Protect Marathi Population and Language in Vidarbha
All districts of Vidarbha are still Marathi majority. However, in several urban areas this majority is steadily shrinking.
According to the 2011 Census, the Marathi share of Nagpur city’s population had declined to 60.6%. In many urban centres of Vidarbha, the Marathi share has continued to decline since then. This decline is not because local Marathi people are shifting to Hindi. Most Marathi families continue to record Marathi as their language. The drop is primarily due to the large and continuous influx of new migrants from Hindi-speaking states.
If current trends continue, in some cities the Marathi population may already be down to around 55% to 58% today. When every second person in a city is non-Marathi, even Marathi people themselves start feeling discouraged to speak Marathi in markets, offices, schools, and public places. Hindi slowly becomes the default language of communication.
This is not just about language. It is fundamentally about the population and demographic majority of Marathi people themselves. The real goal is not merely preserving the Marathi language, but preserving the Marathi people as the clear majority in their own land.
Do not let your city or town become like Mumbai, Nagpur, or Thane. In Mumbai, Marathi speakers are now only around 35%, and in Thane around 48%. We have already seen how rapid demographic changes turned Marathi people into a smaller minority in their own cities.
Becoming a minority also starts discrimination against Marathi people, as we have seen in many cities of coastal Maharashtra.
Marathi people must now make a conscious and serious effort to preserve their demographic strength in Vidarbha. Once a community falls below 50% in its own cities and towns, reversing that decline becomes extremely difficult.
If this trend continues, it will not only erase Marathi history and identity but will also make Marathi people feel like outsiders in their own ancestral land. Vidarbha therefore urgently needs both Marathi population preservation and Marathi language preservation.
Protecting Marathi identity and numbers in Vidarbha is not hatred towards any other community. It is simple cultural and demographic self-preservation. Every community has the right to ensure it does not become a minority in its own homeland.
Maharashtra must remain Marathi. Vidarbha must remain Marathi.