Sanyukta Maharashtra: Talk Show 3
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Summary: The Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement in 1950s was the most important post-independent political movement in Bombay. The movement received active support from parties and groups whose ideological base ranged from radical left to the centerist. Popularly it is referred as a movement for assertion of the rights of majority language group - Marathi, and thus the inclusion of Bombay in the Maharashtra state is considered as the victory of the movement. But actually the historical period at which the movement picked up momentum was a junction between the existing vibrant trade union movement in the city and the beginning of identity politics in the region. We felt it is important to revisit the movement in order to understand the present social scenario. A discussion session was organized between various active members of the movement.
After the initial discussion on the evaluation of the movement the discussion moved towards its impact on the state and public affair today.
Anchor: Pushpa Bhave (PB), art and literary critic, teacher and social activist. Was a young student during the movement. (Unfortunately the footage
with her image have got spoilt. So we only have her audio).
Participants: Prof. Sadanand Varde(SV): Samajwadi (socialist) leader, economist, former state minister of education. Was in the forefront of the movement.
Pushpa Trilokeka(PT): Journalist. Was part of the daily newspaper Maratha, which was considered as the mouthpiece of the movement.
Tara Reddy(TR): Communist, Member of CPI (communist party of India), also active in women's movement. Was active participant of the movement.
Himmatbhai(HB): Samajwadi (socialist) leader. Also part of the Gujarati community, which was largely against the movement.
PB: lets ask Varde sir, he has been the education minister also. The basic demand-that in that state, education in mother tongue, and administration in mother tongue, and especially the legal affairs in mother tongue. After Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement we see that the adminstration in Marathi has remained only on paper and actually to take it to the common man has not really been possible. This did not happen in other states. And that is why it is necessary to speak about this. Has this happened that in other states, education started in mother tongue earlier than Maharashtra, what do you think about this as a policy matter.
Primary education and administration in mother-tongue - why can't this be executed?
administration
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Today newspapers are not doing well because all the advertisements and the whole economy of that has been taken over by the visual media. And the newspapers, which get adverts. Are those who have no commitment whatsoever But that does not mean the commitment in society has gone totally. And the recent example of this is the Gujarat pogrom. The storm of communalism in Gujarat has been covered very well by NDTV, which is a committed channel. But even so the effects of this were not seen in the Gujarat elections. There was no effect on the people because they thought we are seeing the same things over and over again. In newspapers you cannot do that, you have to write different things everytime. That is why in the time of Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement, 'Maratha' has done a very important work and no channel today can live upto that.
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Love for English language is our post-colonial tragedy.BMC has facilities to teach primary education in all Indian
languages and not in the mother tongue of the Marathis.
PV: I think after Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement there was the expectation that education, administration, legal matters, should be done in Marathi. I feel proud to say that when we say mother tongue should be the medium of education, today in Mumbai Mahanagar Palika, (Bombay Municipal corporation - BMC) there is a arrangement to give primary education in almost all the languages in India. Marathi is the mother tongue here but what about people of other languages. But I think that the superior position given to English, the educated middle classes here, even the politically influential class, they had a lot of attraction for English, that inevitably has affected the general growth. The people in politics did not have the strong will to work it out. And I think the forces who opposed this or those who took part in Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement also did not put enough pressure on these people.
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The language of law is still English. And the insistence that we should have English since the first standard is something difficult to understand. When I studied, I did not know English till 4th or 5th. So the British went, imperialism is also destroyed, but due to elite classes we could not get rid of English. Gradually, the times are changing, I think people who want to take higher education in Marathi, they have the facility to do so. Maybe all the textbooks are not in Marathi. You take he example of agricultural colleges, engineering or medical colleges everywhere, even if there is an influence of English, still the trend towards Marathi is increasing and this should be encouraged.
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All administration and state affair is still in English. There is lack of will in the part of the state. Is it possible to make people love their own language by imposing strict curriculum?
Karnataka
The state has started a Marathi Bhasha Vikas Sanstha, (Association for development of Marathi language) but the story is pitiable. The need for such an organisation means that the language has not been given due importance. Here I would raise an important question - in education, the language of the state, till what level should it be compulsorily imposed? I think, in Karnataka, Kannada language you have to learn till you are a graduate. That is not the case in Maharashtra. I do think that to make language education compulsory is contrary to the concept of language, but finally, those whose language is Marathi, if they do not love their language, then what happens, this is the question.
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PB: when we teach language, we note one point and that is related to what Varde has said. Whatever we talk about the failures of the Sanyukta Maharashtra movement - after 1960, in Marathi language, came the authors whose names were, for the first time, beyond Bhave, Joshi, Apte (surname of upper caste people). And very fast a lot of people came from different background and that is why different styles got introduced in Marathi language. Different levels of experience came into the language. So we cannot say that nothing happened after Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement. About what Varde was saying, I want to share a story. Jagannath Shankersheth would think a lot about education and the broader social conditions. When Grant medical college started, he had major share of the contribution. He and his friend Sakharam Arjun told the professors that you should teach the students for one hour in English and then for one hour in Marathi. And to see that they did it, both Jagannath Shankersheth and Sakharam Arjun would sit on the last bench of the class. That vision went far.
An additional achievement of the movement was the rise of new writers who were not from the upper castes/class.Energised by the movement these writers came into the public sphere and brought new dimension to Marathi language/literature. Some philanthropists of those days also actively participated in popularizing and nurturing the language. The current trendof patriotism or nationalism is more rhetoric and antagonistic.
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Another thing that I wanted to introduce in the argument. It is one thing to talk about language, but what about the intellectual tradition of Maharashtra... today when people talk about its legacy either they do not mention or maybe they do not know about its intellectual tradition. So when we mention 'tradition' traditions. But when we talk about 'tradition' it includes what was happening in 13th century - colonialism was one of the issues as Varde sir has mentioned and not that we have come very far from that issue. But what has happened to these activities - intellectual discourses, social movements... all these are lost. And what has been for grounded is some 'token' of Marathi-ness. This is not really Marathi-ness. If you bring a symbol like chatra (motif to depict Shivaji, revered in Maharashtra as an ideal ruler/leader) that does not mean you have brought in the essence of Shivaji's rule. Later only symbols have become the main focus and all interest, understanding and practices of cultures of Maharashtra got marginalized. Have we moved away from all these?... I want you to comment on that But Taratai...
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TR: I wanted to say…the leadership of the Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement was done by the Sanyukta Maharashtra Samiti. And one must see the building or the initial years of this committee. Firstly, the slogan was Samajwadi Maharashtra in Samajwadi Bharat. That did not mean that we wanted to get a Sanyukta Maharashtra and then give it in the hands of big capitalists and big farmers. This is one thing. And secondly, if we leave out the communal groups like Jansangh, all other political parties came together in the Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement.
The initial slogan of the Movement was 'Socialist Maharashtra in Socialist India'. Other than the extreme right wing outfits, all political parties joined the movement. The movement gathered momentum, got victory but the socialism part of it slowly got erased. At the end the workers' movement, movement towards socialism ended up becoming sort of an excuse for the birth of Shiv Sena, the ferocious Communal outfit.
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I will give you one example - the first municipal election we won - the first mayor was Acharya Donde. The second mayor, Mahashabde from congress and then comrade Mirajkar, a communist has been a mayor and fourthly, from the republican party P.T. Borale has been the mayor. All these parties got a chance. But when this Maharashtra went in the hands of big capitalists and big farmers, you can call it casteism or whatever. That is why Maharsahtra is in this state. The local people do not get jobs, what does this mean? Local people lost theirs jobs and that means all the mills have gone. From where does anybody get job from? Locals, or established or whoever. So get together to fight against this - that was the call of the Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement movement. Create a Samajwadi Maharastra. We did not do that. Because to destroy the morale of the masses, the movement, to divide it, there was a plot. By the big capitalists and the big farmers. And to this Shiv Sena promptly added its own trends.
The initial slogan of the Movement was 'Socialist Maharashtra in Socialist India'. Other than the extreme right wing outfits, all political parties joined the movement. The movement gathered momentum, got victory but the socialism part of it slowly got erased. At the end the workers' movement, movement towards socialism ended up becoming sort of an excuse for the birth of Shiv Sena, the ferocious Communal outfit.
united maharashtra movement
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Maratha, the mouthpiece of the movement brought forward new writers from dalit and other lower caste backgrounds.
PT: something that I want to say is that, you were saying earlier that after Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement lot of writers came from beyond the Brahmin class. I feel very proud to say that 'Maratha' was a very important platform for all these writers. All dalit writers were related to 'Maratha'. From Namdeo Dhasal to Keshav
Meshram, all used to come Maratha, used to write in Maratha, they were encouraged to write in 'Maratha'. As Acharya Atre was a writer himself, everybody felt close to him, he would be there always. All the new writers have come forward through 'Maratha'.
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A movement which gave birth to powerful bards, artists and the artists who took the movement to the people.
TR: what Pushpa Trilokekar is saying is very correct. Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement provided base for this. Amar Shiakh, Anna Bhau Sathe, etc - their art was famous in the villages and all streets and lanes of Maharashtra. How beautifully Acharya Atre had described it: this is the root from which it came and then it spread - Atmaram Patil, all the others, a new generation of writers which went deeper, created new things...
amar sheikh
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PB: that's true because, "Aisa ga mi brahma" the first collection of Narayan Surve was published with the encouragement of Atre and Shirishtai. Now that we are talking about 'Maratha', I think we should raise the point of the journalism of that time, very committed journalism the journalism of now, which is quite commercial. What do you think Pushpatai, when you are thinking back?
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Gujarat
The avalanche of television channel
in the post globalization
era is creating visual
fatigue for the audience.
News is losing its
impact.
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PT: We are also committed and we are also commercial in the sense of being employees. But we were committed to thoughts, and at that time there were other newspapers which were commercial. Multi lingual and multi..., newspapers which were published internationally, there were chains like that. And all of them were against Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement. And that is why the need arose to bring out a paper like Maratha from Maharashtra. This movement, it did not remain the mouthpiece of just this movement but it spread its scope. All the aspects of Maharashtra has been touched by 'Maratha'. And that is why everyone thought Maratha close to them. Maratha had created many writers; Maratha also had a lot of big writers on its staff.
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Today newspapers are not doing well because all the advertisements and the whole economy of that has been taken over by the visual media. And the newspapers, which get adverts. Are those who have no commitment whatsoever But that does not mean the commitment in society has gone totally. And the recent example of this is the Gujarat pogrom. The storm of communalism in Gujarat has been covered very well by NDTV, which is a committed channel. But even so the effects of this were not seen in the Gujarat elections. There was no effect on the people because they thought we are seeing the same things over and over again. In newspapers you cannot do that, you have to write different things everytime. That is why in the time of Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement, 'Maratha' has done a very important work and no channel today can live upto that.
NDTV
TV channel
advertisement
communal
economy
election
gujarat
newspaper
pogrom
visual fatigue
visual media
PV: I want to say just one thing. In the point of journalism, the last decade of globalisation consumerism came in a big way and that is why the reader is not a reader, he is a customer and the editor is not an editor, whoever increases the sale of newspapers, marketing manager. This situation, which came, the (puravni – what is Bombay times/Mumbai news line – not the main paper) has left the thought tradition, which you were talking about, far behind. Somebody who is drinking in some nightclub, his photographs, how many ever pictures of naked women that can be shown, this type of layout of photos, what is the relation of this to journalism. And I think consumerism, which came, and with the audio-visual medium, this has become limitless.
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