India, Jan. 13 -- At the peak of the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement in the 1950s, and the fight over Bombay, two warring slogans resounded in the city: 'Mumbai aamchya hakkachi/naahi konachya baapchi,' (Mumbai is ours by right; it's not someone's fiefdom) cried the sons of the soil. To which, votaries of the Mahagujarat movement who wanted Bombay to become their capital, shot back with: 'Mumbai tumchi/bhandi ghasa aamchi' (Mumbai is yours; (but you) clean our utensils).

Salman Rushdie captures the fractiousness of that time in Midnight's Children when his protagonist Salim Sinai shouts back at Samyukta Maharashtra activists heckling him to speak in Gujarati: "Su chhe? saaru chhe/danda le ke maaru chhe" (How are you?-I am well!-I'll take a...