Ram Puniyani
The rising star of this sectarian
politics, Raj Thackeray, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons,
threatening ‘others’ with his usual ‘methods’ of ‘direct action’. Why the state
lets the ‘direct action’ of these sectarian outfits go unpunished, is another
side of the coin of the story. Recently (Sept 2012) when the Bihar official
wrote to Maharashtra police authority that Maharashtra police should have
informed the Bihar police before arresting the two criminals who had broken
Amar Jawan Jyoti in August 11, 2012 violence, Raj Thackeray retaliated by
saying that MNS will declare all the Biharis as infiltrators. As such what Bihar police was asking was a mere routine followed by
police of one state while acting in the other state. Thackeray, in order to
bake his political bread made it an issue.
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| Courtesy: http://www.odiablog.com/ |
While he was talking in this
language, an interesting point came up. Congress General Secretary Mr.
Digvijaya Singh dug out some history from the writings of grandfather of Raj
Thackeray and father of Bal Thackeray, Mr. Prabodhankar Thackeray (?Thakre). Incidentally
the spelling Thakre was changed to Thackeray not too far back in History. Singh
quoted Thakre senior’s collected works, Prabodhankar Thackeray Samagra Vangmay:
Khand (Volume) 5, published by the Maharashtra Rajya Sahitya Ani Sanskritik
Mandal when BJP-Shiv Sena was ruling the state. This quote is about the
geographical background of the community from which Thackeray’s come,
Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu (CKP). Singh quoted page no. 45 of the volume 5,
which says that Magadha ’s
corrupt Kshatriya king Mahapadmanand was persecuting his subjects by levying
various taxes on them. Many a families from CKP community left Magadha to escape the persecution and greed of
Kshtriya ruler and left for Nepal ,
Kashmir and Bhopal .
The same book mentions that out
of those who left Magadh (now Bihar ), around
80 families settled in Taal Bhopal and Prabodhankar’s family was one amongst
them. As per Singh, Prabodhankar mentions that the Muslim ruler of Bhopal was very kind and
was great help to the Thackeray family. This Thackeray family later migrated to
Mumbai. Uddhav Thackeray, cousin of Raj and son of Bal Thackeray, said
his grandfather is generally talking about the CKP and not his family in
particular. Still Uddhav did not give the alternate version of their families
past. Interestingly Parabodhankar’s account breaks another myth. Today his
descendents and the practitioners of sectarian politics propagate that the
medieval period was a dark period of India as there were many Muslim
kings and Nawabs, who were doing atrocities on Hindus. Their version also
glorifies Hindu Kings in general. Here in Prabodhankar’s account, a Khstriya
(Hindu, warrior caste) king is tyrannical forcing the subjects to leave his
kingdom while the Muslim Nawab is helpful for Thackeray family. Stereotyping
the kings as per their religion, communal historiography has played a very
negative role in the history of our society. In Pakistan
and India
both, even today such perceptions are part of popular understanding. There is a
need to learn from what Thackeray senior writes in his book.
How do we judge citizenship
today? Do we have a right to go from one state to another or not? Theoretically
it will be accepted by all that it is legally correct. Still in various places
and more particularly in Mumbai, Shiv Sena and its clone MNS have been creating
havoc on this issue. Their sectarianism is not restricted only to region, but
also to religion. In both matters their basic understanding is also totally
fabricated and far from truth. As migrants have been taking place in to Metros,
big cities, depending on survival opportunities. In pre independence times
major migration took place amongst other places to Kolkata in particular. In
Mumbai in the decade of 1960s to 1980s, when industrial production was booming
here major migrations took place. And the major migrations to Mumbai did not
take place from outside Maharashtra . They were
from mainly Konkan region of Maharashtra . Even
today the migration is taking place, the major migration is to Delhi
and Punjab , Mumbai is third on the list. The
latest Tata Institute of Social Sciences report tells us that 70% of immigrants
to Mumbai are from within Maharashtra itself.
In these migrations employment is the reason only for 15% of those coming here
to Mumbai. The major reasons for coming to Mumbai are related to such migration
being a post marriage relocation and education.
Currently Thackeray family, the
original inhabitants from Bihar in the past,
are pursuing their spewing of venom against Biharis in particular. Their
targets have been changing. The Shiv Sena was propped up by the Mumbai
industrialists to break the strength of workers unions. Shiv Sena was then
subtly helped by the ruling Congress. Shiv Sena initially attacked the South
Indians, with the slogan ‘Uthao Lungi Bajao Pungi’ (Beat up the lungiwallahs,
South Indians). Then their targets shifted to Gujarati’s for time being. In
between Shiv Sena also postitoned itself on the bandwagon of Hindutva politics
of RSS, and took the lead in 92-93 Mumbai violence with slogans like ‘Muslaman
ka Do hi Stan: Pakistan ya
Kabristan’ (Muslims can have only two abodes: Pakistan or graveyard). They
demonized the Muslims, all this has come out in the Srikrishna report, which is
yet to be implemented in letter and spirit.
Lately, North Indians are the
major targets of the politics of regionalism. This Shiv Sena-MNS politics is
totally against the norms of our Constitution. The aggressive politicians also
need to present the reality in an honest manner. If 70% of immigrant to Mumbai
are from Maharashtra are Marathi Manoos,(Marathi
speaking people) what do you do with them? There are problems. But the problems
are not with Biharis or Nepalis coming here to explore survival options. The
whole concept of development and the state polices need to be organized in a
way where some areas don’t get burdened by the pressure of population. The
victims of politics based on region and religion are the poorer lot, while in
later case the poor rich divide has been abolished during last two decades.
At another level, religion,
nation state, and regions are concepts which should help the humanity grow.
Spencer Wells has shown that genetic lineage of the human race goes to Africa ! Nation state is the concepts, which came to
overcome the tyranny of the kingdoms. Nation states have a contribution for
human society, only in so far as they bring in democratization of society and
do away with feudal values. Regions in a nation state are meant to provide
mechanisms for regional growth and barring that they should be fluid and
inclusive in all sense of the word. The ilk of Thackeray needs to learn the
moral of story from their lineage. It will do us good if they can also learn a
bit from Tagore’s universalism and Spencer Wells theories about migrations of
human race.
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