SAMYUKTA MAHARASHTRA MOVEMENT

Formation of state: SAMYUKTA MAHARASHTRA ANDOLAN

The Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti (United Maharashtra Committee) was an organisation that spearheaded the demand, in the 1950s, for the creation of a separate Marathi-speaking state out of the (then bilingual) State of Bombay in western India, with the city of Bombay (now known as Mumbai) as its capital.

The organisation was founded on February 6, 1956, under the leadership of Keshavrao Jedhe in Pune. Prominent activists of Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti were Acharya Atre, Prabodhankar Thackeray, Senapati Bapat and Shahir Amar Shaikh.

The Indian National Congress had pledged to linguistic states prior to Independence. In 1956, the SRC (States Re-organisation Committee) under pressure from Nehru/Patel recommended creation of linguistic states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, but recommended a bi-lingual state for Maharashtra-Gujarat, with Bombay (Mumbai) as its capital. To add insult to injury (for Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti), they recommended creation of Vidharba state to unite the Marathi speaking people of former Hyderabad state with Holkar's Nagpur state. This led to the creation of Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti which was previously called Samyuka Maharashtra Parishad. Its inauguration on November 1, 1956, caused a great political stir and, under the leadership of Keshavrao Jedhe, an all-party meeting was held in Pune and Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti was founded on February 6, 1956.

The Marathi press, along with a long standing tradition for standing up against social and political oppression, was an active supporter of the movement. The prominent litterateur Acharya Atre, founder of Maratha and Navayug was a major proponent, as were others in the press corps, notably Prabodhankar Thackeray, S.A. Dange, founder of the Socialist, and Shahir Shaikh. The Samyukta Maharashtra Andolan was thus sustained by activists of varied ideological persuasion.

S.M. Joshi, S.A. Dange, N.G. Gore and P.K. Atre fought relentlessly for Samyukta Maharashtra, even at the cost of sacrificing the lives of several people and finally succeeded in convincing Congress leaders that Maharashtra should form a separate state.

In January 1956, demonstrators were fired upon by the police at Flora Fountain in the capital city of Mumbai. Flora Fountain was subsequently renamed Hutatma Chowk or "Martyr's Crossroads" in their memory. Morarji Desai, who was the then chief minister of Bombay state was later removed and replaced by Y.B. Chawan as a result of criticism related to this incident.

The Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti achieved its goal on May 1, 1960 when the State of Bombay was partitioned into the Marathi-speaking State of Maharashtra and the Gujarati-speaking State of Gujarat.