ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a more all-encompassing perspective on the postcolonial transition in South Asia in the context of ideas about belonging, citizenship and democracy. The proponents of Samyukta Maharashtra were keen to stress that the demand for linguistic reorganisation was not meant to challenge larger loyalties to the Indian nation, but instead enhance them through patriotic devotion to the region as one part of the wider whole. The demand for Sind can be perceived as a precursor to both the creation of Pakistan and the wholesale reorganisation of administrative boundaries in Bombay, including the roughly coterminous claims to create the provinces of Karnataka and Maharashtra. A sense of the perceived benefits brought by the twin imperatives of provincialisation and democratisation to particular 'community' interests in interwar British India helps explain the aforementioned willingness amongst Marathas to give up reserved seats in the provincial legislative assembly at this time.
