ABSTRACT
As India gradually inched towards swaraj during the interwar years, new ideas about the nature of Indian freedom and democracy began to emerge in Bombay Province. This chapter focuses on the ways in which linguistic reorganisation was theorised, both by its supporters and opponents, particularly as these ideas intersected with different conceptions of democracy, citizenship and nationality that were developing during this period. It describes the synergies between the calls for Samyukta Maharashtra and the Pakistan demand, in an effort to identify and develop wider and more contextualised insights into the various ideas about India's freedom that were in contemporary circulation. Amongst the supporters of Samyukta Maharashtra, their understanding of democracy as majority rule provided the context for exclusive conceptions of linguistic belonging within the province. The chapter demonstrates some of the key ideologues of the movement believed that the provincial units in southern and western India would only be viable if their inhabitants shared a common mother tongue.
