I recently came across couple of interesting blogs, both written by non-Maharashtrians, which address the insider-outsider conflict in Mumbai. But, they differ in how one blog focusses on the visually obvious tree’s while the other pans over the bigger picture, the forest.
Atanu Dey in his blog characterizes Raj Thackeray, as an amateur politician. who fundamentally is not much different from the more seasoned politicians, who also tend to use divisive politics for their own empowerment and enrichment. The only difference would be that Raj Thackeray is playing gully cricket, while the other politicians are playing it in the stadium. On the eve of Barack Obama’s historic victory in the US presidential elections, CNN-IBN held a panel discussion, which was attended by Chandra Bhan an advisor to Mayawati (I suppose there are some parallels between Madam Chief Minister and the President-Elect, however suffocating the mere thought maybe.) The notable quote from Chandra Bhan was how casteist discrimination is a national problem that Mayawati is rightly poised to “address”. So, the question facing the people of India is whether they are going to divide themselves along the lines of caste or whether they are going to divide themselves along the boundaries of their language. In this context, let us not forget how the Babri Masjid against Ram Janma Bhoomi was essentially a cow-belt issue that got nationalized through the Rath Yatra.
Notwithstanding Raj Thackeray, the concern of every Maharashtrian then would rightly be to avoid the casteist divisions that are bound to follow as an influx of migrants from the Hindi belt brings that peculiar brand of politics to our state. While Raj Thackeray is addressing this on an insider-outsider platform, I’m aghast that the other politicians, national or from Maharashtra, seem to be doing absolutely nothing to unite people across their castes. In a post-Khairlanji Maharashtra, this is particularly required. Take for instance, that after 58 years of a republic, whose constitution was framed by a Dalit Dr. Ambedkar, Indian newspapers still continue to advertise classified ad’s for marriages, which explicitly spell out caste based preferences, if I may euphemestically refer it so. If there is any place to attack these divisions or any other, the matrimonial ad’s it is.
