Ruling Mumbai part II
Shiv Sena launch ceremony, 23/10/1966, "every self respected marathi should attend the rally to stop his insult in his own state" @Indiatoday
The Shiv Sena that we know today, pro-Hindutva and close to the central power, is the heir of a long evolution during which it is looking for an identity mirroring the one of its voters and supporters.
Created in 1966 in the very young state of Maharashtra, Shiv Sena imposes itself directly in the political game through ideology, in the sense that it is embodied above all in a corpus of representations and defence of Marathis identity. The essence of Shiv Sena's project echoes Anderson's theory of 'imagined communities' which, shifted from the national to the regional, makes it possible to account for the process of identity construction of the party.
Surfing on the Maharashtra Dharma
The Maharashtra Dharma corresponds to the claimed essence, the fundamental Law of the identity of Maharashtra and its natives.
It is at the heart of the politization of the people of Mumbai from the 1920s onwards, the period of emergence of the Maharashtra Samyukta Samiti (MSS).
This movement, which claims that the city should be governed by the Marathi, is campaigning for the formation of a Marathi state, headed by Mumbai. Brahmins and non-Brahmans alike are rallying around this demand, gradually building militancy and municipal pride on the eve of independence.
This progressive politicization, remarkably popular in its composition, was radicalized in 1956 during the "battle for Bombay". Indeed, as Nehru unveiled his plan to reorganize the states, numerous Marathis demonstrations broke out all over the city to challenge the cohabitation of Gujaratis and Marathi speakers within the same state.
The eighty activists killed by the police during these riots became the foundation stone of the "imagined community" of Mumbaite regionalism, erected as hutatmas (martyrs) they are still today the object of an importante deference.
The Flora Fountain square, in the centre of the administrative district in the south of the city, for example, is named hutatma chowk in their memory.
This event also marked the entry into politics of the movement, which formed a political party in 1956 and won the municipal elections (bombay municipal corporation) in 1957. But the party did not get beyond this stage, and even ended up disappearing in 1960. However, if the MSS failed politically to form Maharashtra, since it was Congress that did so in 1960, it unquestionably succeeded in creating a strong Marathi consciousness in all layers of society. For this reason, the political scientist H. Bhattacharyya describe the MSS as "the first true Indian nationalism " (1).
Bal Thackeray, a former member of the SMS, takes advantage of the failure of the movement to spread his own political message. He founded Shiv Sena in 1966, six years after the birth of the state of Maharashtra with Mumbai as its capital. He won ⅓ seats in the 1967 municipal elections. He then relied heavily on the pre-existing Marathi sense of belonging in Mumbai, making it a real political banner.
The programme is simple: giving back Mumbai to the Marathis.
To do so, Thackeray and his supporters, the shiv sainiks, set up a series of identity-based representations that involve the creation of a Marathi identity through the denunciation of other communities.
Setting up a political community : time for symbols
The Shiv Sena, literally Shivaji's army, refers directly to the figure of the fighting king who defended the territory of Maharashtra against the Mughal invasion in the 17th century: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
Since the SMS, this personality adored in Mumbai has gradually been taken away from the inhabitants of Maharashtra to belong only to the Marathis. This shift is reinforced by the Shiv Sena who claims its name, strength, color and fight, both in his speeches and in his general aesthetics. In this respect, it is interesting to note the current over-representation of the hero in Mumbai: from the international airport to the main railway station.
From the south of the city, through the headquarters of Shiv Sena (Dadar's shivaji park) and the national museum, it has given its name to many emblematic places.
Setting up a political community : time for rhetorics
The claim to the name in the 1960s served as a basis for the party's fighting rhetoric. While the city is mainly held by so-called "foreign" or "alien" elites, namely the Gujaratis and South Indians, a feeling of downgrading is developing among the Marathis, particularly within the Marathas caste. Indeed, they are reduced to a low position on the labour market due (according to the Shiv Sena) to competition from Muslims, Parsis and Gujaratis and South Indians, the first one being the most highly trained in manufacturing and commerce, the last one being fluent in English.
Juned Shaikh (2) demonstrates how the Shiv Sena has extended its social base by getting closer to these working classes, especially among the textile industry personnel. The aim is to recuperate their grievances under the yoke of the struggle for Maharashtra. Through the cultural promotion of the Marathi identity, it offers a new response to the workers' malaise that fills the void left by the trade unions.
The strategy is therefore as follows: to strengthen the Marathi identity to assert its supremacy over the city and thus claim control of Mumbai by the Marathis.
The question of the legitimacy of the populations constitutes the central nerve and is deployed under the notion of "sons of the soil" which gives the Marathis power over their land of origin.
This notion includes ethnic origins, caste membership as well as linguistic identity. This nativism leads to dynamics of "ethnic solidarity " that unite the workers and justify the Shiv Sena vote. This ethnic solidarity is also expressed outside the workplace, especially among unemployed youth who see Shivaji's army as a point of reference and meaning. The main demand of the party will remain for a long time the reservation of 80% of jobs in the public and private sectors as well as 80% of the social housing in the city for the Marathis.
This identity of "son of the soil" unfolds through different struggles, all of which appeal to the imagination of Shivaji's struggle and to an exacerbated masculinity. The struggle is that of defending Mumbai against the rest of the country which would try to monopolise it because of its economic influence, against the communists who are agents under foreign control, and above all against the Muslims who go against the desired identity of the city.
The fight is electoral but also truly physical, as shown for example by the attack on the Dalvi Building offices of the Communist Party in Parel in 1967.
But let's not overestimate the ideological factor and the effectiveness of nativism in the accession to power of Shiv Sena, as it is accompanied by a highly unstable economic context, a regionalist climate throughout the country and a declared will of Congress to support any opposition to the communists (3) : "to sum up, the appeal from Shiv Sena to ethnic solidarity could only become viable in a democratic Indian state where capitalist competition in Mumbai puts pressure on employment ".
(1) Harihar Bhattacharyya, "Federalism and Regionalism in India: institutional strategies and political accommodation of identity", Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative politics, 12 May 2005
(2) “Worker politics, trade unions and the Shiv Sena’s rise in central bombay”, Juned Shaikh, Economic and political weekly, Vol.40, No.18, Avril 2005
(3) on the complacency of the Congress, see Ashok Dhawale "the Shiv-Sena; semi-fascism in action", the marxist, Vol. 16 n°02, June 2000