Opinion Sons of the soil were themselves outsiders

The irony is that the Marathas who now claim special “son of the soil” status in the city were themselves outsiders who came from the hinterland only by the late 19th century. The seven islands named in honour of the goddess Mumbadevi were originally inhabited by Koli fisher folk. In the mid-16th century,the Portuguese captured the island. A century later it was handed over to the East India Company. With the British developing Bombay as a major harbour and commercial hub,it attracted a large number of Gujaratis,Parsees and Christians by the 18th century. In fact,before the division of Bombay state in 1960,there was an equal population of Gujaratis and Maharashtrians. And when Bombay state was split along linguistic lines into Gujarat and Maharashtra there was a strong argument that Bombay city should retain a special independent status and not be incorporated into either state. The Gujaratis,Parsees,Christians,Bohras,Khojas,Punjabis Sindhis and others,who played a major role in building the city’s institutions,including hospitals,theatres,colleges,museums,the film industry and the stock exchange,are today made to feel like second class citizens by the Marathas. The latest migrants,who came largely from Bihar and UP,in the latter part of the 20th century have become the focus of the Sena’s attack.

The Shiv Sena came into being in 1968 on the issue of demanding more jobs for the locals as against the outsiders. At first,they targeted the South Indians who had usurped many of the white collar clerk jobs in large Mumbai-based corporations,like Air India. The Congress state government propped up the Sena in a bid to pull down the Left parties which controlled most of the unions in the city. The Sena’s agenda has always been disruptive. It has tried to destroy Mumbai’s cosmopolitan fabric in the name of giving the sons of the soil their due. Their campaigns have been through intimidation,threats and violence. The Sena grew in strength by playing on narrow minded parochial sentiments and appealing to the unemployed youth to join their ranks. Successive state governments were reluctant to rein them in and usually turned a blind eye to their shenanigans. The three national parties,the Congress,the BJP and the NCP,are all guilty of having at some point tacitly encouraged the Sena or the MNS for their own narrow political ends.

The Shiv Sena’s electoral setback in last year’s Assembly poll has triggered off a competition between Uddhav Thackeray and his cousin Raj to outdo each other in demagoguery and fuelling parochial passions. Shocked by the relatively strong performance of the fledging MNS in the Assembly elections,which ate into the Sena’s vote bank,Uddhav now wants to outdo Raj in demagoguery. Otherwise,his cousin’s outfit could end up overshadowing the parent party or even take it over.

The positive point of this competitive demagoguery is that finally the two major national parties,the Congress and the BJP,have woken up belatedly to take a position. The turnaround was not just about morality and upholding the right of every citizen of India to settle where he chooses,but the realisation that by permitting the Sena’s antics to go unchallenged they were harming their own credibility and electoral prospects in North India. Businessmen normally are afraid to mess with politicians,but it was surprisingly industrialist Mukesh Ambani who first dared to take on the Shiv Sena for insisting that all Mumbai taxi drivers be Marathi speaking. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat followed suit and set the agenda for the BJP,which until then had maintained a discrete silence. In the Congress,Rahul Gandhi shamed his elders,particularly Congress leaders in Maharashtra,by taking a tough line against the Sena’s bullying tactics. As Bhagwat put it,all Indians are sons of the soil and no one should be permitted to claim special squatters right.