Thaneites snooze away on May 1 as most don’t realize significance behind the day

THANE: May 1 has always been regarded as a public holiday. Every year Maharashtra Day is celebrated with a police parade, a gun shot salute and a cultural programme. Besides, this everyone else regards this day as a day for shopping, catching a movie or just sleeping it out. But how many actually know the significance of Maharashtra Day. Considering the long history and bloodshed battle that was led to declaring May 1 as a public holiday has been erased from the memory of most citizens.
May 1 is a memorable day in the history of Maharashtra as it was on this day in 1960 that the government of India gave in to a long struggle by literary stalwarts and Left party leaders for the creation of a separate state. This is when Maharashtra was formed with Bombay, which later was renamed as Mumbai, becoming its capital.
The fight for a unilingual and unified Maharashtra had resulted in a lot of bloodshed. As many as 105 protestors were shot dead at Hutatma Chowk, a massacre that was almost compared to the one at Jalianwala Baug. The then Bombay chief minister Morarji Desai had proposed that the metropolitan Mumbai, be made into a union territory or a separate development region to suit its cosmopolitan nature. In opposition to his alleged Gandhian thoughts, Desai had ordered the police to fire on demonstrators of the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti at Flora Fountain who had gathered there to demonstrate against the government.
More than five decades later, the movement seems to have been forgotten by the current generation. One finds a mention about the day only in history books or on the internet. Besides this, no one thinks about the sacrifices and hardships that our leaders that undergone then to make the Maharashtra that it is today.
TOI had carried out a dipstick survey of more than 20 people from Thane to check if they knew the significance of May 1. Shockingly and shamefully enough, more than half of the interviewees replied in the negative. Most said it is a celebration of Labour Day, but no one had a clue why the day is also called Maharashtra Day.
A BMS student and Kalwa resident Dikshita Ramesh (19) said, “I seriously don’t know anything about the significance of the day. I only know it is a holiday and I am going to meet up with my friends.”
Even many working professionals had no clue about the significance of the day. IT professional, Abhishek Mhaske (29), a resident of Panchpakhadi, said, “I am not too sure but I think it is something related to the separation of Maharashtra with the state of Gujarat.”
The most surprising answer was from a utensil shop owner Bhavik Ranka (23), who said, “May 1 is a day when mathadi workers and labours are given a day off every year.”
But finally, one resident hit the nail on the head. Korpi resident and stock broker Gautam Lulla (29) said, ‘‘It was the day when the state was formed in 1960.’’