[2][3] Writer-politician Kanaiyalal Munshi coined the term Mahagujarat at the Karachi meeting of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad in 1937.

In its 10 December 1948 report, the Commission recommended that "the formation of provinces on exclusively or even mainly linguistic considerations is not in the larger interests of the Indian nation".

[7] Both Gujarati and Marathi people opposed the SRC's recommendation and strongly demanded separate linguistic states.

The situation became complicated because both of them wanted to include Bombay city (now Mumbai) in their own states due to its economic and cosmopolitan values.

Jawaharlal Nehru also suggested to form three states; Maharashtra, Gujarat and centrally governed city-state of Bombay to solve conflict.

[7] The protest broke out in Bombay and other Marathi-speaking districts, later known as the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement, demanding a separate Marathi state.

On 8 August 1956,[11] some college students of Ahmedabad went to the local Congress House near Lal Darwaza to demand a separate state.

Many protesters, including Indulal Yagnik and Dinkar Mehta, Dhanvant Shroff, were arrested and kept at Gaekwad Haveli in Ahmedabad for a few days and later imprisoned in Sabarmati Central Jail for three and half months.

President Rajendra Prasad, Vice-President Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru finally agreed upon the formation of two new lingual states after prolonged agitation.

Jayanti Dalal, Yashwant Shukla, Vinodini Nilkanth, Ishwar Petlikar, Ushnas had also used movement as their inspiration for literary works.