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In the past couple of months, Maharashtra witnessed the resurgence of the Marathi identity politics or as in Marathi we say ‘Asmita’. While the issue arose because for the government resolution on third language, it gave a new lease of life to the politics of MNS and Shiv Sena (UBT). Without delving into the education aspect, I would like to focus on the politics of Marathi identity.
The main opposition and hooliganism came from Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena which has now tied hands with Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena on the issue. But what is it that these people are fiercely opposing? No doubt this Hindi, Hindu, and Hindustan is the ideology of Rashtriya Swaymsewak Sangh, but is the ideology that is being opposed or just a spectacle created for meagre political gains in the upcoming Mumbai local body polls? Why is it that this entire argument about people should learn Marathi, the politics around it, and the issue of Marathi ‘Asmita’ always comes up in and around Mumbai?
As a person born and brought up in Nagpur, I never saw the sort of aggression around Marathi identity as we see in western Maharashtra. While there was an agitation for Vidarbha statehood, but that died down a long time ago. Language politics was completely out of the picture. The reason for that lies in the history of Mumbai, Maharashtra, and Vidarbha.
Maharashtra and Marathi
The state of Maharashtra came into existence with Mumbai as its capital on May 1, 1960, after a decade-long struggle for a Marathi-speaking state by the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement. The main struggle was for Mumbai, where over 100 protesters lost their lives in police firings. It is to be noted that Prabodhankar Thackeray, the father of Bal Thackeray, was a part of this movement.
For Nagpur, the fight was over in 1950 when it lost its capital status of the Central Provinces & Berar (CP & Berar province) and was merged into Madhya Pradesh, a Hindi-speaking state. In 1956, it was part of the Bombay Province and in 1960 became a part of Maharashtra.
Marathi nationalism’s restricted presence
Just six years after the state formation, Bal Thackeray formed Shiv Sena in June 1966. The idea was to prioritise and protect the right Marathi and its local speakers. His charismatic presence, provocative statements, and ability to launch attack on anyone in his fiery speeches garnered him the Marathi hruday samrat image. In a targeted attack on South Indians, especially Tamilians, Shiv Sena gave derogatory slogans like “hatao lungi bajao pungi”, and launched violent attacks on South Indian restaurants, but all was limited to Mumbai.
Thackeray’s Marathi ‘Manoos’ movement was more or less limited to western Maharashtra and especially Mumbai. Even in the 1980s when the Shiv Sena started incorporating the Hindutva ideology and allied with the BJP their presence was more in Konkan, Nashik and Pune regions.
Since my childhood, I have never heard or read about Bal Thackeray’s speech in Nagpur or for that matter in Vidarbha even once. As a matter of fact, the two cousins, Uddhav and Raj, rarely visited the region and have limited presence. Even when Shiv Sena became a major player in Maharashtra politics, there was a direct fight between the BJP and Congress on 70%-80% of assembly seats in the region. For a long time, Nagpur, the land of Deekshabhoomi, was a Congress bastion with its huge Dalit-OBC voter base. The tide turned in 2014 when Nitin Gadkari won the Nagpur Lok Sabha seat. In 2024 he made a hat-trick.
Secondly, Marathwada and Vidarbha always had a large Hindi-speaking population. Varhadi, a Marathi dialect spoken in parts of Vidarbha is also different from that spoken in Mumbai and other regions. Additionally, in Nagpur, people never hesitate to speak Hindi. I never had hesitation to speak Hindi, as a matter of fact people often speak Hindi in public and converse in Marathi at their homes. That’s one of the reasons this Marathi ‘nationalism’ doesn’t resonate in Vidarbha.
Marathi ‘Asmita’, whose responsibility?
As a person who has stayed in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai I have interacted with people from all states and they never ask outsiders to learn their language. Of course, they might expect it, but I have never seen the hooliganism that was witnessed in Mumbai a few days ago. In the last couple of years, sporadic incidents of natives forcing outsiders to speak Kannada have happened in Bengaluru, but it is more or less limited, and I hope it stays that way. In the southern states, since the script is totally different and the locals can’t speak Hindi, people eventually learn to speak and understand the respective language. That’s love and respect for their language. It is the responsibility of the Marathi speakers, including me, to have maximum interaction in the mother tongue within the state so that others are forced to learn it. Several people across Maharashtra know and understand Marathi very well as it is the same Devanagari script. They might not be fluent so they respond in Hindi.
Visionless enthusiasm
But the question of ‘Asmita’ is not limited to the Marathi speakers. A language is preserved by literature, state interventions, and a long-term policy framework designed to promote it. Quebec, the francophone majority province in Canada that conducted two unsuccessful referendums in the past, has passed laws to restrict English and ensure that the French and its heritage are respected by everyone. The local government has ensured that French is displayed on every product description, public signage, commercial establishments and so on. Public education is free and the state ensures that children learn French at least till secondary school.
In the last 10 years over 100 Marathi medium schools have been shut. In my native village the only school which is Marathi medium, is struggling to find students as more parents are opting for English or Semi-English medium schools to stand competition and have a better career growth opportunities. Marathi cinema and theatre, that are recognised across the world for their rich heritage and impeccable storytelling, fails to get the desired justice. While the government has imposed fines on cinema halls for now showing Marathi films for at least four weeks in a year, its implementation is questionable and there is no law mandating the same. Similar is the case with signboards, when protests happen in its implementation in Mumbai makes the news but rest of the Maharashtra goes unchecked.
Marathi literature is known for satire, criticism, humour, addressing deep-rooted sociological issues, devotional poetry and many more things. But not a single author has won the Booker prize. Lack of adequate translations in other languages, particularly in English restricts not only the reach of the book but also the cultural exchange that comes along with it.
As senior journalist Kumar Ketkar had pointed out, Shiv Sena (undivided) or for that matter even the MNS, never really took up the issue of language in a systematic manner to establish themselves as a synonym for Marathi as DMK did in Tamil Nadu. The South Indians who faced Balasaheb Thackeray’s wrath, are still present in Mumbai. Over the years, despite Shiv Sena’s presence, Marathi speakers were reduced to a minority. Raj Thackeray targeted Biharis to gain traction but failed miserably.
Today, there are two Shiv Sena parties. Recently, Uddhav and Raj came together on one stage after 20 years. The focus is still the same, Mumbai and surrounding areas. No long-term plan for the promotion of Marathi, no solutions proposed for civic apathy, and no concrete answer to why they exist. Until and unless there is a holistic approach towards language, culture, and people to raise a civilised, lawful, and peaceful movement across Maharashtra, none of these parties can matter.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.