THE EMERGENCE OF REGIONALISM IN MUMBAI

The present study is an attempt to explore the social matrix within which a regionalist movement emerged and took shape. The interest lies in locating the variables that contributed to and shaped the regionalist demands rather than in tracing the history and career of an association that led or carried out the movement. Four chapters in the present work deal with variables linked with the discontent and emergence of the movement. Each of these chapters is divided into two sections. Section I consists of content-data from news-journals. Section II presents analysis and interpretation of the content-data. I owe a debt of gratitude to my guide, Dr. Y. B. Damle, who encouraged me to pursue the present subject for a doctoral research thesis. His comments and criticism helped me all along to keep the work on the right track. The Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, granted a doctoral fellowship for two years (1973-75) which enabled me to carry out this long-term project. The Women's University, where I work, was gracious in granting me leave of absence for the two-year period of fellowship. After I joined work, Dr. Neera Desai, Head of my Department, kindly spared me academic responsibilities beyond classroom teaching. When I began the research I found few libraries had records of 'vernacular' newspapers and I had to approach the newspaper offices for the back issues of selected journals. I am grateful to the management of these journals for giving me access to their issues. The library staff of the Journal Section of the Shasakeeya Vibhageeya Granthalaya (Vishrambaug Wada), Pune, the Mumbai Marathi Granth Sangrahalaya and the Central Library at the Town Hall, Mumbai, also helped me in ferreting out older issues unavailable elsewhere. Smt. Khandwala, her colleagues at the SNDT Women's University Library, Shri A. C. Tikekar and members of the Library Staff of the University of Mumbai and Mr. Thorat of Council Hall Library often went out of their way to help me. Several of my friends and colleagues contributed directly of indirectly to the completion of this work. I owe a particularly heavy debt to Smt. Sharayu Anantram and Shri Badrinarayan who gave unstinting help at all stages of the work. Both of them took time off to go through the manuscript and make useful suggestions. Without the co-operation of all these persons and institutions I could not have done the work. The responsibility for any shortcomings in this work, however, is entirely mine. August 1978 - Sudha Gogate