Why Learning Marathi Matters If You Live In Maharashtra

Maharashtra, and Mumbai in particular, has always been a melting pot of languages, cultures and religions.

People from every corner of India have come here, built their lives and made Mumbai their home.

Maharashtrians have welcomed them with remarkable hospitality and tolerance.

But hospitality should never be mistaken for surrendering one’s own identity.

Mumbai is part of Maharashtra, and Maharashtra is a Marathi state. The fact that Mumbai has embraced people speaking every language in India does not make Marathi any less important. If a Maharashtrian worries that the growing presence of other languages could eventually diminish Marathi in its own state, isn’t that concern perfectly natural?

There is also an irony here that we should acknowledge.

At one end, there is a political effort to make Hindi increasingly dominant across the country. At the other end, in Mumbai and Maharashtra, Marathi is being spoken less and less, while there is resistance when people ask others to learn it.

So what exactly are we expecting Maharashtrians to feel?

If they begin to feel that their language and cultural identity are slowly being pushed to the margins in their own state, are they really wrong to feel deprived? Are they wrong to worry that their identity is being diluted?

And before someone asks me why I oppose the imposition of Hindi across India while I advocate learning Marathi in Maharashtra, let me make the distinction clear.

Marathi is the identity of Maharashtra. Hindi is not the identity of India.

India’s identity is plural. Malayalam is as much a part of India’s identity as Hindi. Marathi is as much a part of India’s identity as Hindi. So are Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Assamese and every other Indian language.

That is the key difference.

India does not belong to one language. But Maharashtra is a Marathi state, and Marathi is an integral part of its history, culture and identity.

So if someone living in Mumbai is asked to learn basic Marathi, what exactly is unreasonable about that?

Nobody is asking you to write a book in Marathi. Nobody is asking you to abandon your mother tongue.

Nobody is asking you to stop speaking Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Bengali or any other language.

Just learn enough Marathi to understand and speak it.

Tell me, which major city in India does not have its local language spoken on its streets and used in everyday transactions? Go to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Punjab or Haryana. The local language is an integral part of everyday life.

So why should Maharashtra be any different?

I agree completely that violence, threats or coercion are not the way to promote or protect a language. Language should never be imposed through intimidation.

But learning Marathi voluntarily, because you live in Maharashtra, should not require a debate.

It should be something we do happily.

Because Marathi is not merely a language spoken in Maharashtra. It is the history, culture and identity of the state.

And there is one simple reason that should be enough.

The Maharashtrians who have welcomed all of us feel good when someone who has made Maharashtra their home makes the effort to speak their language.

Sometimes, respecting the host is reason enough. You chose to make Mumbai your home.

Learn the language of the home.