BENGALURU: Abhay Dixit has been a resident of Bengaluru for the last 42 years, but Sunday brought special excitement for him as a member of the city’s Marathi community. The occasion was the centenary celebrations of the setting up of Maharashtra Mandal, a socio-cultural organisation of which Dixit has been a part for four decades. “In the late 1970s, when I settled here, I had very few Marathi-speaking neighbours. Even conducting a Ganeshotsav was a big task then. Today, seeing this large community, I realise how far have we come,” the 71-year-old said.
The milestone anniversary was celebrated with an extravaganza at Palace Grounds, which was attended by the former Speaker of Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan, as the chief guest, and Tejasvi Surya, MP from Bangalore South. Also present was Marathi singer-composer Avadhoot Gupte, who performed in front of the crowd. The event also featured an interview with Marathi actor Sachin Khedekar, and a Maharashtrian food festival.
Maharashtra Mandal, located in Gandhinagar, was founded in 1920. PS Jawadekar, former executive director of Kirloskar, told CE that the community was small in 1962, when he came to the city. “No get-togethers were held other than Ganesha festival. We later started staging plays in Ravindra Kalakshetra. Every year, 2-3 dramas were presented, and that’s how we started engagements within and outside the community. Nowadays, more youngsters are coming forward,” he added.
Over the last nine decades, the organisation has been organising social and cultural events in the city, providing professional and amateur artistes a stage to showcase their ideas. According to Dixit, many of them have been settled here for four generations. “We celebrate Ganeshotsav, Gudi Padwa, and Diwali etc with a lot of fervour. We are also associated with local writers and artistes. For example, when we celebrated the 75th year, we invited Ananth Nag, S L Bhyrappa, B V Karanth and many more dignitaries from the state. My sons and daughters speak Kannada better than I do. Naanu Kannada maathadathini. Ashtu channagi mathadatheke aagalla,” he laughs.
Journey thus far
There are around 2.5 lakh Marathi-speaking people living in the city today. “The migration of people from the Marathi community to Bengaluru took place in three stages, the first one being in the beginning of the 20th century. Many came here as surveyors, and started living in an area in Basavangudi. That’s how the road came to be called Surveyor Road. One of them, Baburao Joshi, founded this Mandal in 1920. During 1970-1980, many engineers came to Bengaluru for government jobs in HAL, BHEL, etc. The third wave happened in the last couple of decades, with emergence of MNCs,” Dixit explains.