Industry Odisha Bureau, May 2: While ‘May 1’ is globally celebrated as “International Workers’ Day or May Day, honouring the labour movement and workers’ rights, particularly the 8-hour workday, arising from the 1886 Chicago Haymarket affair”, it is also a memorable day for the two Indian states of Maharashtra and Gujarat as their respective statehood day significantly.
The two separate states were formed on this remarkable day in 1960 following the bifurcation of erstwhile Bombay State along linguistic lines since the then Bombay State was a multilingual territory during the British Raj.
As per India’s Post-Independent Era’s history, the Bombay Reorganisation Act-1960 got passed in the independent India’s Parliament that gave birth to these two culturally-rich states with effect from May 1, 1960. While Mumbai (the then Bombay) became the capital of Maharashtra, initially Ahmedabad was named as the capital of newly carved out state of Gujarat.
Gandhinagar (23 km north of the largest city of Ahmedabad) is the present-day capital city of Gujarat since 1970. It is a planned city located on the west bank of the iconic Sabarmati River.
Soon after India got formally free from the clutches of British Rule on 15th August 1947, there was a dire need for reorganising the states based on linguistic and regional demands.
While erstwhile Bombay State comprised of regions and populations owning various languages, chiefly Marathi, Gujarati, Konkani and Kutchi, the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement’s main demand was for a separate state exclusively comprising of Marathi-majority regions like Mumbai (old Bombay region) and Vidarbha.
Similarly, the Maha Gujarat Movement vehemently batted for a separate state with all Gujarati-speaking regions unified along with Saurashtra and Kutch regions.
Need to be mentioned here basing on history that, portions of the western coast of India under direct British rule were part of the colonial Bombay Presidency. When India was partitioned in 1947, Bombay Province remained part of independent India, while the whole Sind Province became part and parcel of Pakistan.
Later on, Bombay Province was restructured into Bombay State when India formally became a republic on January 26, 1950 replacing the Government of India Act-1935. Ultimately, the Bombay State dissolved with the formation of Maharashtra and Gujarat on May 1, 1960.
