Thursday 1 May 2014

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAHARASHTRA & GUJARAT!!!!

The state of Maharashtra and Gujarat were formed as a result of this movement according to the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960 enacted by the Parliament of India on 25 April 1960. The act came into effect on 1 May 1960.

Maharashtra Day, commonly known as Maharashtra Diwas in Marathi is a state holiday in MaharashtraIndia commemorating the formation of the state of Maharashtra from the division of the Bombay State on 1 May 1960. Maharashtra Day is commonly associated with parades and political speeches and ceremonies, in addition to various other public and private events celebrating the history and traditions of Maharashtra.
The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 defined boundaries for the states within India on the basis of languages. The Bombay State that was formed as a consequence of this act, however, was composed of different areas where different languages were spoken; MarathiGujaratiKutchi and Konkani. The Sanyukta Maharashtra Samiti was at the forefront of the movement to divide the Bombay State into two states; one composed of areas where people primarily spoke Gujarati and Kutchhi and the other where people primarily spoke Marathi and Konkani.

Maharashtra is a state in the western region of IndiaMaharashtra is the wealthiest state in India. Maharashtra is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, Gujarat and the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli to the northwest, Madhya Pradesh to the north and northeast, Chhattisgarh to the east, Karnataka to the south, Andhra Pradesh to the southeast and Goa to the southwest. The state covers an area of 307,713 km2 (118,809 sq mi) or 9.84% of the total geographical area of India. Mumbai, the capital city of the state, is India's largest city and the financial capital of the nation. Maharashtra is the world's second most populous first-level administrative country sub-division.

The Nashik Gazetteer states that in 246 BC Maharashtra is mentioned as one of the places to which Mauryan emperor Asokasent an embassy, and it is recorded in a Chalukyan inscription of 580 CE as including three provinces and 99,000 villages. The name Maharashtra also appeared in a 7th-century inscription and in the account of a Chinese traveller, Hiuen-Tsang. 

After Indian independenceSamyukta Maharashtra Samiti demanded unification of all Marathi-speaking regions under one state. At that time, Babasaheb Ambedkar was of the opinion that linguistic reorganisation of states should be done on a "One state – One language" principle and not on a "One language – One state" principle. He submitted a memorandum to the re-organisation commission stating that a "single government can not administer such a huge state as United Maharashtra". The first state re-organisation committee created the current Maharashtra state on 1 May 1960 (known as Maharashtra Day).

Maharashtra is divided into 35 districts under given 6 divisions. These 35 districts are further divided into 109 sub-divisions of the districts and 357 talukas. Each district is governed by a district collector or district magistrate, appointed either by the Indian Administrative Service or the Maharashtra Civil Service. Each district is subdivided into sub-divisions, governed by a sub-divisional magistrate, and again into Blocks. Blocks consists of panchayats (village councils) and town municipalities. Talukas are intermediate level panchayat between the zilla panchayat (district councils) at the district level and gram panchayat (village councils) at the lower level.


Its State animal is Indian Giant Squirre; State bird is Yellow-footed Green Pigeon; State tree is Mango; State flower is Lagerstroemia; State dance is Lavani and State sport is Kabaddi. According to the provisional results of the 2011 national census, Maharashtra is the second most populous state in India with a population of 112,374,333.

Gujarat is a state in the North-West coast of India. It is known locally asJewel of the WestIt has an area of 196,204 km2 (75,755 sq mi) with a coastline of 1,600 km (990 mi), most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula, and a population in excess of 60 million. The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the north, Maharashtra to the south, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea as well as the Pakistani province of Sindh on the west. Its capital city is Gandhinagar, whilst its largest city is Ahmedabad.

Gujarat was known to the Ancient Greeks, the various Persian Empires, the Roman Republic, and familiar in other Western centers of civilization through the end of the European Middle Ages. The oldest written record of Gujarat's 2,000 year old maritime history is documented in a Greek book named 'The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century'.

Modern-day Gujarat is derived from Sanskrit Gurjar-Rashtra, the Gurjar nation. Parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat have been known as Gurjaratra (country ruled or protected by the Gurjars) or Gurjarabhumi (land of the Gurjars) for centuries prior to the Mughal period. Historically, the Gurjars were Sun-worshipers and are described as devoted to the feet of the Sun-god (GodSurya).

The population of Gujarat State was 60,383,628 according to the 2011 census data. The population density is 308/km2 (797.6/sq mi), lower than other Indian states.