Central Highlands (India) in the context of "Northern India"

The Central Highlands of India is a large geological structure and biogeographic region located between the Deccan Plateau and the Indo-Gangetic plains consisting of number of mountain ranges, including Vindhya and Aravali ranges, and the Chota Nagpur and Malwa plateaus. It is the single most important feature of Central India. It extends over three linguistic sub-regions of the Indo-Aryan language family and the languages chiefly spoken here are, from west to east, Marwari, Malwi, Bundeli, Bagheli, Chhattisgarhi and Maithili. The population is primarily Indo-Aryan along with a large population of Aboriginal tribes.

This region is widely populated with dense woods and number of different aboriginal tribal groups live here, who practice different forms of Hinduism. Many empires and dynasties have failed to conquer or have had a hard time controlling it due to resistance from the aborigines, as early as the famed Mauryans of Magadha and even the modern-day Indian Republic. The region is a hotbed of the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency, especially the eastern part.