Bombay As Capital of Maharashtra

THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY December 24, 1955 of the 'employment offset', (E 0), ing were neutralized by the increased increased employment. At the end would be Ec — Eb X 100 = EO* quantum of employment varied from of the war, Bombay wage-earners Co — Cb region to region. To illustrate, from were least affected and wage-earn With the help of the above for the viewpoint of cost of living alone, ers of Madras were slightly worse; mula, an attempt has been made in U P labour was the worst suffer Bengal wage-earners were worst Table IV to calculate Eo at the er, that of Bengal being moderately affected, those of U. P. being only end of the war in relation to the pre better off, that of Madras though slightly better. war level. This formula can serve least affected over the whole span our purpose only so long as Cc is of the war was only slightly better greater than Cb. For instance, it off than labour in Bombay in 1945. will fail when the two are equal in However, when looking at employ which case the resultant denomina ment offset, we find that the position tor and E O become equal to zero. of Bengal was the worst, the E O for Its application is thus confined to a Bengal being 19 as against 38 for single base series rather than a chain U P. Madras wage-earners who index series. suffered practically to the same ex Apart from the general indication tent as those of Bombay on account of increased cost of living could *The author is indebted to the late that during the war period there was Prof. J. N. Das Gupta for his gui an appreciable increase in the secure the benefit of E O only to the extent of 37 against 50 in Bombay. dance in the framing of this for volume of employment along with mula. the rise of cost of living in different Thus the relative position of wage- Ec = Employment Index in 1945 industrial centres, Table IV shows earners in the four regions as indi Eb = Employment in 1930; Cc = Cost no single homogenous trend in the cated by the relative variations in of living in 1945; Cb = Cost of living relationship between the two varia the cost of living indices during the Index in 1939; Eo — Employment bles. The extent to which hardships course of the war was substantially offset. involved in the increased cost of liv altered as a result of the impact of Views on States Reorganisation -VIII Bombay as Capital of Maharashtra G K Cholkar THERE are only two proposals of must, of course, be considered the The disadvantages of incorporat practical importance: advantages. ing Bombay City in Maharashtra (l) Bombay as the capital of a were vividly brought out by Shri K Apart from advantages and dis new linguistic State, Maha M Munshi in a note on "Linguistic advantages, it might seem also rashtra, and Provinces and the Future of Bom necessary to see to whom Bombay (ii) Bombay City as a separate bay" which he wrote in 1943 for the City "belongs", but such an exami State by itself. Dar Committee. From that, the nation would hardly be worthwhile. following may be quoted: These two proposals are not of the In whatever way the future of Bom same status. The first is an inde bay is settled, the City must really To annex the Bombay City to pendent demand for a new territorial "belong" to the nation as a whole. United Maharashtra formed on arrangement. The second is a con There is one point, however to which linguistic basis, therefore, would ditional proposal. Those who make attention may be drawn. The fact have the result not only of de it have nothing against the existing that those who prefer a City State stroying the cosmopolitan charac arrangements. They suggest that if would equally favour continuing the ter of Bombay but of placing the the existing Bombay State is to be existing arrangements implies that non-Marathi speaking population broken up for forming new linguistic they do not want a City State be in cultural subjection. States of Gujarat, Maharashtra and cause, in their opinion, Bombay Karnatak, the City be dissociated "belongs" to the people of the City. Those in charge of industry, from this scheme and incorporated On the other hand, those who make trade and finance in the city of into a separate State. It would also the other proposal include many who of Bombay and its suburbs are be true to say that the break-up is believe that Bombay City "belongs" predominantly non-Maharashtrians opposed (by those who oppose it) to Maharashtra. From this, one .... Serious apprehensions are chiefly because it might involve as conclusion as regards future possibi entertained in various quarters re signing the City to one of the three lities may be drawn. If Bombay is garding the possibility of the do new linguistic States. made a City State, those who con mination of a uni-lingual people in the life of Bombay City in case It sider this "unjust" would always This makes it clear that there is is to be joined to a linguistic pro labour under this sense of "injustice". no need to consider the advantages vince. of a separate City State for Bombay But if Bombay became the capital as compared with the present posi of Maharashtra, there is a possibi If Bombay City is hand tion. It is necessary to consider only lity that those who oppose it now ed over to Maharashtra alone, the the disadvantages of the City being may be less opposed to it in future City .... will lose its multi-lin the capital of a new linguistic State to the extent that the disadvantages gual character, its trade, industry as compared with the present posi resulting therefrom prove to be less and commerce will be seriously tion of the City. Against them, than anticipated now. affected; and the non-Marathi 1523 December 24, 1955 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY speaking majority will be subjected Hindi but must hot to every case in allots grafts to states, should show to the political domination of ag sist on a knowledge of the regional special consideration for states gressive lingulsm. language, Where necessary, em which incur substantial expenditure These are very serious matters. ployees who do not know the regi on providing educational ' and cultural In regard to them, two observations onal language may, however, be facilities for the language minorities may be made. First, assuming that made to learn it in their territories." the protagonists of a new Mahara "In its relations with business a In the economic sphere also, the shtra State include some mischief State Government should not be able Constitution empowers the Centre mongers, there would he others who to introduce considerations of domi to take measures to protect the na are as anxious to avoid results of cile, language or the like. It should tional interest against prejudical the kind apprehended by Shri Munshi be wrong to flay that a business con actions of State Governments. as he himself is. Secondly, it is not cern should give larger employment Conclusion as regards disadvantages really a question of what Mahara to "local" people or conduct its busi shtra would do to Bombay City but ness in a particular language. If the leaders of different Stated what any State Government can in collaboration with the Central constitutionally do to damage the "Fortunately, the Constitution not Government, evolve an all-India economic life of a city or to violate merely makes all this possible but policy for the protection of the cul- the rights of cultural minorities. This Indeed visualises it The spirit of tural rights of minorities and for latter problem is a very important the Constitution must live and in- the preservation of economic unity problem and it was discussed from spire leaders everywhere, but it is and If the Centre for the same an all-India point of view by a up to the Centre, if necessary to en objects makes proper use of the Bombay journal, the Tata Quarterly, force the required fiction. Money powers it has under the Constitution long before the fierce controversies spent in being generous to minorities then apprehensions of the kind ex raised by States Reorganisation put serves a great national purpose and pressed by Shri Munshi and others these into cold storage for the time the Central Government, when it will not result. Then there will be being. Linguistic Minorities, an all-India Problem The journal mentioned above, in its April 1954 issue, wrote: "The Commission would do well to give careful attention to the pro blem of linguistic or cultural mino rities and set out in detail the respon sibilities of a State towards them- It should be remembered that the problem has to be examined even if no new linguistic State is established because unilingual States like Ben gal, Bihar, Orissa already exist. The problem might be even more impor tant in Hindi speaking areas if there are people in such areas who con sider themselves to be more 'na tionalist'' than others because the national language happens to be their mother-tongue. The very ex' istence of several great languages in India raises the problem of minori ties and the best course is to face It squarely. "A State must provide as many schools as are required in order that almost every child could be taught in its mother tongue. In schools and colleges, Hindi must be compulsory, College education may be in the regional language, but in every city there must be at least one college which teaches and examines students in Hindi and which may be attended by any student irrespective of what his mother tongue is.

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