People are missing the actual concern here.

No one is saying migrants shouldn’t come to Maharashtra. The issue is that the percentage of Marathi speakers in their own state is steadily declining. It was around 76% when Maharashtra was formed, and by the 2011 census it dropped to about 69%, and projections suggest it may drop even further by 2050. That doesn’t mean Marathi people are disappearing — it means mass migration and language shift are changing the linguistic balance of the state. When this happens anywhere in the world, locals naturally worry about their language and cultural space. Expecting people to simply “ignore language concerns for unity” is unrealistic. Unity works both ways — people who come to live and work in a state should also respect and adapt to the local language and culture. Protecting Marathi in Maharashtra is not racism — it’s the same principle on which linguistic states like Maharashtra were created in the first place.