Establishment Day of Gujarat & Maharshtra

Mahagujarat Movement (Mahagujarat Andolan) was a political movement demanding the creation of the state of Gujarat for Gujarati-speaking people from the bilingual Bombay state in 1956. It succeeded in the formation of Gujarat, as well as the Marathi-speaking Maharashtra state, on 1 May 1960.

SRC (States Reorganisation Commission) considered to form states on linguistic basis but recommended that Bombay state should stay as a bilingual state. It was further enlarged by the addition of Saurashtra State and Kutch State, the Marathi-speaking districts of Nagpur Division of Madhya Pradesh, and the Marathawada region of Hyderabad. The southernmost districts of Bombay state were included in Mysore State. So it had Gujarati-speaking population in north and Marathi-speaking population in southern parts.

Both Gujarati and Marathi people opposed the SRC’s recommendation and strongly demanded separate linguistic states. The situation became complicated because both of them wanted to include Bombay ( Now Mumbai) in their own states due to its economic and cosmopolitan values. Jawaharlal Nehru suggested to form three states: Maharashtra, Gujarat and Centrally governed city-state of Bombay to solve conflict.

Protest broke out in Bombay and other Marathi-speaking districts later known as Samyukta Maharashtra Movement demanding separate Marathi state. Morarji Desai, then Bombay’s Chief Minister was against it. On 8 August 1956 when some college students of Ahmedabad went to local Congress House at Lal Darwaza to demand separate state. Morarji Desai did not listen them and police repression resulted in death of five to eight students.It triggered protests all over in Gujarat. Indulal Yagnik came out of retirement and founded Mahagujarat Janata Parishad to guide protests. Many protesters including Indulal Yagnik and Dinkar Mehta, Dhanvant Shroff were arrested and kept at Gaekwad Haveli in Ahmedabad for a few days and later imprisoned in Sabarmati Jail for three and a half months. Protest also spread in other parts of Gujarat that forced Morarji Desai to go on week-long fast. People did not turned up to support him during fast and stayed in home following self-imposed curfew, Janata Curfew. Just before the declaration of carving three states as Nehru suggested, 180 MPs suggested return to bilingual Bombay state together. There was confusion over Mumbai and Dang solved after discussions. Gandhian activist Ghelubhai Nayak actively lobbied for accession of Dang with Gujarat.Mumbai goes to Maharashtra and Dang to Gujarat.

President Rajendra Prasad and Vice-President Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan and Jawaharlal Nehru finally agreed upon the formation of two new lingual states after prolonged agitation. On 1 May 1960, two new states Gujarat and Maharashtra were created.Mahagujarat Janata Parishad was dissolved on success of movement.The first government was formed under Jivraj Mehta who become the first Chief Minister of Gujarat.

(Reference :1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahagujarat_Movement 2.c2w.com)

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