Maharashtra-Karnataka border row: What is the decades-long dispute that has resurfaced now?

Bus services between both states finally resumed on Monday after a three-day suspension of services.

In the aftermath of the disruption of bus services to and from Maharashtra, Karnataka transport minister Ramalinga Reddy visited Belagavi on Monday to assess the situation.

According to reports, both states suspended transport services amid tensions triggered over the alleged assault of Karnataka bus conductor Mahadevappa Hukkeri in Belagavi district on Friday for his inability to speak Marathi.

The Belagavi (formerly called Belgaum) district, with a significant Marathi-speaking population, along with several hundred villages along the border between Karnataka and Maharashtra, lies at the heart of this dispute.

This incident is the latest in the decades-old dispute that dates to the 1950s.

What is the origin of the dispute?

After Independence in 1948, the Belgaum municipality requested that the region be merged with Maharashtra. Belgaum claimed that it had a predominantly Marathi population.

In 1956, the States Reorganisation Act was introduced to address border disputes. The Act included recommendations by the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) chaired by Justice Fazal Ali.

The panel acknowledged the presence of both Marathi and Kannada-speaking populations in the border areas. But it did not agree that linguistic factors should be the sole criterion for redrawing state boundaries. However, it kick-started the long-drawn dispute among the two states that would continue for generations to come.

Under this Act, Belgaum was merged into Karnataka (then Mysore State) based on the 1881 census, which showed 64.39% Kannada speakers and 26.04% Marathi speakers.

Since the passage of the Act, Maharashtra has claimed that 865 villages, including Belagavi, Nipani, and Carvar should be part of it. In turn, Karnataka claimed 260 villages in Maharashtra with predominantly Kannada-speaking residents.

Going the legal way

On October 25, 1966, the Centre constituted the Mahajan Commission headed by then Supreme Court Chief Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan. The commission recommended that Belgaum city and 247 surrounding villages remain within Karnataka. It also proposed that 264 villages, including areas like Nippani, Khanapur, and Nandagad, be transferred to Maharashtra.

However, Maharashtra rejected the recommendations. In 2004, Maharashtra filed a petition in the Supreme Court, challenging Karnataka’s control over the region. The case remains pending, but the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution in 2022 asserting its claim over Belagavi and other Marathi-speaking areas in Karnataka.

Meanwhile, Karnataka renamed Belgaum as Belagavi and made it the seat of the winter session of its legislature.

In 2022, then Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde held a meeting in Mumbai to review the status of the border dispute. He announced that freedom fighters in Belagavi and other Marathi-speaking areas in Karnataka would be eligible for pension and free medical care under the Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Scheme.

In response, then Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai announced grants for all Kannada schools in Maharashtra.

What’s behind the latest flare-up?

On February 21, a Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus conductor was allegedly assaulted for not speaking in Marathi in Belagavi’s Marihal area. The altercation began when a girl and her companion boarded the bus and demanded the conductor speak Marathi. When he expressed his inability to speak in Marathi, he was allegedly beaten up.

The tension escalated further when Bhaskar Jadhav, a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) driver, was attacked and his face blackened by unknown attackers in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district. This assault was seen as a retaliatory act following the Belagavi incident.

Bus services between both states finally resumed on Monday after a three-day suspension of services.