Whose Mumbai is it? The Thackerays, Bal, Uddhav and RajThe Rs 20,417-crore budget for 2010-11, municipal commissioner Swadheen Kshatriya stated, was “a matter of concern” because it dipped into reserve funds set aside for emergencies, cut back on capital expenditure by nearly Rs 750 crore, planned new loans of Rs 6,000 crore to complete existing projects and did not propose new projects for the city. To those who listened carefully, it was clear where the debate about Mumbai’s future lay—in planning and working towards making the city the international megapolis it aspires to be, or in endlessly debating who it belongs to and who deserves to live here.
Uddhav Thackeray, though, moves to a different logic, according to which Shahrukh cannot speak for the city, cannot say that Mumbai is for all, cannot express regret that he could not pick Pakistani cricketers for his Kolkata Knight Riders team. But, because he “dared” to say all this, his next film—piquantly titled My Name is Khan—shall be met with obstacles such as film exhibitors and cinema hall owners being warned of dire consequences if they screen the film; film posters being torn down; advance booking being stalled; Shahrukh pin-ups on pavements being torched; sloganeering outside his bungalow and terrorising all those associated with the actor. Through it all, Shahrukh, who was in New York and London, showed steel in standing up to the intimidation. Politely but firmly, he told the media there: “As an Indian, I’m not ashamed, guilty or unhappy...neither am I sorry.”
Feb 2008 MNS activists beating up a UP-ite after an SP rallyIt was a rare display of spine from a Bollywood icon, given the Hindi film industry’s rich history of bending over backwards to please the Thackerays. The Sena is more used to supple icons like Amitabh Bachchan who, even as the anti-Shahrukh tirade raged on, thought it fit to eulogise Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray on his blog. Incidentally, Bachchan Sr, like Shahrukh, had said Pakistani cricketers should have been part of Indian Premier League-3. Besides, Bachchan is an ambassador for Indo-Pak peace campaign ‘Aman Ki Asha’ which seeks to strengthen cultural ties between the two countries. Both factors, by the yardstick used for Shahrukh, should have made him a sitting duck. The astute see through the game. As Sharad Pawar pointed out, “No one can say ‘either say this or go to Pakistan’. What’s Khan’s association with Pakistan? That he’s a Muslim?”
The war between the Thackeray cousins is centred on who shall be the “true voice” of the Marathi manoos in the years to come. As each tries to outdo the other by making statements and calling for action to prove his superior or genuine Marathiness, Mumbai and Maharashtrians stand to lose the most. Icon-bashing becomes par for the course and bad-mouthing the north Indian is inescapable because he is the proverbial other, the non-Marathi. Yet, as veteran journalist Anurag Tripathi, son of well-known writer and politician Ram Manohar Tripathi who stood alongside Maharashtrians in the Samyukta Maharashtra movement and closely missed a bullet, asked: “My dad came from Rae Bareli but stood up for a unified Maharashtra. Do I qualify as a Maharashtrian?”
Tripathi, like the millions of north Indians for whom Mumbai is home, shouldn’t ever have had to ask the question; yet, in the current climate (which a senior bureaucrat pithily describes as “violence of exclusion”), he does. Others like rickshaw-driver Ramlal Mishra from Jaunpur take a more confrontational stance, saying, “Let the Senas rant whatever they wish. The city runs on our labour, we are not a burden.” North Indians are an estimated four million, engaged in about 40 large-scale businesses and small trades, from paan shops and milk vending to construction, transport and security services. Their numbers can swing the vote in as many as 40 of the 71 assembly constituencies in Mumbai and Thane. “It is unthinkable for Mumbai to grow now without Uttar Bharatiyas on its side,” points out Sanjay Nirupam, the Congress MP who cut his political teeth in the Sena in the ’90s. “The Sena creates law-and-order problems; Raj’s approach is lunatic, but this is a temporary phase. Mumbai is essentially a secular, welcoming city.”
Will it continue to be so—that is the question many are asking now. Rapid transformation from manufacturing centre to a services hub, changing land use and competition for scarce resources—underscored by altered demographics—is testing the famed cosmopolitan character of Mumbai, a mix of pluralistic, diverse, accommodative and inclusive strands. “From Bombay we became Mumbai,” laments Gerson da Cunha, veteran theatre person, Mumbaikar and citizen activist. “The great city we knew has fallen a victim to the Senas and the politician-goonda-builder nexus. From a virtuous circle of greatness, we are beginning a downward spiral to be a provincial backwater.”
Making of a Marathi manoos? Autodriver Bholanath Singh from Benares tries to learn Marathi from a textbook MNS men distributed
“Between the competitive politics of the Thackeray cousins, Mumbai suffers,” says Dr Aroon Tikekar, historian and author. “They say the Maharashtrians in America must preserve their Marathi asmita but they won’t allow Biharis or UPwalas in Mumbai to preserve their own. And, they don’t even see the contradiction. The more they campaign, the more they’ll insulate Maharashtrians from other communities in Mumbai; gradually the Marathi manoos will become a suspect in others’ eyes. Like how every Sikh was considered to be a Khalistani once, every Maharashtrian will be identified as a Sainik, and many of us will have to disprove this.”
Competitive politics is made possible by the changing demographics. While nearly half the migrants to Mumbai are from within the state, the migration of young, male workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh has risen in the last two decades. Says Kumar Ketkar, the well-known journalist who too was attacked by pro-Maratha groups, “Maharashtrians continue to be Mumbai’s single-largest community, about 35 per cent, but they live segregated and spread across various suburbs. So, they feel they’re surrounded by non-Maharashtrians. A Raj fulfils their psychological-cultural need. But Mumbai is a multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-class and multi-cultural ethos; if dented, it can only be by a section of the Marathi community from within.”
Kamala Ganesh, head, sociology department, Mumbai University, shares the view that the onus of keeping the Marathi-ness in Mumbai depends on the community. “The middle ground, the Marathi component of it, has to be more vociferous in condemning and neutralising the lunatic fringe.... The reality of the city’s diversity has not vanished but perceptions are hardening on both sides. All sections have to develop stakes in the city’s prosperity, which the insane logic currently underpinning urban growth strategies doesn’t permit,” she says.
The middle ground, this time round, may be represented by scores of Maharashtrians and non-Maharashtrians alike who blogged, tweeted, wrote on Facebook walls and generally upheld the idea of ‘Mumbai for All’. Like actor Ranvir Shorey, who began a Twitter hashtag called ‘My Name is Mumbai’ and found followers. Says Shorey, “I am a completely apolitical person, but suddenly I am in an identity crisis.... Mumbai has always been home, I have laughed, cried and bled here, but my identity is being questioned. My childhood heroes like Shivaji and Lokmanya Tilak cannot be snatched away from me!”
Sumaira Abdulali, formidable activist, vociferously claims: “This is my own city; I won’t accept disqualification at the whim of any new politician. None of them can argue against my great-great-grandfather Badruddin Tyabji’s contribution as president of the Indian National Congress, or as vocal advocate against an independent Muslim League, or as the first judge of the Bombay High Court. People who have lived and contributed to this city were not all Maharashtrians.” Adds Brinda Chudasama Miller, artist and member of the popular annual Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, “The spirit of the city is not killed yet; ordinary people are fighting to keep it alive. Our festival that involves all sections and creeds represents the inclusive and cosmopolitan face of the city.”
A different game A banner put up by the Shiv Sena’s student wing, calling for a ban on Aussie, besides Pakistani, cricketers for IPLTwice in the last two weeks, his statements kicked off the Marathi vs non-Marathi debate. In mid-January, he declared that new taxi permits in Mumbai should be given to only those who were domiciled for 15 years and knew how to speak/read/write the local language; he later reinterpreted it to include Hindi and Gujarati, besides Marathi. This week, in the face of Sena fury, he stated that all outsiders will be protected, leading to a row from within his party that he was pushing Maharashtrians into the arms of the two Senas. He had to issue clarifications on both matters.
Hate army The police trying to restrain Shiv Sena activists protesting outside Shahrukh’s residence Mannat in MumbaiHowever, in this battle for numbers and political space, governance is forgotten. Which is perhaps why Mumbai’s civic budget did not even resonate with any of those who claim to speak on her behalf.
Competition for scarce resources, underscored by the vastly altered demographics in the last decade, is testing Mumbai’s cosmopolitanism
40 lakh population of ‘Uttar Bharatiyas’ in Mumbai out of a total of 1.4 crore. Their populace cuts across classes.
20 organisations formed by north Indians in Mumbai in the last decade
40 businesses and trades have north Indian presence including construction, dairy, taxis, trucks, fruits and vegetables and security services.
40 assembly constituencies out of 70 in Mumbai and Thane districts have a strong north Indian presence, influencing election results. Their votebank impacts 7 out of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the two districts. North Indians have always been with the Congress.
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