page_title: Morarji Desai
section_title: Chief Minister of Bombay and Partition of two state
hierarchical_section_title: Morarji Desai / In government / Chief Minister of Bombay and Partition of two state
caption_attribution_description: English: Morarji Desai in 1937, as Congress Home Minister of Bombay Presidency. Français&#160;: Morarji Desai (1937). ಕನ್ನಡ: ಮೊರಾರ್ಜಿ ದೇಸಾಯಿ. 中文: 莫拉尔吉·德赛.
context_page_description: Morarji Ranchhodji Desai was an Indian independence activist and served between 1977 and 1979 as the 4th Prime Minister of India and led the government formed by the Janata Party. During his long career in politics, he held many important posts in government such as Chief Minister of Bombay State, Home Minister, Finance Minister and 2nd Deputy Prime Minister of India.
  Following the passing of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Desai was a strong contender for the position of Prime Minister, only to be defeated by Indira Gandhi in 1966. He was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in Indira Gandhi's cabinet, until 1969. He resigned from the Congress during the split of 1969, and joined the INC. After the controversial emergency was lifted in 1977, the political parties of the opposition fought together against the Congress, under the umbrella of the Janata Party, and won the 1977 election. Desai was elected Prime Minister, and became the first non-congress Prime Minister of India.
  On the international scene, Desai holds international fame for his peace activism and created efforts to initiate peace between two rival South Asian states, Pakistan and India.
context_section_description: Before the independence of India, he became Bombay's Home Minister and was later elected Chief Minister of Bombay State in 1952. It was a period when movements for linguistic states were on the rise, particularly in South India. Bombay was a bi-lingual state, home to Gujarati-speaking and Marathi-speaking people. Since 1956, activist organisation Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti led a movement for a Marathi-speaking state of Maharashtra. Morarji Desai was opposed to such movements, including the Mahagujarat Movement led by Indulal Yagnik demanding a new state of Gujarat. Desai proposed that the metropolitan Mumbai be made a Union territory. His logic was that a separate development region would suit the city's cosmopolitan nature, with citizens from diverse settings across various linguistic, cultural, and religious backgrounds living there for generations. Despite his Gandhian ideals, Desai ordered the police to open fire on the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti demonstrators who had gathered at Flora Fountain to demand a Marathi-speaking state. The protesters were led by Senapati Bapat. In the carnage that followed, 105 protesters, including an eleven-year-old girl, were killed. The issue escalated and is believed to have forced the Central Government to agree to two separate states based on language. After the formation of the present State of Maharashtra, Bombay, now Mumbai became its state capital. Flora Fountain was renamed  "Hutatma Chowk" ("Martyrs' Square" in Marathi) to honour the people killed in the firing. Later Desai moved to Delhi when he was inducted as finance Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
caption: Morarji Desai in 1937, as Congress Home Minister of Bombay Presidency
exif: {}