Language Bridge or barrier ?

I really don't get why non-Marathi speaking Maharashtrians, as they love to call themselves, detest Marathi so much? They up their antennae at the drop of a hat whenever something positive is being considered about Marathi culture or Marathi in her own state. And they don't leave any stone unturned till they get everything their way. At times labelling pure love of the natives for their own culture and language parochial. Never heard of such clamour being whipped up In Chennai about Tamil or In Kolkatta about Bengali. Nobody simply dares! Why, here in Mumbai nobody raises an eyebrow even by a flicker when every other Punjabi Film star, especially male one, proclaims with vacuous pride that Punjabi blood flows through his veins and he is proud to be a Great Punjabi! Why then so much of hue and cry is being raised when Marathi cause is espoused by a Marathi government.

According to our constitution,  all major Indian languages are having equal status, and Hindi is NOT a national language as it is made out to be. BUT Marathi is definitely the STATE language and state must do everything to see to it that she gets her due status and respect. 

Everybody now days wants to have his/her way saying, 'It's my choice'. All these so-called Maharashtrians want their choice of not having Marathi Movie in Prime Time slot. Then what about the choice of a blue-blooded Marathi like me to watch Marathi movie at 6 PM slot when Multiplex owner is just not going to screen my choice of movie in that slot. And who knows if they start screening, maybe Marathi Movies will start giving their counterparts in other languages tough time! Or is it so, that's why these very people are afraid of the competition?

The real point is not a particular language. Human Larynx is only voice producing organ in the entire animal world, which can be modulated, intoned, emphasized to make different sounds using/ relaxing/ contracting correct muscles of vocal cords with input from the cerebral cortex. Such a mechanism , very complex one is the mother of all the Languages. The sound made by human larynx may be the same throughout the world, as though the races differ, laryngeal anatomy does not. But that sound takes meaning only when years of culture, history goes into it. Thus simple sound produced by any larynx in the world like 'Ma' has different meanings in different languages. So it does not stop at the language level when somebody objects to it. It's definitely an attack on the being of an individual. When I say I am Marathi then my being Marathi starts from way back in the 8th century. Decades of struggle, improvements, additions, omissions, writings, thoughts of authors, poets philosophers, saints along with the patrons who supported them have contributed to my being Marathi today.

Likes of Shobhaa De are not Marathis, in an interview for National Channel she could not speak barely two sentences in simple Marathi in one breath, she may be a Maharashtrian but definitely not Marathi. And they make the most noise about being 'True', whatever that means, Maharashtrian!
I sincerely used to believe in the dictum that language is just a mode of communication, but now I feel it's too simple in today's highly politicized world. The poser now is whether it is a bridge or barrier?