Marathi Manus in Danger - A propaganda

I recently got a Power-Point Presentation describing how there are virtually no Marathi people in the top bodies of central as well as state governments.

I have converted it to pdf and am uploading it here.

There is some Marathi text in the document, and for the benefit of those who don't understand Marathi, all of that is roughly translated to : "Maharashtrians are systematically kept away from Important Positions... There is no Maharashtrian in any decision making positions…etc. etc"

I don't object to the data given in the document : it is true that there aren't many IAS/IPS officers from Maharashtra.
But I cannot and will not accept that this is because there is some League of North-Indians who are conspiring to keep Marathi Manus out of the top-jobs.

Page-18 of the document throws up a series of comments/questions like this one:
Why Indian governers have to be Reddy and Raanganathan?
I think almost all the states have been getting non-resident governors (at least) since last few years.
Here is a complete list of CMs and governors of Indian states.
Just a random look at it tells us that

• In the north:
• Chandigarh has a South-Indian Governor : Shri E.S.L. Narasimhan (South)
  
• Bihar - Shri R S Gavai (Marathi)
• Himachal Pradesh - Shri Justice Vishnu Sadashiv Kokje (Retd.) (Marathi)
  
• Rajasthan had a Maharashtrian Governor : Smt. Pratibhatai Patil, who is now the President
  
• In the south:
• Karnataka - Shri Rameshwar Thakur (north)
• Andhra Pradesh had a Maharashtrian Governor : Shri. Sushil Kumar Shinde, who is now a Union Minister
  
• In the east:
• Nagaland - Shri K. Sankaranarayan (South-Indian)
• Orissa - Shri Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare (Marathi)
  
• In the west:
• Maharashtra & Goa - Shri S.C. Jamir (North-East) - note he is not reddy or ranganathan
  
• Gujarat - Shri Naval Kishore Sharma

Then there is this thing about Not having any Maharashtrian in decision making posts.
I think the answer lies in the fact that an average educated Marathi youth is not so enthusiastic about preparing for IAS as much as he is about preparing for GRE/Toefel.
Bihar is producing maximum number of IAS officers in the country. So they will have people in key-posts.

Maharashtrians have had a good representation in other few departments, though.
Please have a look at this list.
Of course there are many more names to be added to it - Vikram Pandit (CEO citibank group) is immediately coming to my mind.
...

Well, what really bothers me is the statement : Maarthi people must unite and fight against this injustice!!!
Maharashtra is considered as one of the progressive states.
Marathi Manus is considered honest, faithful, well-cultured, and in general well-off.
If such people decide to fight then what will those states who really have a life-and-death situation at their hands do?
Prosperous states like Maharashtra must stand up and help the other weaker states.
Is anyone aware of the ground realities in J&K or the north-east?
The total no. of engineering colleges in J&K is 8, whereas the list of engineering colleges in MH runs for 8 pages.
Thousands of students from these states come to the other parts of our country for better education, better infrastructure, better life.
What will they do if we start "fighting against the injustice"?

And what is bothering me even further is Page-19: photos of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Lokmanya Tilak, Mahatma Phule, Dr. Ambedkar and Rajguru, and lines underneath asking whether the sacrifice they made was for Delhi? (ie. for the benefit of North Indians?)
It really pains when propagandists use revered figures like these to try prove their point.
They are actually diminishing the stature of these truly national figures.
They are restricting these great people to Maharashtra,
Let me remind those who are creating such documents that Shivaji did not fight for a piece of land in Western Maharashtra, he fought for the principles of freedom.
Lokmanya Tilak was not a leader of Maharashtra, he was the Father of Indian Unrest.
Phule and Ambedkar fought against the discrimination in the name of humanity, not regionalism.
And Rajguru kissed the noose in Lahore, miles away from Maharashtra, but a part of India, his motherland.
...

In the end, I just want to mention that, there will be a few who might have had not-so-good experience at the hands of some riksha/sabji-walla-"bhaiyya" in Mumbai/Pune and may not totally agree with me.
But please have a look at Page-21 of the document, saying नाहीतर स्वतंत्र महाराष्ट्र देश तयार करावा लागेल !!!
(otherwise a separate country "Maharashtra" will have to be created)
This clearly is the height of madness and any amount of support to this propaganda will mean a support to such a horrible idea.
So I request all of you not to support this in any form.

...
Finally, it is not a Raj (as in secret - pun intended) who is behind this propaganda, and I sincerely hope that this madness will fade away soon. Those notorious politicians behind this don't really have any constructive agenda, and hence are behind this propaganda.
BTW, I am a Marathi Manus myself, and wouldn't mind supporting the demand for signboards in Marathi, but I have a doubt: If I paint my shop's signboard "Delhi Durbar" in Hindi: "दिल्ली दरबार", can it be distinguished from the Marathi "दिल्ली दरबार" , given that the script is same ?

I also believe that

1. Maharashtrians from other parts of the state are equally responsible for crowding of Mumbai as is any North/South Indian.
2. Identifying and deporting illegal migrants from Bangladesh/Pakistan should take a much higher priority. And young, energetic politicians should utilize their time and energy in issues like these than regional-rhetoric.

गणेशोत्सव : The Festival of Lord Ganesha

Ganeshotsava is the biggest festival celebrated in Maharashtra today.
It is a 10-day long festival in which the entire Hindu society is swept by the wave of bhakti towards their beloved god - Ganesha, the god of wisdom, the god who rescues you from troubles (विघ्नहर्ता- vighnaharta), the god who bestows happiness on you (सुखकर्ता - sukhakarta)

The festival starting today, the fourth day of new moon of the sixth month of Hindu lunar calendar (भाद्रपद शुद्ध चतुर्थी - bhadrapada shuddha chaturthi) assumed this form since 1893, when Lokamanya Tilak made a revolution by transforming this private Hindu festival into a public national festival.

The religion part of Hindu Dharma has always been a personal affair - restricted to the devotee and the divine. But the need of the hour was that the whole populace come together to fight the Britishers. How was this to be achieved in a country like India, where people are so religious ? "Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav" and "Shivajayanti" was Tilakji's answer. This was probably the first attempt to organize the Hindus in the modern history.


Today, Ganeshotsava is known as the festival of Maharashtra, but is celebrated all over the world. May be the fact that Ganesha has been worshiped beyond India since long, has helped this festival become global.

The Ganeshotsava is a huge economic system in itself.
Thousands of craftsmen, electricians, carpenters, sound-system-wallas, and many other daily-wage workers consider this festival as their harvesting time of the year. In the short span of 15-20 days, they earn equivalent of what they would during 3-4 months of regular work.
Ganesha comes as the god of prosperity for them.
This also tells us how religion is related to a common man's life - not only in a spiritual manner, but also in a materialistic one.


Well, there's actually a lot one can say about Ganeshotsava, but this much, I guess, is enough for now.
So may the god of wisdom bless you.
Let's take a look at the symbolism in the idol of Ganesha before we depart: