PART II

WILL MAHARASHTRA BE A VIABLE PROVINCE ?

Tests of Viability

13. Coming to th e specif ic questi on of Maharashtra Province it is necessary to be satisfied that it will be a viable Province. For being declared a viable Province, a Province must satisfy certain tests. It must be of a certain size, it must have a certain volume of population and a commensurate amount of revenue. A Province must not only be self-supporting—which any Province can be by choosing to live on a lower plane—but it must have sufficient revenue to provide for a minimum standard of administration required by efficiency and the needs of social welfare. Is Maharashtra Viable?

14. Does the Province of Maharashtra satisfy th ese tests? The following are the figures which show the size and population of the Maharashtra Provinc e as constituted on a linguistic basis :

Territory	Area in square miles	Total Population of the territory	Total Marathi speaking population of the territory	Percentage of Marathi speaking population to total population

Twelve districts of the Bombay Presidency	47284	12913544	10045100	77.8
Eight Districts of C.P. and Berar	36865	7020694	5388300	76.7
Total	84151	19934238	15433400	77.4

States within Bombay Presidency	11314	2720207	2120700	77.9
Marathi speaking Districts of Hyderabad State	22766	4249272	3299300	77.6
Goa	1534	580000	520000	89.6
State of Bastar	13701	633888	212300	33.5
Total	49315	8183367	6142300	---
GRAND TOTAL	133466	28117605	21585700	76.8

Area and pop ulation o f Maharashtra

15. The above table gives figures for the Maharashtra Province in its two forms (1) abridged and (2) unabridged. In its unabridged form which means if all the area occupied by the Marathi-speaking people was constituted in one single Province the area and the population of Maharashtra wil l be 1,33,466 square miles with a population of 2,15,85,700. In its abridged form which means that if the area and population of the Marathi-speaking people c omprised within the States was f or the mom ent omitted, even then the proposed Maharashtra Province would comprise an area of 84,151 square miles with a population of 1,54,33,400.

Revenue of Maharashtra

16. Turning to the revenue side of the Province, it has been estimated that the tota l annual revenue at the existing rate of taxat ion which will accrue to the abridged Maharashtra Province will be approximatel y Rs. 25,6 1,51.000.

Comparison of Maharashtra wi th other Provi nce s

17. Some c omparisons are neces sary to get an idea if a P rovince of this size, with this population and with so much revenue wil l be viable. For th is, I give below figures of the first or the biggest and the forty-seventh or the smallest st ates withi n the U.S.A. in order of their size and population :

States	Area in Square Miles
1st Texas	2,67,339
47^th Delaware	2,057
States	Population
1^st New York	1,26,32,890
47^th Wyoming	2,57,108

18. It is obvious that Maharashtra whether one takes its abridged ed ition or the unabridged edition of it w ill be severa l tim es bigger than Delaware which is the smallest State in U.S.A. in point of area and also several times bigger than New York which is the biggest state in U.S.A. in point of population.

19.Comparison of Maharashtra with the existing and prospective
Linguistic Prov ince s of I ndia may also be useful. Their po sit ion in po int
of area, population and revenue is as follows :

Province	Area in square miles	Population	Annual Revenue
Existing Linguistic Province -
United Provinces	106247	55020617	326508000
Bihar	69745	36340151	162678000
Orissa	32198	8228544	46062000
New Linguistic Province -
Andhra	70000	19000000	---
Karnatak	25000	4500000	---
Kerala	6000	3500000	---

These figure s wh en compared with the figures for Maharashtra leave no doubt that Maharashtra will not mer ely b e a viab le Province but a stro ng province in point of area, population and rev enu e.

NEXT=PART III
S HO ULD THE MAHARASHTRA PR OVINCE BE FEDERAL OR UNITARY?