The Central Provinces and Berar was a province of British India and later the Dominion of India which existed from 1936 to 1950. It was formed by the merger of the Central Provinces with the province of Berar, which was territory leased by the British from the Princely State of Hyderabad. The Central Provinces comprised 19th-century British conquests from the Mughals and Marathas in central India, and covered much of present-day Chhattisgarh with portions of Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra states. Its capital was Nagpur.