What was the capital of Madhya Pradesh till 1956?

Madhya Pradesh was created in 1950,with Nagpur as the capital of the state.In 1956,Jabalpur was selected to be the capital but due to some political pressure Bhopal,was made the capital just at the last moment.

In the present geographical area of MP there were 4 states and 4 capitals but Nagpur was a capital. You need to get into a bit of pre independt history for that. There used to be a British province Nagpur as capital, called 'CP Berar' (Central Province & Berar) along with other provinces - Bengal, Bombay & Madras presidencies; Assam, Bihar, East Punjab, Orissa, United Provinces of Aodh & Agra (name-changed to Uttar Pradesh later). Berar belonged to Nizam state originally but was given to the British under Lord Weelesley's (trick) of ceding a part of the province for upkeep of Btitish (Indian) army. Berar consists of Yeotmal, Akola, Amraoti & Buldana. There used to be many princely states, now included in MP that is a Hindi name for a state formed in 1956 (implementing States Reorganisation Commission's recommendations). The princely states' fate was to be decided by the new independent India (of dominion status) after they (princely states) felt that the 'lapse of (British) paramountcy' made them independent. Task of integrating such states (Hyderabad is the largest as big as UK) in India was accomplished by Sardar Patel. After the merger in India these princely states were organised as a separate category of states under 'Part B' & also some, 'Part C'. The ruler or one of the rulers (if it is a merged state of many princely states), was called 'Raj pramukh' (instead of Governor) & was the head of the state with the state having legislatures. States under the British were called 'Part A' states. Indore (Holkar) & Gwalior (Sindhia) merged their states as one state called "Madhya Bharat" & both rulers alternately holding the post of Raj Pramukh. Rewa, Panna, Ajaigarh, Chattarpur, Tikamgarh, Datia were formed into "Vindhya Pardesh", the largest of Part C (Chief Commissioner's territory) states. Bhopal was another Part C state. SRC (with Fazl Ali as Chairman, KM Panikkar& HN Kunzru as members) recommended redrawing map of India into 14 states with language as basis and some Union Territories (Goa, Diu & Daman were still under Portuguese but the French territories were merged in India as 'Puducherry' UT). 8 districts in south, also Berar was to be merged in 'Bombay' as Marathi speaking majority areas. That merged Nagpur in 'Bombay' state. There was a controversy - choice of Capital. Jubbalpore & Indore vied for it. Non-controversial & Small 'Bhopal' won, perhaps because of its Central location.

After Indian Independence, from 1947 till 1956, Nagpur became the capital of Madhya Pradesh

Nagpur was the capital of Madhya Pradesh State till 1956 :))))))))))

Nagpur used to be the capital of Madhya Pradesh

Seriously, I didn't know this. Thanks for bringing up such brilliant question.

indore