Jai Hind ! Jai Maharashtra !!

True to it's name Maharashtra, in yester-years and today, has shown signs of being a great state. It has produced some (some? in fact many) great personalities. To name some very prominent ones - Chhatrapati Shivaji Shahaji Bhosale, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Veer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Chaphekar Brothers, Jyotiba Phule, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar... and this is just the beginning, the list goes on.

Hinduvi Swarajya was established by Chhatrapati (King of the Kshatriyas) Shivaji Maharaj (1642-1680). What started on 6th June 1674 at Raigad fort, Shivaji Maharaj built and expanded the empire. The empire, as in the map (1758), covered most of today's India. Shivaji was an able administrator, who in his government had modern concepts such as cabinet, foreign affaris and internal intelligence. His strong and able army was well organised too. And above all he respected all religion.

Lokmanya Tilak (1856-1920), a social reformer, leader of Indian Movement of Independence and one of the first and strongest advocates of Swaraj... his famous words quoted "Swaraj he maazhe janma siddha adhikaar aahe ani to me milavnarach!" which means "Swaraj is my bithhright and I shall have it!". British authorities called him the "Father of the Indian Unrest". He knew the importance of education and co-founded the daily - Kesari with Agarkar and colleagues. He enhanced social gathering by starting the famous Ganapati festival.

Veer Savarkar (1883-1966), a Hindu revolutionary, a politician who fought for Indian Independence, was educated in India and England. He organised an armed revolt against British empire and was sentenced to 50 years of imprisonment and was transported to infamous Kaala pani - Cellular jail in Andaman and Nicobar islands.

As I mentioned, this is just the beginning and shows how great people carved the state of Maharashtra. Maharashtra was formed on 1st May 1960 from what was mainly Bombay state in British Raj. Reorganization of British-formed states were done according the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's opinion of "One state - One language" and not "One language - One state".

Maharashtra, with history one should be proud of, is the third largest state of India, is second most populated state of India, is first in GDP (in 2006-07), is first in tax revenue generation, is sixth by literacy rate and first in the capacity to generate power. Jai Maharashtra!!!

Where are we lacking? It is an established fact that we are on the top as far as Indian states are concerned, but we should be the one leading India. There is no state level competition, is what we miss out on. Our current leaders, like leaders of yester-years should take the real work in hand and fight the problems India is currently facing. Nation first, then the state... should be the way for us Maharashtrians to go and other states to follow. Chhatrapati has shown us the way, Lokmanya has taught us, Veer's blood flows in us... it was "we", it is "we" and it has to be "we" to drive the nation to where it is destined to be. So as always, it is ...

Jai Hind! Jai Maharashtra!!