Gujarat Day 2020: All You Need to Know about the State

Gujarat Day 2020 | On May 1, 1960, the state of Gujarat was carved out of the then existing state called Bombay. It was formed on the basis of language. Gujarat Day is celebrated with several cultural programmes across the state. The government of Gujarat has declared Gujarat Day a public holiday.

On the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to wish the Gujarati community.

Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India, has also extended his greetings to the people of Gujarat on their state formation day.

History

Post-independence, several protests were launched by linguistic groups for the creation of states based on the language of the regions.

Compelled due to the massive agitations in south India and western India, the government of India finally passed States Reorganization Act, 1956 and altered boundaries of India’s states on the basis of languages. Andhra Pradesh, Mysore (present day’s Karnataka), Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Bombay were formed.

However, inhabitants of Bombay were not happy with the decision of the government of India to create Bombay as a bilingual state, serving both Marathi and Gujarati speaking population.

Irked by the decision, people of both linguistic groups launched protests demanding the divisions of Bombay into two separate states for Gujarati and Marathi speaking population.

Finally, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru decided to form two states on linguistic basis and dissolved the Bombay state, thereby paving the way for the formation of two states Gujarat and Maharashtra on May 1, 1960. People of Maharashtra also celebrate May 1 as Maharashtra Day.