East-central, steel-producing state carved out of neighbor Madhya Pradesh in 2000. Over a third of its population belong to the Scheduled Castes (also known as "Untouchables").
A member of the Maratha Confederacy that dominated India's center from 1674 until split to pieces at the conclusion of the Anglo-Maratha wars in 1818, Chhattisgarh (translated as "Thirty-Six Forts," reputed to represent the 36 feudal territories within the area) came under the British Raj in 1845.
Chhattisgarhi (a dialect of Hindi) is the official language and the capital is Naya Raipur.
