MUMBAI, July 3 -- As the BJP-led Mahayuti government's attempt to impose Hindi as the third language in the state's schools snowballed into a high-stakes political controversy, an unexpected but decisive voice was working to get the government to back down. Deepak Pawar, 53, a political science professor with the University of Mumbai, rallied the forces opposed to the government's stand. "It (imposing Hindi as the third language) was not about child psychology or improving education; it was an attempt to use language as a cultural weapon." Pawar, founder of the Marathi Abhyas Kendra, which promotes the Marathi language and culture, says his team began quietly mobilising resistance across Maharashtra from April 16. The campaign wasn't loud in its early days, but it was strategic. They reached out not only to linguists, child development experts and educators, but also to regional institutions and cultural activists. Pawar's colleague Sushil Shejule played a pivotal role in coordinating the dialogue across cities and towns, ensuring that the conversation wasn't just top-down. What truly made the movement powerful was its political inclusivity. Pawar spoke with parties across the ideological spectrum, from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to the Congress, to regional parties like the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Shiv Sena (UBT). "We knew that opposing a powerful government with a brute majority would be meaningless unless we presented a strong ideological stance, which needed to reach people across the state," he told HT. It is important to view the three-language policy as part of a larger trend of cultural centralisation, says Pawar. "We must look beyond the language itself; this was an attempt to homogenise culture, rewrite state identities, and weaken regional voices. The opposition wasn't to Hindi per se; it was about democracy, about the federal spirit of the Constitution." As momentum built, the movement began to do what many thought impossible - it brought together the Thackeray cousins. Uddhav Thackeray, once the torchbearer of Marathi pride, and Raj Thackeray, whose politics had drifted towards hardline nationalism, both responded to appeals made by Pawar's network. "They didn't come together because of us; the movement created the conditions. When common people become assertive and politically mature, political parties, no matter how divided, are forced to respond," he says. "Whether or not the Thackeray brothers came together is their political need. But if the Marathi community stands together, even uncles and nephews will have to come together," he says, with a quiet smile. As part of its outreach during the protest movement, the Marathi Abhyas Kendra held meetings not just with party leaders, but with think tanks, educational bodies and activists. Letters were written to Balasaheb Ambedkar of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and other regional politicians. This wasn't a protest about one decision, he clarifies, it was about the right of Maharashtra to shape its own cultural and educational policies. Pawar, who was instrumental in getting the state to create a separate Marathi language department in 2010, believes the fight isn't over. "This isn't the end. The real question is, after coming together, what kind of politics will we engage in? If we truly want to shape the future of Maharashtra's identity, culture and federal place in India, we have to go deeper. We have to build an all-inclusive, reasoned and democratic Marathi politics. That's the real movement."...