Vol. 1 · pages 176–180

THOUGHTS ON LINGUISTIC STATES 161 may not take it seriously. But there are other arguments which arise out of the present condition and which cannot be ignored. I mention a few. My first argument is that a single Government cannot administer such a huge State as United Maharashtra. The total population of the Marathi-speaking area is 3,30,83,490. The total area occupied by the Marathi-speaking people is 1,74,514 sq. miles. It is a vast area and it is impossible to have efficient administration by a single State. Maharashtrians who talk about Samyukta Maharashtra have no conception of the vastness as to the area and population of their Maharashtra. But why there should be one single Maharashtrian State. I am quite unable to understand. To have a separate Maharashtra State is one thing. To have a single. Maharashtra State is quite a different thing. I am in favour of a separate Maharashtra, separate from Gujarathis and separate from Hindi-speaking people. But I am unable to understand why a free Maharashtra should be made into one single State. The Maharashtrians are not planning to declare war on U.P. and therefore they need not have a common front. Even from the point of view of Marathas why should there be this consolidation ? What affiliation has a Maratha of Satara got with the Maratha of Aurangabad ? What affiliation has a Maratha of Nasik got with the Maratha of Ratnagiri? What care and interest a Maratha of Satara is going to bestow upon the problems of the Maratha of Aurangabad ? What care and interest a Maratha of Nasik is going to bestow upon the problems of the Maratha of Ratnagiri ? The consolidation has no meaning and can serve no purpose. All Maratha Ministers in the present Bombay Cabinet come from Satara District or Nasik District. There is none from Konkan. The second consideration is the economic inequality between the three parts of Maharashtra. Marathwada has been solely neglected by the Nizam. What guarantee is there that the other two Maharashtras will look after the interests of what I call the Central Maharashtra ? The third consideration is industrial inequality between the three parts of Maharashtra. Western Maharashtra and Eastern Maharashtra are industrially well developed. What about the Central Maharashtra ? What guarantee is there of its industrial development ? Will Western Maharashtra and Eastern Maharashtra take interest in the industrial development of Central Maharashtra ? The fourth consideration is the inequality of education between Eastern and Western Maharashtra on the one hand and Central Maharashtra on the other. The inequality between them is marked. If the Central Maharashtra goes under the Poona University its destiny is doomed.

162 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES I am greatly worried about Marathwada. It was hitherto part of the Nizam’s Territory for the last 200 years. The Nizam had criminally neglected this area. He took no interest in it. There is not a mile of canal irrigation in Marathwada. There is hardly a high school in taluka places in Marathwada. There is hardly a youth in Nizam’s public service from Marathwada. I speak from knowledge and experience. People are not only down and out they are ignorant. They are being grabbed by highly advanced people on both sides. When their avenues of employment are closed there will be further degradation in their position. I shudder to think what would happen when Marathwada goes under the Poona University. The standard of education in the schools and colleges under the Poona University is so high that hardly any boy from Marathwada can hope to pass the examination. It is quite possible that with the madness for united Maharashtra there will develop a madness for a single and common University. The creation of United Maharashtra will be followed by the onrush of Poona and Nagpur Brahmins in Marathwada to pick up the jobs. There is a further reason why Maharashtra should be divided into three. The total strength of the Bombay Legislative Assembly is 315. Out of them 149 members are Marathi-speaking. The total strength of the Bombay Legislative Council is 72 ; out of them 34 are Marathi-speaking. Obviously some Marathi-speaking person should have been the Chief Minister of the Bombay State. Mr. Hirey stood up as a candidate for the Chief Ministership. But he was made to sit down by the Congress High Command. Not only was Mr. Hirey made to sit down but he was forced to move that Mr. Morarji Desai be made the Chief Minister. What a humiliation for a Maharashtrian leader ! And what value does the Congress High Command attach to the political intelligence of Maharashtrians ? The same incapacity of the Maratha Ministers is clear from the division of subjects referred earlier. It is obvious from the facts given above that the Marathas are lacking in political talent. There is no man of eminence among them such as Tilak, or Gokhale or Ranade. The Maharashtrian today counts for nothing. The Congress Maharashtrian counts for much less in the Congress. The nonCongress Maharashtrian also counts for nothing. It is therefore absolutely essential to train up Maharashtrians in political life. This political training has become fundamental because of the transfer of power to the masses. The word Marathas is used in two senses. In one sense it means all those who speak the Marathi language. In another sense it means all those who are Marathas by caste. They are all spoken of as Marathas. But they all fail to make the distinction between Marathas i.e. those who speak the Marathi language and Marathas i.e. those who are Marathas by caste.

THOUGHTS ON LINGUISTIC STATES 163 Those who are going to rule Maharashtra are not Marathas by speech but Marathas by caste, notwithstanding the hopes of the Brahmins. Now it cannot be denied that Marathas are politically the most backward community. It is fundamental that they should receive political training. If there is only one Maharashtra only one Maratha can be trained as Chief Minister and five or six as Ministers. On the other hand if there are three Maharashtra States, three Marathas can find training as Chief Ministers and thirty Marathas can get training as Ministers. We can do real service to ourselves by helping to educate our Masters. The only way of educating the Marathas is to give them more field for developing their abilities and exercising their abilities. Only the creation of three Maharashtras can do this. There is a story which is very appropriate to the occasion. The father of a young girl had taken her for an outing in a jungle. She found that under big trees there stood small shrubs. Finding this to be uniformly so, she asked her father why these small shrubs under the big trees do not grow. The father not being a botanist could not give an answer. So he said : Oh ! I do not know. He, however, felt that the question was very significant. He was a Professor in a college. Next day he went to the college and put the question to his Botanist colleague. The Botanist replied : Why ! The answer is simple. The big trees use up all the sun’s rays to themselves. The shrubs do not get any rays. That is why they do not grow. The Marathwada people must not forget the moral of this story. The only argument in favour of United Maharashtra is that it is like a meeting of the two brothers Rama and Bharat in Ramayana after a long separation. It is a silly argument, not worth consideration. There are some Maharashtrians who are satisfied with some kind of Political Treaty with Western Maharashtra guaranteeing some concessions. Treaties are like scraps of paper. They cannot be enforced. Instead of political treaties which nobody can enforce is it not better to have power in one’s own hands ? What a poor and wretched show by Maharashtrians in the Government of Bombay ! If this is the show that the most advanced and educated part of Maharashtrians can make, what can be expected from the people of Marathwada ? I advise the people of Marathwada or Central Maharashtra to have a State of their own so that they have power in their own hands to improve their own lot. V RECLAMATION OF LOST TERRITORY Should all the Marathi-speaking people be huddled up under one State ? Or should they be divided into two or more States.

164 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES How to dispose of the remainder when Bombay is separated is the next question. The remainder consists of two parts : (1) Gujarath, (2) Maharashtra. I am concerned with Maharashtra. While creating Linguistic Provinces the Commission has given over Marathi-speaking areas to non-Marathi-speaking areas. The number of such excluded areas are as follows : 1. Belgaum Taluka with the City of Belgaum. 2. Khanapur Taluka. 3. Chikori Taluka including Nipani. 4. Supa Taluka. 5. Karwar Taluka. 6. Nilanga Taluka in Bidar. 7. Ahamadpur Taluka in Bidar. 8. Udgir Taluka in Bidar. 9. Rajgir Taluka in Adilabad. 10. Some portion from Vidarbha given to the neighbouring Hindi-speaking State. The Maharashtrians excluded from Maharashtra come to 13,89,648 in terms of population. The Commission in retaining the mixed State of Bombay had to secure two most important objects. One is not to allow Bombay to go into the hands of Maharashtrians. This the Commission did by creating a mixed State. The second thing they had to do was to secure equality between Maharashtrians and the Gujarathis. The necessity of equality between the two in the future Legislature of the Bombay State as planned by the Commission had become urgent as the members of Karnatak in the old Assembly on whom the Gujarathis depended for their majority were to disappear in the new Karnatak State. This the Commission did by clipping the wings of Maharashtra by handing over Marathi-speaking people to non-Marathi-speaking States. There seems to be no other reason for this political vandalism. This wrong done by the Commission to Maharashtra must now be remedied and fortunately it can be undone. The proposal of a mixed State is gone and there is no necessity for equality between Maharashtrians and Gujarathis. CHAPTER 8 SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES GOVERNING THE ISSUE For the sake of the reader I summarize below the principles which should underly the creation of Linguistic States which are already enunciated in

THOUGHTS ON LINGUISTIC STATES 165 the foregoing pages but which lie about scattered. These principles may be stated as below : (1) The idea of having a mixed State must be completely abandoned. (2) Every State must be an unilingual State. One State, one language. (3) The formula one State, one language must not be confused with the formula of one language, one State. (4) The formula one language, one State means that all people speaking one language should be brought under one Government irrespective of area, population and dissimilarity of conditions among the people speaking the language. This is the idea that underlies the agitation for a united Maharashtra with Bombay. This is an absurd formula and has no precedent for it. It must be abandoned. A people speaking one language may be cut up into many States as is done in other parts of the world. (5) Into how many States a people speaking one language should be cut up, should depend upon (1) the requirements of efficient administration, (2) the needs of the different areas, (3) the sentiments of the different areas, and (4) the proportion between the majority and minority. (6) As the area of the State increases the proportion of the minority to the majority decreases and the position of the minority becomes precarious and the opportunities for the majority to practise tyranny over the minority become greater. The States must therefore be small. (7) The minorities must be given protection to prevent the tyranny of the majority. To do this the Constitution must be amended and provisions must be made for a system on plural member constituencies (two or three) with cumulative voting. PART IV THE PROBLEMS OF LINGUISTIC STATES CHAPTER 9 VIABILITY Will the three Maharashtrian States be viable ? Will their Revenue be sufficient to meet their expenditure ? Such a question is bound to be asked. It is not that such a question can be asked about Maharashtra alone. It can be asked about many other States in India. I give four statements relating to Part A States, Part B States and the Central Government from Part III of the Report of the Taxation Inquiry Committee presided over by Dr. John Mathai ( See Tables 4, 5, 6 and 7).