I was indeed the first to urge people to come together for the Samyukta Maharashtra movement.
I was indeed the first to urge people to come together for the Samyukta Maharashtra movement.
The famed FaKunPa trio, comprising justice Fazl Ali, HN Kunzru and KM Panikkar, who were members the state re-organisation commission, had submitted a report favouring the forming of Mumbai and Vidarbha as separate states. To protest, we held a meeting at Shivaji Park, where I called upon the people to fight for a unified Maharashtra. Prominent ministers, leaders, and thousands of people attended this meeting. The leaders and politicians wanted to follow the British governance policy of divide and rule on caste and language basis.
This was the first time that people of diverse ideologies came together to fight for a unified state, and parties like the Samajwadi party, the communists, the Peasants’ Workers Party and the Congress stood by each other. Shivaji Maharaj’s thoughts gave us a foundation for the andolan. Shivaji had built a strong Maratha empire. The Muslim soldiers had fought for him. This inspired us freedom fighters.
I remember there was a meeting we had called to chalk out our future course of action. We decided to launch a week-long agitation in Delhi because the leadership at the central level was not taking our cause seriously. We decided to take our satyagraha from Bombay to Delhi, where they picked us up and put us in jail.
At that time, it was not easy to send messages home. However, our friends from the movement learnt of these arrests, and the environment in the state became heated. The government was eventually helpless in front of the people’s wishes.
I recollect one meeting for the movement was held in Nagothane. Bapu Deshpande from the Congress had called a meeting to urge for a unified state. Bal Thackeray too came. In the meeting, a he jokingly said, both of us being Marathi Kayasthas (CKP), we have clicked.
An interesting part of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement is that all those who campaigned for a unified Maharashtra went on to fight for the freedom of Goa from Portugese rule.
Prabhakar Kunte is a freedom fighter and was also a former minister in the Congress government. He spoke to Neeta Kolhatkar
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