vindhya Pradesh. Gradually, over the years, districts also bifurcated and integrated with each other but here is a list of all the districts of Madhya Bharat existing for the short 8-years timespan:

1. Tonwarghar
2. Sheopur
3. Gird Gwalior
4. Bhind
5. Narwar
6. Isagarh
7. Bhilsa
8. Amjhera
9. Mandasor (multiple locations)
10. Rajgarh
11. Narsingarh
12. Khilchipur
13. Indore (multiple locations)
14. Dewas
15. Sitamau
16. Jaora
17. Sailana
18. Jobat
19. Mathwar
20. Panth Piploda
21. Ujjain-Gwalior (multiple locations)
22. Ratlam
23. Shajapur
24. Dhar (multiple locations)
25. Barwani
26. Alirajpur
27. Jhabua

Here's a map of a 1950 dated Madhya Bharat.