The real Mumbaikar

The recent attacks on North Indians in Mumbai and other Maharashtra districts hide a political and socio-economic pattern. Appeals made by Raj Thackeray — and seconded grudgingly by the Shiv Sena — for unity of the Marathi manoos on an anti-North Indian plank are also meant to cement the increasing divide within Marathis themselves — between Marathi OBCs and forward castes, a political chasm so subversive and threatening for the forward caste Marathi elite that political analysts see it as capable of changing the discourse of Maharashtrian politics.

What has gone unnoticed is the opposition of NCP Minister Chhagan Bhujbal to Raj and Uddhav Thackeray. Bhujbal belongs to the OBC Mali caste. A quick glance at Mumbai’s history shows that it was never a ‘pure’ forward caste ‘Marathi’ city. As ‘Bombay’, it was a string of islands first under the Portuguese, and then from the mid-17th century, under British control. Shivaji Maharaj, the personality whose movement provided cohesion and status to the Marathi identity, never developed Mumbai as his base. Shivaji’s base was Raigad in the Konkan. During the 18th century, the time of the Peshwas and the great Maratha expansion to all corners of India, Pune was the Marathi cultural and political capital.

In fact there is a large section of Marathi intellectuals who believe that the ‘Bombay-isation’, now ‘Mumbai-isation’ of the Marathi identity, has led to the decline of Marathi culture. A paranoid focus on Mumbai has led to the marginalisation of Pune, Kolhapur and Satara, the traditional centres of Marathi scholarship. There was a time when all these districts boasted of an active theatre movement, a rich art and poetry scene. There was even a cinema that reflected the indigenous Marathi ethos and not the hotchpotch Bollywood-Mumbai culture.

Raj Thackeray is on a weak wicket when he rails against Bhojpuri cinema while talking of the way Marathi cinema has suffered. Marathi culture in general has suffered because of the Shiv Sena, which started the process of the goonda-isation of the Marathi ethos. It is not for nothing that major Marathi literary figures never found their voice reflected in the Sena movement. It is also significant that an actor like Nana Patekar, who did gravitate towards the Sena in the 1990s, finally had to withdraw. Nana’s parting comments that Bal Thackeray is pursuing a ruinous course as far as Marathi culture is concerned, still haunts the Sena.

Raj’s mentions that he is expressing the sentiments of the ‘Mumbai Street’. Which Mumbai street is he talking about? Currently, out of the 1.9 million population, North Indians, both Hindus and Muslims, constitute between 30-40 per cent of the total figure. South Indians make up 20 per cent; the Marathi component is only 28 per cent. So the Mumbai Street is a hybrid mix of many cultures — it cannot by its very nature express a singular, anti-North Indian sentiment. Also within the 28 per cent Marathis, OBCs and Dalits constitute the majority. They form part of the remnants of the Marathi work force that was once a major player in the city.

~ by amareshmisra on January 7, 2009.