Jai Jai Maharashtra Majha!

A protest where Nehru was booed, a leader like Morarji Desai was removed, political parties with different ideologies came together and 106 lives were sacrificed, all for one cause, Samyukta Maharashtra.

Depiction of Samyukta Maharashtra struggle, Mumbai; Source: memumbai.com

The year is 1947, India is a newly born nation grappling with social, economic and refugee problems. The newly independent state had just gone through a partition disaster and for the leaders, nothing was more important than maintaining the integrity of the country. A new crisis was emerging - a recurrent demand for the reorganization of states on a linguistic basis.

The leadership just having passed through the partition was fearful of the consequences of dividing the country on regional lines. Mahatma Gandhi in the 1921 Nagpur session had proposed the creation of states on a linguistic basis. Now the leadership was turning this down, citing national concerns. The arrow had left the bow and there was no turning back. Many states kept pressing for the reorganisation. One such demand was for the formation of Samyukta Maharashtra.

The demand can be traced back to 1920 when Lokmanya Tilak advocated for a Marathi-speaking state of Maharashtra. Back then the British had divided the provinces according to administrative convenience. Modern Maharashtra was scattered into Bombay province, Central Provinces and Berar, Marathwada of Hyderabad and some parts lying with Mysore and Goa being held by the Portuguese.

The Samyukta Maharashtra Parishad was formed in 1946 under the presidency of Shankar Rao Dev, a veteran Gandhian and the General Secretary of AICC. The Congress party was facing internal dissensions. The government formed a State Reorganization Commission to study the viability of such states under Justice Fazal Ali in 1953. The SRC commission recommended the formation of a bilingual state which included entire Gujarat and Western Maharashtra with Mumbai as capital, but it didn't include Vidarbha. The government rejected this proposal and suggested a trifurcation with a separate Gujarat and Maharashtra while keeping Mumbai as a Union territory.

The proposal was vehemently opposed as there was no way Mumbai could be separated from Maharashtra. The proposal led to violent protest and rioting which was severely crushed by the Morarji Desai government. 106 people lost their lives in the police firing. Hutatma Chowk in Mumbai honours their sacrifice. Desai was removed and Yashwantrao Chawan was called in.

When Nehru visited Mumbai he was greeted with black flags. These were unusual times as even a leader like Nehru was getting booed. Nehru’s finance minister C. D. Deshmukh resigned in protest because of his indecisiveness towards the Maharashtra question.

There were huge protests in Gujarat as well. The Gujarati leaders wanted Mumbai to be a part of Gujarat. Even though Mumbai was populated with Marathi speakers, the people who actually ruled it were the money-making trading class of Gujratis. Mumbai was an ideal site for business - a port to connect with the world with good transport, availability of workers, stock exchange - you name it and Mumbai has it. Mumbai was like the golden egg-laying chicken which the Gujaratis would not let go of.

However, under pressure, the SRC recommendations were accepted and Bombay province was turned into a bilingual state with the addition of Vidarbha. Now only one demand was remaining. A unified Maharashtra with Mumbai as a capital. The battle for Mumbai had begun

The Gujarati lobby started paying off congress leaders to turn the tide in their favour. The visible favour of congressmen was upsetting the largely working-class population of Mumbai. The communists jumped in on the issue. Now the Mumbai question also became a class issue.

Meanwhile, S. K. Patil of Mumbai Pradesh Congress declared that Mumbai won't be part of Samyukta Maharashtra till he is alive. This just added fuel to the fire and people got united with increased vigour. A famous reply to S. K. Patil came which said "If we cannot have Mumbai while you're alive, then we shall have it over your dead body".

For the 1957 elections, Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti fought elections against Congress. They couldn't win, but Congress had a hard time forming a government. Thinking that just like Kerala, Maharashtra might slip out of their hands, so the Congress high command caved in.

The Sahyadri's had attained its rightful position beside the Himalayas and the day had finally come when every Maharashtrian could joyfully sing Jai Jai Maharashtra Majha, Garja Maharashtra Majha...