Spot the difference

The city has witnessed far more violent outbursts from Raj’s uncle, Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray, and the likes of Abu Azmi. Mumbai’s citizens have learnt to take these aggressive debates in their stride. These antics create tension in some small areas for a little while and then quickly die down. In the crowded streets and trains, nobody really knows or cares who is Marathi or who is Bihari.

There are nearly fifty small-time professions that are dominated by the so-called north Indians. These could have been done by the sons of the soil too — like driving taxis or distributing milk, selling bhelpuri or running a laundry, which means ironing clothes for the vast middle class of the city including the white-collar Marathi community. None of these north Indians invades the job or identity of the Marathi Manoos, who would choose unemployment over these ‘lowly’ jobs.

And yet Abu Azmi and Raj were able to spread tension all around. It does not require much political acumen to realise that the actual confrontation is between Raj and Uddhav, the heir apparent of Balasaheb Thackeray, and not necessarily between north Indians and the Marathi community. The first rebellion against Uddhav was by Narayan Rane, in July 2005. He joined the Congress and thundered against Uddhav’s autocratic, if lackluster, style. Rane also managed to win five assembly seats for the Congress in the by-elections caused by his exit.

The second blow to the Shiv Sena was delivered by his cousin Raj, by first resigning from the Sena and later forming his political group, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. The very first rally organised by the disgruntled cousin was so huge that it sent panic waves in the Shiv Sena. Since then, for almost two years, a kind of fratricidal war is on and what we are witnessing today is a manifestation of that family conflict.

Neither the family, nor their organisation, Shiv Sena, had any ideological moorings or any well-defined programme. It was a spontaneously formed angry congregation in the mid-sixties, primarily to protect and promote the interests of the Marathi speaking people in the city. It had only been six years since the state was carved out with Mumbai as the capital. The struggle for the state of Maharashtra was led by the leftists who then dreamt that the vast proletariat in the industrial capital would help them bring about a revolution through the ballot. Kerala had elected a communist government in 1957, the first ever electoral victory by any communist party in the world. The comrades in Mumbai thought the progressive ethos of Marathi culture, coupled with Leninist rhetoric, would transform the political discourse.

Maharashtra was carved out because of the spirited progressive movement, but it had no agenda, and its spirit was soon usurped by this regressive and sectarian organisation.

The appeal to the Marathi community even at the time was essentially on the legacy of Shivaji Maharaj, who continues to be the icon of the left and right and even the liberals and intellectuals. But glorifying Shivaji did not amount to a modernist, industrial, contemporary programme of action. It was in this vacuum that the Shiv Sena emerged. The country was going through an economic crisis, stagnation and inflation. No new jobs were being created. In West Bengal the anger led to the rise of Naxalism and the spread of communist ideology. In Tamil Nadu, to the Dravidian revolt. In Punjab, to Akali militancy. Shiv Sena appeared on the scene as a sort of regional party of the Marathi community.

However, the Sena had its roots in Mumbai, because the massive unemployment of Marathi youth was mainly in Mumbai. The rest of the state was poor but not particularly affected by the economic crisis. The only appeal that could attract the aspiring youth and lumpens was to their identity. That identity crisis continues to dog the Marathi community even today, notwithstanding the fact that the economy and social ambience have changed. Raj Thackeray, it appeared, when he floated his MNS, would provide a new agenda. He declared that he wanted to move away from the legacy of the Sena. He publicly announced that his politics would be secular, liberal and inclusive.

It was at this time that Uddhav and particularly Manohar Joshi too began to realise that if they wanted to come back to power, they would have to create a support base among non-Marathi communities. Mumbai had changed and the appeal that succeeded in the mid-sixties would not prove effective. The top SS leadership then decided to spread wings and even start celebrating the Uttar Pradesh Divas. This new avatar of the Sena was facilitated by BJP-style ‘Hindu integration’.

Raj was just looking for an opportunity to strike. He pounced on this so-called new integrationist approach of the Sena and said that if the north Indians want to live and work in Mumbai, they must respect Marathi identity, Marathi language and Marathi culture. The idea of that respect is nebulous. Most Marathi families, not only in urban areas but even in some rural areas, send (or want to send) their children to English medium schools, just as Uddhav and Raj have done. As far as the work culture goes, hardly any Marathi family would regard selling bhel or driving taxis as “respectable”. Life in Mumbai has forced everyone to be accommodative and tolerant. If in the past, cosmopolitanism was a kind of lifestyle, today it is a prerequisite for survival.

With the new economy and new technology, the Marathi community began to be scattered. Their old residential premises were being sold for astronomical sums. The rise of new money was sidelining those who had neither the flexibility of work nor qualification for participating in the new economy. One can describe them as the neo-lumpens. This is not a majority Maharashtrian. But he is vocal, angry, frustrated and ready to throw stones. Raj has thrown these stones at the glass house of the Shiv Sena. Uddhav only had the option of abandoning the inclusive approach or the Sena’s leadership, whose raison-d’etre was the Marathi Manoos.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee Agreed to have a battle;

For Tweedledum said Tweedledee Had spoiled his nice new rattle.

Just then flew down a monstrous crow, As black as a tar-barrel;

Which frightened both the heroes so, They forgot their quarrel.

The writer is editor, ‘Loksatta’

kumar.ketkar@expressindia.com