Chhattisgarh

Beneath Chhattisgarh's emerald rice paddies lies nearly half of India's mineral wealth, creating one of the world's starkest collisions between extraction economies and indigenous survival. The state's name, meaning thirty-six forts, traces to the Haihaya dynasty of Ratanpur, but this territory's strategic value predates recorded history. For the Gond, Maria, and Muria peoples who constitute 30 percent of the population, the dense sal forests of Bastar have been home for millennia.

Under British rule, this region operated as fourteen feudatory princely states, largely ignored by colonial administrators who extracted timber and minerals while leaving governance to local rajas. The Bastar kingdom, founded by Kakatiya prince Annama Deva in 1324, maintained continuity until independence. When India reorganized its states, Chhattisgarh remained submerged within Madhya Pradesh for five decades, its distinct tribal character administered from distant Bhopal.

Statehood arrived on November 1, 2000, making Chhattisgarh India's 26th state. The timing proved significant. India's post-1991 economic liberalization had already triggered a mining boom, with Adani Group, Jindal Steel, and other conglomerates racing to exploit coal seams and iron ore deposits. The Bhilai Steel Plant, established in 1955 with Soviet assistance, had long anchored the industrial economy. Now the entire state became contested terrain between corporate extraction and Maoist insurgents who positioned themselves as defenders of tribal land rights.

The Naxalite insurgency transformed southern Chhattisgarh into India's most violent red corridor. The conflict has recorded over 12,000 deaths since 2000, including 4,134 civilians caught between security forces and guerrillas. Counter-insurgency operations have compressed the insurgency to 38 districts by 2024, but the fundamental tension remains unresolved.

Chhattisgarh's economy operates on parallel tracks. The central lowlands function as the rice bowl of central India, producing nearly 10 million tonnes of paddy annually. The state has won the Krishi Karman Award four times for agricultural performance. Meanwhile, mining operations generate electricity and steel for distant cities while local districts record some of India's highest poverty rates.

By 2026, Chhattisgarh faces a defining question: whether mineral extraction can coexist with tribal forest rights, or whether the state will continue oscillating between development promises and displacement grievances.