Home to over 115 million Marathi people, Maharashtra occupies an enviable spot on the west coast of Indian as well as in the hearts of the global Marathi speaking diaspora.
In 1960, the Samyukta Maharashtra movement saw the formal formation of this Indian state. In independent India, the idea of regionally redrawn States on linguistic groupings was not favored by the then political leadership. Marathi as a language had loose but wide reach in the region thanks to a history of Marathi speaking governance and kingdoms in pre-independence India. Perhaps, this is why Marathi – the official language of the region – sometimes may be spoken and understood by people residing in neighboring states of Gujarat, Karnataka, Goa and Andhra Pradesh.