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Maharashtra Day is not only about Shivaji Maharaj, it’s also about farmers, peasants, laborers, workers, teachers, common men who have worked hard and even lost their lives for the welfare of the state.
Observed every year
India contains no more than two great powers, British and Maratha, and every other state acknowledges the influence of one or the other. Every inch that we recede will be occupied by them - Charles Metcalfe, one of the ablest of the British Officials in India and later acting Governor-General, wrote in 1806
Be it Shivaji's bravery or a common Maharashtrian's effort to do something for the state, Maharashtra swells with pride while telling stories that emerge from different nooks and corners of the state. The discovery of the mighty land of Maharashtra could be traced back to 1300-700 BCE when numerous late Harappan and Chalcolithic sites were discovered throughout the state. One of the largest settlements in Maharashtra was Daimabad, which consisted of unique mud fortifications, an ovoid temple, and fire pits. Till the eighteenth century, Maharashtra was nothing less than a property inherited by different kings and kingdoms.
In the early 1700s, Shahaji Bhosale, an ingenious local general who had previously served the Ahmadnagar Sultanate, the Mughals, and Adil Shah of Bijapur, aspired to establish his dominion. His son Shivaji successfully founded the Maratha Empire, expanded throughout the 18th century by the Bhat family Peshwas centered in Pune, Bhonsale of Nagpur, Gaekwad of Baroda, Holkar of Indore, Scindia of Gwalior, and Puars of Dewas and Dhar. At its height, the empire spanned most of the subcontinent, containing vast swaths of land.
The Marathas are often credited for bringing an end to the Mughal reign in India. The Marathas overcame the Mughals and captured vast areas of the Indian subcontinent's northern and central regions. The Maratha suffered a loss after being defeated by Ahmad Shah Abdali's Afghan army at the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761. The Marathas, on the other hand, quickly recaptured the lost areas and governed central and northern India, including New Delhi, until the end of the 18th century.
The Maratha Empire was defeated in the Third Anglo-Maratha War, and the East India Company seized over. The Marathas also established a powerful Navy in the 1660s and, at its peak, dominated the territorial seas of India's western coast from Mumbai to Savantwadi. It repelled British, Portuguese, Dutch, and Siddi Naval ships and kept their naval aspirations in check. The Maratha Navy flourished until the 1730s, declined by the 1770s, and disappeared entirely by 1818.
Western Maharashtra was ruled by the British as part of the Bombay Presidency, which extended from Karachi in Pakistan to the northern Deccan. A handful of Maratha kingdoms survived as princely states, preserving autonomy in exchange for accepting British suzerainty. Nagpur, Satara, and Kolhapur were the territory's main princely realms. Satara was ceded to the Bombay Presidency in 1848, while Nagpur was annexed in 1853 to create Nagpur Province, subsequently part of the Central Provinces. Berar, formerly part of the Nizam of Hyderabad's kingdom, was inhabited by the British in 1853 and acceded to the Central Provinces in 1903.
However, throughout the British period, a significant region known as Marathwada remained a part of the Nizam's Hyderabad State. From 1818 until 1947, the British dominated the area and affected every element of living for the majority who lived there.
They made many changes to the judicial process, built modern modes of transportation such as roads and railways, took action to provide universal education, including for historically excluded classes and women, formed universities based on the western system, and instilled science education, future technologies, and conventional medicine, formalized the Marathi dialect, and introduced modern media by utilizing modern printing technologies.
Many Marathi leaders participated in the 1857 fight for independence. However, the conflicts were primarily fought in northern India. In the late 1800s, leaders such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Pherozeshah Mehta, and Dadabhai Naoroji began to evaluate the company rule and its consequences. Jyotirao Phule was a social reformer in Maharashtra in the second part of the nineteenth century. Shahu, Raja of Kolhapur, and subsequently B. R. Ambedkar continued his humanitarian activities. B. G. Kher became the first Chief Minister of the Congress-led Government of the trilingual Bombay Presidency following the limited autonomy granted to states by the Government of India Act 1935.
During the Quit India Movement, the British were issued a request, resulting in the transfer of authority and independence in 1947. Following Indian independence, the Deccan States Agency's princely states and Jagirs were consolidated into Bombay State, formed in 1950 from the former Bombay Presidency. The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 reorganized Indian states along linguistic lines. Bombay Presidency State was expanded by adding the primarily Marathi-speaking regions of Marathwada (Aurangabad Division) from the former Hyderabad state and Vidarbha region from the Central Provinces and Berar from the Central Provinces and Berar.
Mysore received the southernmost part of Bombay State. Under the name of Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti, Marathi people campaigned forcefully against the multilingual Bombay state in the 1950s. Among the samiti's famous leaders were Keshavrao Jedhe, S.M. Joshi, Shripad Amrit Dange, Pralhad Keshav Atre, and Gopalrao Khedkar. The samiti's primary demand was for a Marathi-speaking state with Mumbai as its capital. A parallel Mahagujarat Movement advocated a new Gujarat state comprised predominantly Gujarati areas in the state's Gujarati-speaking districts.
After several years of protests, which resulted in 106 fatalities among demonstrators, and the samiti's electoral triumph in the 1957 elections, the national government, led by Prime Minister Nehru, bowed to popular pressure. It partitioned Bombay State into two significant states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, on May 1, 1960.
A procession is conducted at Shivaji Park every year, and the Governor of Maharashtra delivers a speech. On this day, liquor purchases from Indians are outlawed throughout Maharashtra, except for foreigners. The Maharashtra government released a declaration establishing May 1 as a public holiday commemorated as Maharashtra Day. This holiday is observed by all schools, offices, and businesses under the authority of the Central and State Governments. Various programs are organized to commemorate this day.
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