Mahagujarat movement

Mahagujarat movement મહાગુજરાત આંદોલન
File:Mahagujarat Movement.jpg Rally supporting movement
Date	8 August 1956 (1956-08-08) - 1 May 1960 (1960-05-01)
Location	Bombay state, India
Goals	creation of the separate state of Gujarat for Gujarati-speaking people from the bilingual Bombay state
Methods	Protest march, Street protest, riot, hunger strike, strike
Resulted in	formation of Gujarat and Maharashtra states on 1 May 1960
Parties to the civil conflict
Mahagujarat Janata Parishad Indian National Congress
Lead figures
Indulal Yagnik Morarji Desai
Units involved
Number
Casualties and losses
Casualties

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.

Etymology

The term Mahagujarat includes all Gujarati speaking area including mainland Gujarat and peninsula of Saurashtra and Kutch.

Writer-politician Kanaiyalal Munshi coined the word Mahagujarat at the Karachi meet of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad in 1937.

Background

Bombay Presidency in 1909, northern portion

Bombay Presidency in 1909, southern portion

Administrative divisions in 1951 before reorganization of states

Bombay State, 1956-1960

During British rule in India, sections of the western coast of India were a part of the Bombay Presidency. In 1937, Bombay Presidency was included as a province of British India. After independence of India in 1947, the demand for linguistic states came up. On 17 June 1948, Rajendra Prasad set up the Linguistic Provinces Commission to recommend whether the states should be reorganized or not on linguistic basis. The committee included SK Dar (retired Judge of the Allahabad High Court), JN Lal (lawyer) and Panna Lall (retired Indian Civil Service officer), so it was called Dar commission. In its 10 December 1948 report, the Commission recommended that "the formation of provinces on exclusively or even mainly linguistic considerations is not in the larger interests of the Indian nation".

Mahagujarat conference was held in 1948 to include all Gujarati speaking people under one administration which finally resulted in formation of Gujarat.

According to the autobiography of Indulal Yagnik, Bombay state chief minister BG Kher and the then home minister Morarji Desai visited Dang in May, 1949. BG Kher stated that tribals of Dang spoke Marathi and focus should be on that. Indulal Yagnik and others visited Dang to examine this. Gujarati Sabha also sent a committee for examination and agitate on negligence by government. Committee reported that Dang is more related to Gujarat.

By 1952, the demand for separate Telugu-majority Andhra State had started in Madras State. Potti Sreeramulu, one of the activists demanding Andhra State, died on 16 December 1952 after undertaking a fast-unto-death. Subsequently, Andhra State was formed in 1953. This sparked agitations all over the country demanding linguistic states.

In December 1953, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appointed the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) to prepare report on the creation of linguistic states. The commission was headed by Justice Fazal Ali so it was called Fazal Ali Commission. The commission reported in 1955 to reorganise India's states.

Agitation

Morarji Desai

SRC 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.

Result

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.

Monuments

Indulal Yagnik statue in a garden near Nehru bridge

• Shahid Smarak or Khambhi (Martyr Monument) was erected near Lal Darwaja AMTS Bus Stop, Bhadra, Ahmedabad; in memory of college students who went to local Congress House to demand separate state during movement and died in police firing. It has a statue of a young holding torch in hand. So it was called Khambhi Satyagrah (Monument Movement) earlier.
• Statue of Indulal Yagnik was erected in a small garden at east end of Nehru Bridge, Ahmedabad and garden was named after him.

Participants

Notable individuals who participated in the movement include:

• Indulal Yagnik, the movement's leader
• Sanat Mehta
• Satyam Patel
• Dinkar Mehta
• Vidyaben Nilkanth
• Sharda Mehta
• Ashok Bhatt
• Budhdhiben Dhuv
• Ravishankar Maharaj
• Brahmkumar Bhatt
• Prabodh Raval
• Harihar Khambholja
• Dinkar Amin
• Ramniklal Maniyar
• Ranjitrai Shastri
• Markand Shastri

Influence

Many leaders of the movement were writers, poets and even film-makers. Maya, a novel by Indulal Yagnik is set during movement. Jayanti Dalal, Yashwant Shukla, Vinodini Neelkanth, Ishwar Petlikar, Ushnas had also used movement as their inspiration for literary works.

Midnight's Children, a classic by Salman Rushdie, which won the Booker Prize has a backdrop of both the Mahagujarat movement as well as Samyukta Maharashtra movement.

See also

• Indulal Yagnik
• Nav Nirman Andolan
• Samyukta Maharashtra Movement
• Hutatma Chowk