Samyukta Maharashtra Movement | Maharashtra State PSC (MPSC): Preparation - MPSC (Maharastra) PDF Download

 Page 1


  
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
    
 
 
  
 
 
            
   
  
 INTRODUCTION 
 
The State of Maharashtra in which we are living today did not come into 
existence in an easy, happy and smooth manner. People had to struggle 
hard to achieve it. In order to liberate and integrate different parts of 
Maharashtra, people had to make a lot of sacrifice, and had to undergo 
hardships, sufferings and torture. The Samyukta Maharashtra Movement 
was a movement for uniting into one Linguistic State all the regions where 
the Marathi speaking population lived in majority, such as, Mumbai, 
Vidarbha, Marathwada, Goa, Belgaum, Karwar and adjoining areas. It was 
a battle against the linguistic injustice caused to the Marathi-speaking 
people by the then Congress Governments at the Centre and at the State. It 
was a unique movement associated with the life and identity of every 
Marathi person. Never before or afterwards all the Maharashtrian people 
got so united for a common cause, keeping aside all their differences of 
party, caste, creed, region, religion, occupation or economic status. All the 
sections of the Maharashtrian society such as, the students, working 
women, house wives, government servants, workers, peasants, lawyers, 
teachers, artists, writers and journalists participated in this agitation. Every 
Maharashtrian felt that it was his own movement and every one tried to 
give to the best of his or her ability. The slogan given by them all in one 
voice reverberated through the entire atmosphere of Maharashtra, 
Samyukta	Maharashtra	Movement
Page 2


  
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
    
 
 
  
 
 
            
   
  
 INTRODUCTION 
 
The State of Maharashtra in which we are living today did not come into 
existence in an easy, happy and smooth manner. People had to struggle 
hard to achieve it. In order to liberate and integrate different parts of 
Maharashtra, people had to make a lot of sacrifice, and had to undergo 
hardships, sufferings and torture. The Samyukta Maharashtra Movement 
was a movement for uniting into one Linguistic State all the regions where 
the Marathi speaking population lived in majority, such as, Mumbai, 
Vidarbha, Marathwada, Goa, Belgaum, Karwar and adjoining areas. It was 
a battle against the linguistic injustice caused to the Marathi-speaking 
people by the then Congress Governments at the Centre and at the State. It 
was a unique movement associated with the life and identity of every 
Marathi person. Never before or afterwards all the Maharashtrian people 
got so united for a common cause, keeping aside all their differences of 
party, caste, creed, region, religion, occupation or economic status. All the 
sections of the Maharashtrian society such as, the students, working 
women, house wives, government servants, workers, peasants, lawyers, 
teachers, artists, writers and journalists participated in this agitation. Every 
Maharashtrian felt that it was his own movement and every one tried to 
give to the best of his or her ability. The slogan given by them all in one 
voice reverberated through the entire atmosphere of Maharashtra, 
Samyukta	Maharashtra	Movement
  
 
                         
 
 
"Mumbaisaha Samyukta Maharashtra Zalach Pahije" (Along with 
Mumbai, United Maharashtra must take place). 
 
ITS BACKGROUND 
 
Though the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement was vigorously launched 
between 1955 and 1960, its roots go back to the early decades of the 20th 
century. During the British rule, the British-Indian territory was divided 
into eleven provinces, but it was an artificial division not taking into 
consideration the popular sentiments. That division was made keeping in 
view the imperialistic interests and administrative convenience of the 
British. Therefore, every province had population belonging to different 
languages, religions and cultures. It was felt that the map of the country 
should be redrawn on linguistic basis. That is to say, wherever the people 
of a particular language are found in majority, all such regions should be 
united to form a linguistic state. Right from 1920, Gandhiji and Dr. 
Rajendra Prasad were in favour of creating linguistic states. With the 
involvement of the masses in the National Movement from 1919, 
Congress undertook political mobilization in the mother tongue and in 
1921 amended its constitution and reorganized its branches on a linguistic 
basis. Since then the Congress repeatedly committed itself to redrawing 
the provincial boundaries on linguistic lines. 
 
The Marathi speaking area was divided into several separate units - the 
Bombay Province was under British control, the five districts of 
Marathwada were under the control of the Nizam of Hyderabad, Vidarbha 
was first under the Nizam and from 1853, it was a part of Central Province 
under the British control, whereas, in south Maharashtra sixteen small and 
big states were ruled by Indian princes. Thus although different parts were 
under different rulers, they all were Marathi speaking and therefore 
different political leaders and literators were of the opinion that all those 
parts should be united into a single Marathi-speaking state. The persons 
who saw the dream of such a Marathi state even prior to 1946 were: 
Sahitya Samrat N.C. Kelkar, B.G. Tilak, Vitthal Vaman Tamhankar of 
Jaipur, Dr. S.V. Ketkar, Datto Appaji Tuljapurkar, K.C. Thakre, G.V. 
Patvardhan (the editor of the Jyotsna Magazine). Shankar Ramachandra 
Shende (Sangli), G.T. Madkholkar, Datto Vaman Potdar, Acharya Vinoba 
Bhave, Dhananjayarao Gadgil, etc. 
 
  COURSE OF EVENTS 
 
On 1 October 1938, the Legislature of the C.P. and Berar Province passed 
a resolution put forth by Shri Ramrao Deshmukh saying that the bilingual 
province of CP and Berar should be broken and all the Marathi speaking 
portion should be united into a separate unilingual Marathi state of 
Vidarbha. Accordingly, to achieve this objective, the Maha Vidarbha 
Samiti was constituted. 
 
Page 3


  
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
    
 
 
  
 
 
            
   
  
 INTRODUCTION 
 
The State of Maharashtra in which we are living today did not come into 
existence in an easy, happy and smooth manner. People had to struggle 
hard to achieve it. In order to liberate and integrate different parts of 
Maharashtra, people had to make a lot of sacrifice, and had to undergo 
hardships, sufferings and torture. The Samyukta Maharashtra Movement 
was a movement for uniting into one Linguistic State all the regions where 
the Marathi speaking population lived in majority, such as, Mumbai, 
Vidarbha, Marathwada, Goa, Belgaum, Karwar and adjoining areas. It was 
a battle against the linguistic injustice caused to the Marathi-speaking 
people by the then Congress Governments at the Centre and at the State. It 
was a unique movement associated with the life and identity of every 
Marathi person. Never before or afterwards all the Maharashtrian people 
got so united for a common cause, keeping aside all their differences of 
party, caste, creed, region, religion, occupation or economic status. All the 
sections of the Maharashtrian society such as, the students, working 
women, house wives, government servants, workers, peasants, lawyers, 
teachers, artists, writers and journalists participated in this agitation. Every 
Maharashtrian felt that it was his own movement and every one tried to 
give to the best of his or her ability. The slogan given by them all in one 
voice reverberated through the entire atmosphere of Maharashtra, 
Samyukta	Maharashtra	Movement
  
 
                         
 
 
"Mumbaisaha Samyukta Maharashtra Zalach Pahije" (Along with 
Mumbai, United Maharashtra must take place). 
 
ITS BACKGROUND 
 
Though the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement was vigorously launched 
between 1955 and 1960, its roots go back to the early decades of the 20th 
century. During the British rule, the British-Indian territory was divided 
into eleven provinces, but it was an artificial division not taking into 
consideration the popular sentiments. That division was made keeping in 
view the imperialistic interests and administrative convenience of the 
British. Therefore, every province had population belonging to different 
languages, religions and cultures. It was felt that the map of the country 
should be redrawn on linguistic basis. That is to say, wherever the people 
of a particular language are found in majority, all such regions should be 
united to form a linguistic state. Right from 1920, Gandhiji and Dr. 
Rajendra Prasad were in favour of creating linguistic states. With the 
involvement of the masses in the National Movement from 1919, 
Congress undertook political mobilization in the mother tongue and in 
1921 amended its constitution and reorganized its branches on a linguistic 
basis. Since then the Congress repeatedly committed itself to redrawing 
the provincial boundaries on linguistic lines. 
 
The Marathi speaking area was divided into several separate units - the 
Bombay Province was under British control, the five districts of 
Marathwada were under the control of the Nizam of Hyderabad, Vidarbha 
was first under the Nizam and from 1853, it was a part of Central Province 
under the British control, whereas, in south Maharashtra sixteen small and 
big states were ruled by Indian princes. Thus although different parts were 
under different rulers, they all were Marathi speaking and therefore 
different political leaders and literators were of the opinion that all those 
parts should be united into a single Marathi-speaking state. The persons 
who saw the dream of such a Marathi state even prior to 1946 were: 
Sahitya Samrat N.C. Kelkar, B.G. Tilak, Vitthal Vaman Tamhankar of 
Jaipur, Dr. S.V. Ketkar, Datto Appaji Tuljapurkar, K.C. Thakre, G.V. 
Patvardhan (the editor of the Jyotsna Magazine). Shankar Ramachandra 
Shende (Sangli), G.T. Madkholkar, Datto Vaman Potdar, Acharya Vinoba 
Bhave, Dhananjayarao Gadgil, etc. 
 
  COURSE OF EVENTS 
 
On 1 October 1938, the Legislature of the C.P. and Berar Province passed 
a resolution put forth by Shri Ramrao Deshmukh saying that the bilingual 
province of CP and Berar should be broken and all the Marathi speaking 
portion should be united into a separate unilingual Marathi state of 
Vidarbha. Accordingly, to achieve this objective, the Maha Vidarbha 
Samiti was constituted. 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
On 15 October 1938, in the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held in Bombay 
under the presidency of V.D. Savarkar, a resolution was passed saying that 
along with Vidarbha, all the Marathi speaking regions such as, 
Marathwada, Goa, Belgaum and Karwar should be united into a separate 
Marathi speaking state of Maharashtra. 
  SAMYUKTA MAHARASHTRA MOVEMENT 
Although, the Samyukta Maharashtra movement got momentum after the 
independence of our country, the process  towards the united Maharashtra 
had the beginning in the 20
th
 century by the leaders and literary 
personalities in Maharashtra. 
 
The Legislative Assembly of the Central Province had passed a resolution 
to secede from the bi-lingual Bombay (Mumbai) Presidency and form an 
unilingual separate state of Vidharbha on 1 October, 1938. In order to 
pursue the resolution passed in the literary meet at Mumbai, a Sanyukta 
Maharashtra Sabha was formed on 28 January, 1940. During the period of 
1940 to 1945 the movement could not do any progress because of the 
World War II and the implementation of the Quit India Movement. 
 
On 12 May, 1946 a Sanyukta Maharashtra resolution was passed at the All 
India Marathi literary Conference held at Belgaum, G. T. Madkholkar was 
the president of the Conference. The conference also formed a Sanyukta 
Maharashtra Committee consisting of Madkholkar, Shankarrao Deo, 
Keshevrao Jedhe and S. S. Navare to materialise the resolution. There was 
one more conference held on 28
th
 July, 1946 at Mumbai. It was called 
Maharashtra Ekikaran Parishad, which was presided over by Shankarrao 
Deo and, it was attended by two hundred delegates from all over 
Maharashtra and passed a resolution of Sanyukta Maharashtra on the 
proposal moved by Acharya Data Dharmadhikari. The leaders, who were 
active in the movement held a meeting under the leadership of Pattabhi 
Sitaramaya at Delhi in December, 1946. 
 
The movement spread throughout the state. A meeting of the 
Maharashtra Ekikaran Panished took place at Akola on 13
th
 April, 1947 
and determined to speed up the Sanyukta Maharashtra movemet for 
unilingual state of all Marathi speaking people. This meeting came to be 
known as the Akola Pact. In order to address the popular demand of 
forming the linguistic states of Maharashtra, Andra, the Constituent 
Assembly appointed a Commission in 1948, which came to be known as 
Dhar Commission. To pressurise the Commission, a Virat Parishad was 
formed at Dadar and meeting was held on 15 and 16 October, 1948. On 13 
December, 1948, the Commission submitted its report stating that the 
reorganizing states on the linguistic basis would be against the unity and 
integrity of the nation. In order to remove the outcome of the Dhar 
Commission report, the National Congress accepted the Principle of 
reoranisation of states on the basis of language and appointed a committee 
of Jawarharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramaiya to 
examine the report of the Dhar Commission at its meeting held at Jaipur 
Page 4


  
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
    
 
 
  
 
 
            
   
  
 INTRODUCTION 
 
The State of Maharashtra in which we are living today did not come into 
existence in an easy, happy and smooth manner. People had to struggle 
hard to achieve it. In order to liberate and integrate different parts of 
Maharashtra, people had to make a lot of sacrifice, and had to undergo 
hardships, sufferings and torture. The Samyukta Maharashtra Movement 
was a movement for uniting into one Linguistic State all the regions where 
the Marathi speaking population lived in majority, such as, Mumbai, 
Vidarbha, Marathwada, Goa, Belgaum, Karwar and adjoining areas. It was 
a battle against the linguistic injustice caused to the Marathi-speaking 
people by the then Congress Governments at the Centre and at the State. It 
was a unique movement associated with the life and identity of every 
Marathi person. Never before or afterwards all the Maharashtrian people 
got so united for a common cause, keeping aside all their differences of 
party, caste, creed, region, religion, occupation or economic status. All the 
sections of the Maharashtrian society such as, the students, working 
women, house wives, government servants, workers, peasants, lawyers, 
teachers, artists, writers and journalists participated in this agitation. Every 
Maharashtrian felt that it was his own movement and every one tried to 
give to the best of his or her ability. The slogan given by them all in one 
voice reverberated through the entire atmosphere of Maharashtra, 
Samyukta	Maharashtra	Movement
  
 
                         
 
 
"Mumbaisaha Samyukta Maharashtra Zalach Pahije" (Along with 
Mumbai, United Maharashtra must take place). 
 
ITS BACKGROUND 
 
Though the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement was vigorously launched 
between 1955 and 1960, its roots go back to the early decades of the 20th 
century. During the British rule, the British-Indian territory was divided 
into eleven provinces, but it was an artificial division not taking into 
consideration the popular sentiments. That division was made keeping in 
view the imperialistic interests and administrative convenience of the 
British. Therefore, every province had population belonging to different 
languages, religions and cultures. It was felt that the map of the country 
should be redrawn on linguistic basis. That is to say, wherever the people 
of a particular language are found in majority, all such regions should be 
united to form a linguistic state. Right from 1920, Gandhiji and Dr. 
Rajendra Prasad were in favour of creating linguistic states. With the 
involvement of the masses in the National Movement from 1919, 
Congress undertook political mobilization in the mother tongue and in 
1921 amended its constitution and reorganized its branches on a linguistic 
basis. Since then the Congress repeatedly committed itself to redrawing 
the provincial boundaries on linguistic lines. 
 
The Marathi speaking area was divided into several separate units - the 
Bombay Province was under British control, the five districts of 
Marathwada were under the control of the Nizam of Hyderabad, Vidarbha 
was first under the Nizam and from 1853, it was a part of Central Province 
under the British control, whereas, in south Maharashtra sixteen small and 
big states were ruled by Indian princes. Thus although different parts were 
under different rulers, they all were Marathi speaking and therefore 
different political leaders and literators were of the opinion that all those 
parts should be united into a single Marathi-speaking state. The persons 
who saw the dream of such a Marathi state even prior to 1946 were: 
Sahitya Samrat N.C. Kelkar, B.G. Tilak, Vitthal Vaman Tamhankar of 
Jaipur, Dr. S.V. Ketkar, Datto Appaji Tuljapurkar, K.C. Thakre, G.V. 
Patvardhan (the editor of the Jyotsna Magazine). Shankar Ramachandra 
Shende (Sangli), G.T. Madkholkar, Datto Vaman Potdar, Acharya Vinoba 
Bhave, Dhananjayarao Gadgil, etc. 
 
  COURSE OF EVENTS 
 
On 1 October 1938, the Legislature of the C.P. and Berar Province passed 
a resolution put forth by Shri Ramrao Deshmukh saying that the bilingual 
province of CP and Berar should be broken and all the Marathi speaking 
portion should be united into a separate unilingual Marathi state of 
Vidarbha. Accordingly, to achieve this objective, the Maha Vidarbha 
Samiti was constituted. 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
On 15 October 1938, in the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held in Bombay 
under the presidency of V.D. Savarkar, a resolution was passed saying that 
along with Vidarbha, all the Marathi speaking regions such as, 
Marathwada, Goa, Belgaum and Karwar should be united into a separate 
Marathi speaking state of Maharashtra. 
  SAMYUKTA MAHARASHTRA MOVEMENT 
Although, the Samyukta Maharashtra movement got momentum after the 
independence of our country, the process  towards the united Maharashtra 
had the beginning in the 20
th
 century by the leaders and literary 
personalities in Maharashtra. 
 
The Legislative Assembly of the Central Province had passed a resolution 
to secede from the bi-lingual Bombay (Mumbai) Presidency and form an 
unilingual separate state of Vidharbha on 1 October, 1938. In order to 
pursue the resolution passed in the literary meet at Mumbai, a Sanyukta 
Maharashtra Sabha was formed on 28 January, 1940. During the period of 
1940 to 1945 the movement could not do any progress because of the 
World War II and the implementation of the Quit India Movement. 
 
On 12 May, 1946 a Sanyukta Maharashtra resolution was passed at the All 
India Marathi literary Conference held at Belgaum, G. T. Madkholkar was 
the president of the Conference. The conference also formed a Sanyukta 
Maharashtra Committee consisting of Madkholkar, Shankarrao Deo, 
Keshevrao Jedhe and S. S. Navare to materialise the resolution. There was 
one more conference held on 28
th
 July, 1946 at Mumbai. It was called 
Maharashtra Ekikaran Parishad, which was presided over by Shankarrao 
Deo and, it was attended by two hundred delegates from all over 
Maharashtra and passed a resolution of Sanyukta Maharashtra on the 
proposal moved by Acharya Data Dharmadhikari. The leaders, who were 
active in the movement held a meeting under the leadership of Pattabhi 
Sitaramaya at Delhi in December, 1946. 
 
The movement spread throughout the state. A meeting of the 
Maharashtra Ekikaran Panished took place at Akola on 13
th
 April, 1947 
and determined to speed up the Sanyukta Maharashtra movemet for 
unilingual state of all Marathi speaking people. This meeting came to be 
known as the Akola Pact. In order to address the popular demand of 
forming the linguistic states of Maharashtra, Andra, the Constituent 
Assembly appointed a Commission in 1948, which came to be known as 
Dhar Commission. To pressurise the Commission, a Virat Parishad was 
formed at Dadar and meeting was held on 15 and 16 October, 1948. On 13 
December, 1948, the Commission submitted its report stating that the 
reorganizing states on the linguistic basis would be against the unity and 
integrity of the nation. In order to remove the outcome of the Dhar 
Commission report, the National Congress accepted the Principle of 
reoranisation of states on the basis of language and appointed a committee 
of Jawarharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramaiya to 
examine the report of the Dhar Commission at its meeting held at Jaipur 
  
 
                      
 
 
on 5
th
 April, 1948. 
 
The Sanyukta Maharashtra movement was speeded up during the period 
of 1950 and 1953; it also abolished the Sanyukta Maharashtra Parishad 
and determined to work jointly. In meantime, Potti Shriramallu died 
fasting for the demand of Telugu State of Andra Pradesh, which led to 
create it after his death in October, 1953 and the appointment of the 
Fazal Ali Commission for considering the matter of reorganization of 
states on the linguistic basis. 
Appointment of the State Reorganisation Commission 
After the formation of Andra Pradesh in October, 1953, Sharnkarrao Dev 
wrote a letter on 4 November, 1953 to the Prime Minister and demanded 
the formation of Sanyukta Maharashtra State. Under these circumstances, 
Pandit Nehru announced the appointement of the State Reroganisation 
Commission on 22 December, 1953 in the Parliament under the 
Charimanship of Justice Faisal Ali. The Commission was asked to 
examine the basic conditions of the problem, its background, preservation 
and strengthening the unity, economic and administrative considerations 
of the country. The commission faced a number of strikes, demonstrations 
and clashes between the different linguishtic groups during its exploration 
of reorganization of states on linguistic basis. The Commission also 
visited various places in the then Mumbai state as Nagpur, Chanda, Pune, 
Akola, Ambravati and the city of Mumbai. The commission submitted its 
report on 10 October, 1955, which was accepted by the Government with 
certain modifications. The commission report suggested formation of three 
states as: 
1) Sanyukta Maharashtra with Vidharbha and Marathwada 
2) Maha Gujarat with kutch and Saurastra and 
3) Bombay as union territory. 
This report was again rejected by the people but the Congress working 
committee accepted the three state solution of Nehru on 8 November, 
1955. 
 
The lefts were infavour of the Sanyukta Maharashtra movement, and 
observed a strike in Mumbai on 18
th
 November, 1955 to support the 
movement whereas Morarji Desai challenged the claims of the Sanyukta 
Maharashtra movement and held a rally in Mumbai on 20
th
 November, 
1955. On the very next day i.e. 21 November, 1955, the police fired on the 
huge morcha on the then Bombay state Legislature by the Left parties and 
killed fifteen people and wounded hundreds of people at the behest of 
Morarji Desai. Even then the Congress Leaders in the state supported the 
Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru, naturally; the movement became violent in 
1956. 
 
 
 
 
Page 5


  
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
    
 
 
  
 
 
            
   
  
 INTRODUCTION 
 
The State of Maharashtra in which we are living today did not come into 
existence in an easy, happy and smooth manner. People had to struggle 
hard to achieve it. In order to liberate and integrate different parts of 
Maharashtra, people had to make a lot of sacrifice, and had to undergo 
hardships, sufferings and torture. The Samyukta Maharashtra Movement 
was a movement for uniting into one Linguistic State all the regions where 
the Marathi speaking population lived in majority, such as, Mumbai, 
Vidarbha, Marathwada, Goa, Belgaum, Karwar and adjoining areas. It was 
a battle against the linguistic injustice caused to the Marathi-speaking 
people by the then Congress Governments at the Centre and at the State. It 
was a unique movement associated with the life and identity of every 
Marathi person. Never before or afterwards all the Maharashtrian people 
got so united for a common cause, keeping aside all their differences of 
party, caste, creed, region, religion, occupation or economic status. All the 
sections of the Maharashtrian society such as, the students, working 
women, house wives, government servants, workers, peasants, lawyers, 
teachers, artists, writers and journalists participated in this agitation. Every 
Maharashtrian felt that it was his own movement and every one tried to 
give to the best of his or her ability. The slogan given by them all in one 
voice reverberated through the entire atmosphere of Maharashtra, 
Samyukta	Maharashtra	Movement
  
 
                         
 
 
"Mumbaisaha Samyukta Maharashtra Zalach Pahije" (Along with 
Mumbai, United Maharashtra must take place). 
 
ITS BACKGROUND 
 
Though the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement was vigorously launched 
between 1955 and 1960, its roots go back to the early decades of the 20th 
century. During the British rule, the British-Indian territory was divided 
into eleven provinces, but it was an artificial division not taking into 
consideration the popular sentiments. That division was made keeping in 
view the imperialistic interests and administrative convenience of the 
British. Therefore, every province had population belonging to different 
languages, religions and cultures. It was felt that the map of the country 
should be redrawn on linguistic basis. That is to say, wherever the people 
of a particular language are found in majority, all such regions should be 
united to form a linguistic state. Right from 1920, Gandhiji and Dr. 
Rajendra Prasad were in favour of creating linguistic states. With the 
involvement of the masses in the National Movement from 1919, 
Congress undertook political mobilization in the mother tongue and in 
1921 amended its constitution and reorganized its branches on a linguistic 
basis. Since then the Congress repeatedly committed itself to redrawing 
the provincial boundaries on linguistic lines. 
 
The Marathi speaking area was divided into several separate units - the 
Bombay Province was under British control, the five districts of 
Marathwada were under the control of the Nizam of Hyderabad, Vidarbha 
was first under the Nizam and from 1853, it was a part of Central Province 
under the British control, whereas, in south Maharashtra sixteen small and 
big states were ruled by Indian princes. Thus although different parts were 
under different rulers, they all were Marathi speaking and therefore 
different political leaders and literators were of the opinion that all those 
parts should be united into a single Marathi-speaking state. The persons 
who saw the dream of such a Marathi state even prior to 1946 were: 
Sahitya Samrat N.C. Kelkar, B.G. Tilak, Vitthal Vaman Tamhankar of 
Jaipur, Dr. S.V. Ketkar, Datto Appaji Tuljapurkar, K.C. Thakre, G.V. 
Patvardhan (the editor of the Jyotsna Magazine). Shankar Ramachandra 
Shende (Sangli), G.T. Madkholkar, Datto Vaman Potdar, Acharya Vinoba 
Bhave, Dhananjayarao Gadgil, etc. 
 
  COURSE OF EVENTS 
 
On 1 October 1938, the Legislature of the C.P. and Berar Province passed 
a resolution put forth by Shri Ramrao Deshmukh saying that the bilingual 
province of CP and Berar should be broken and all the Marathi speaking 
portion should be united into a separate unilingual Marathi state of 
Vidarbha. Accordingly, to achieve this objective, the Maha Vidarbha 
Samiti was constituted. 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
On 15 October 1938, in the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held in Bombay 
under the presidency of V.D. Savarkar, a resolution was passed saying that 
along with Vidarbha, all the Marathi speaking regions such as, 
Marathwada, Goa, Belgaum and Karwar should be united into a separate 
Marathi speaking state of Maharashtra. 
  SAMYUKTA MAHARASHTRA MOVEMENT 
Although, the Samyukta Maharashtra movement got momentum after the 
independence of our country, the process  towards the united Maharashtra 
had the beginning in the 20
th
 century by the leaders and literary 
personalities in Maharashtra. 
 
The Legislative Assembly of the Central Province had passed a resolution 
to secede from the bi-lingual Bombay (Mumbai) Presidency and form an 
unilingual separate state of Vidharbha on 1 October, 1938. In order to 
pursue the resolution passed in the literary meet at Mumbai, a Sanyukta 
Maharashtra Sabha was formed on 28 January, 1940. During the period of 
1940 to 1945 the movement could not do any progress because of the 
World War II and the implementation of the Quit India Movement. 
 
On 12 May, 1946 a Sanyukta Maharashtra resolution was passed at the All 
India Marathi literary Conference held at Belgaum, G. T. Madkholkar was 
the president of the Conference. The conference also formed a Sanyukta 
Maharashtra Committee consisting of Madkholkar, Shankarrao Deo, 
Keshevrao Jedhe and S. S. Navare to materialise the resolution. There was 
one more conference held on 28
th
 July, 1946 at Mumbai. It was called 
Maharashtra Ekikaran Parishad, which was presided over by Shankarrao 
Deo and, it was attended by two hundred delegates from all over 
Maharashtra and passed a resolution of Sanyukta Maharashtra on the 
proposal moved by Acharya Data Dharmadhikari. The leaders, who were 
active in the movement held a meeting under the leadership of Pattabhi 
Sitaramaya at Delhi in December, 1946. 
 
The movement spread throughout the state. A meeting of the 
Maharashtra Ekikaran Panished took place at Akola on 13
th
 April, 1947 
and determined to speed up the Sanyukta Maharashtra movemet for 
unilingual state of all Marathi speaking people. This meeting came to be 
known as the Akola Pact. In order to address the popular demand of 
forming the linguistic states of Maharashtra, Andra, the Constituent 
Assembly appointed a Commission in 1948, which came to be known as 
Dhar Commission. To pressurise the Commission, a Virat Parishad was 
formed at Dadar and meeting was held on 15 and 16 October, 1948. On 13 
December, 1948, the Commission submitted its report stating that the 
reorganizing states on the linguistic basis would be against the unity and 
integrity of the nation. In order to remove the outcome of the Dhar 
Commission report, the National Congress accepted the Principle of 
reoranisation of states on the basis of language and appointed a committee 
of Jawarharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramaiya to 
examine the report of the Dhar Commission at its meeting held at Jaipur 
  
 
                      
 
 
on 5
th
 April, 1948. 
 
The Sanyukta Maharashtra movement was speeded up during the period 
of 1950 and 1953; it also abolished the Sanyukta Maharashtra Parishad 
and determined to work jointly. In meantime, Potti Shriramallu died 
fasting for the demand of Telugu State of Andra Pradesh, which led to 
create it after his death in October, 1953 and the appointment of the 
Fazal Ali Commission for considering the matter of reorganization of 
states on the linguistic basis. 
Appointment of the State Reorganisation Commission 
After the formation of Andra Pradesh in October, 1953, Sharnkarrao Dev 
wrote a letter on 4 November, 1953 to the Prime Minister and demanded 
the formation of Sanyukta Maharashtra State. Under these circumstances, 
Pandit Nehru announced the appointement of the State Reroganisation 
Commission on 22 December, 1953 in the Parliament under the 
Charimanship of Justice Faisal Ali. The Commission was asked to 
examine the basic conditions of the problem, its background, preservation 
and strengthening the unity, economic and administrative considerations 
of the country. The commission faced a number of strikes, demonstrations 
and clashes between the different linguishtic groups during its exploration 
of reorganization of states on linguistic basis. The Commission also 
visited various places in the then Mumbai state as Nagpur, Chanda, Pune, 
Akola, Ambravati and the city of Mumbai. The commission submitted its 
report on 10 October, 1955, which was accepted by the Government with 
certain modifications. The commission report suggested formation of three 
states as: 
1) Sanyukta Maharashtra with Vidharbha and Marathwada 
2) Maha Gujarat with kutch and Saurastra and 
3) Bombay as union territory. 
This report was again rejected by the people but the Congress working 
committee accepted the three state solution of Nehru on 8 November, 
1955. 
 
The lefts were infavour of the Sanyukta Maharashtra movement, and 
observed a strike in Mumbai on 18
th
 November, 1955 to support the 
movement whereas Morarji Desai challenged the claims of the Sanyukta 
Maharashtra movement and held a rally in Mumbai on 20
th
 November, 
1955. On the very next day i.e. 21 November, 1955, the police fired on the 
huge morcha on the then Bombay state Legislature by the Left parties and 
killed fifteen people and wounded hundreds of people at the behest of 
Morarji Desai. Even then the Congress Leaders in the state supported the 
Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru, naturally; the movement became violent in 
1956. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
The State Reorganisation Act of 1956 
The Parliament of India passed the State Reorganisation Act  in November, 
1956 and established fourteen states which were Andra Pradesh, Assam, 
Bihar, Bombay, Kerala, Madya Pradesh, Madras, Mysore, Orissa, 
Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal with six Union 
Territories as Andaman and Nikobar Island, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, 
Manipur, Tripura and Lacadives. The Act also provided for five Zones and 
Zonal Councils. The zonal Council was to consist of a union minister who 
was to work as the chairman of the council, along with the Chief 
Ministers and other two ministers from the state in the zone. This Zonal 
Council was to advise the Central Government for its development. 
Formation of Maharashtra and Gujarat: 
The Sanyukta Maharashtra movement became stronger day after day. It 
was further stimulated by Nehru’s formula of keeping Mumbai under the 
Union Territory. There was much unrest, which led to a huge strike every 
where in Mumbai. The police force of Morarji Desai opened fire on such 
peaceful strikers and shot 100 people dead between 16 and 20 January, 
1956. C. D. Deshmukh, Cabinet Minister of Nehru supported the agitation 
for separate uniligual state of Maharashtra and resigned from his 
cabinet post on 22 January, 1956. This led the strikers to form the 
Sanyukta Maharashtra Samiti on 6 February, 1956. The Samiti 
announced the programme of Satyagra at Mumbai and Delhi on 31
st
 
October, 1956. 
 
To satisfy the people in Mumbai, the Nehru Government cancelled 
the nature of Union Territory of Mumbai city and made declaration of 
bilingnal state of Bombay. This proposal was also met with strong 
protest both from the Sanyukta Maharashtra Samiti and Maha Gujarat 
Janata Parishad which were carrying on Satyagraha in their dominant 
areas from November, 1956 till the formation of their respective states for 
nearly five years. On 23 April, 1960 Sanyukta Maharashtra Samiti 
organised a huge procession on the Parliament of India. Indira Gandhi was 
the Congress President the then, who reopened the issue with the Central 
Government, that led the Parliament to pass the resolution in favour of 
Sanyukta Maharashtra including Mumbai. The Government passed the 
Bombay Reorganisation Act of 1960, by which Mumbai was to be the 
capital of Sanyukta Maharashtra, whereas Ahmedabad was scheduled the 
capital of Gujarat. Thus, the Sanyukta Maharashtra came into being on 1
st
 
May 1960. 
 
Maharashtra State with Bombay as its capital was formed with the merger 
of Marathi-speaking areas of Bombay State, eight districts from Central 
Provinces and Berar, five districts from Hyderabad State, and numerous 
princely states enclosed between them. The pro-Samyukta Maharashtra 
writers claimed that in all 105 persons died in the battle for Bombay 
However Goa (then a Portuguese colony), Belgaum, Karwar and adjoining 
areas, which were also part of the Maharashtra envisaged by the Samiti, 
were not included in Maharashtra state.