Do local Mumbaikars resent ‘outsiders’?
I wasn’t going to write about this issue of Raj Thackeray’s MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) taking to violence on Mumbai streets. It was when I read this silly poll that I decided I had to write something, even if it was just a bit. The poll concluded:
NDTV’s exclusive opinion poll has discovered that the overwhelming feeling amongst Mumbaikars is – Mumbai is for everyone.
They say that the poll has taken into account people from all backgrounds…but for god’s sake, this is not an issue about people of all backgrounds. It’s mainly about poor people! Just walk into any slum and you will see it. It’s an overwhelming majority of poor uneducated Maharashtrians who resent the outsiders. But not all outsiders. The resentment is primarily directed at people from U.P and Bihar and those from Bangladesh. Why? Because uneducated labour from these areas have put the poor Maharashtrian at a disadvantage.
Let me clarify in case people think I like the Sena. I am anti the Sena. I am anti all divisive politics and frankly any kind of violent protests are anathema to me.
But who am I to rant and rave in righteous indignation at a poor uneducated driver who lives in a small dark hole along with 5 other people when he tells me that drivers from UP are not welcome because his younger brother is out of a job? Who am I to throw my ideals of national integrity at? A poor maid who lives next to a stinking drain in a shanty with a leaking roof? Am I supposed to give her a moral lecture when she tells me that there are a group of people from Bihar who have cornered the best jobs as maids in the colony and it is because of that she can’t get a job? Do you think they will even understand anything 
about my ideas of national integration and justice and opportunities for all?
If the Shiv Sena’s politics has a broad based support today it is because people do resent the influx of ‘outsiders’. And how does any party gain political support? By cashing in on the vulnerabilities of poor uneducated people, by playing on their emotions. Why, in the slum behind my house, there are two camps. The North Indians who call their area ‘Raj Wada’ and send all their children to Urdu or Hindi medium schools and speak only in Hindi and don’t mix with the locals and the Maharashtrians who send their children to the municipal Marathi medium schools and speak only in Marathi. There is no communication between these two groups, they resent each other.
The Maharashtrians feel threatened, they feel their jobs are being taken away and are constantly grumbling and complaining What kind of jobs? Those of cooks, maids, drivers and labourers! That’s what they resent. Their bread and butter is threatened and a man can go to any extent to protect his daily bread. We cannot sit around and give them moral lectures. We need to try and help them. But a political party will use them. Use their hostility, their resentment, their anger. Mumbai can become very volatile if people like Raj Thackeray are not controlled. And also if the reality is ignored.
This resentment is not against Gujaratis although the Gujaratis are the most prosperous ‘outside’ community in Mumbai and Maharashtra. One of the reasons is that Gujaratis know the local language, mix with the locals. The other, more important reason, is that we don’t see Gujaratis coming here in droves trying to become maids and drivers.
What shocked me was this inaccurate statement in a leading newspaper:
These migrants from UP do not threaten Marathi culture, nor are they taking away jobs that Maharashtrians in general aspire to.
I don’t know which Maharashtrians they are talking about. I have lived in different areas in Mumbai and have friends all over Mumbai. The story is the same in all the slums. Unauthorized migrants are taking up the jobs. Whether these migrants are threatening Marathi culture or not I don’t know. And I am ashamed to say that I do not care enough. But I do know hordes of poor uneducated people from all over Mumbai resent the influx of their brothers and sisters from wherever they come from, because their very livelihood is threatened.
I abhor the divisive politics that Raj Thackeray is playing at. But let us not deny the fact that resentment does exist. And it’s about time we stopped mouthing moralistic platitudes about nationalism when it comes to this issue. That is an elitist way of thinking. Elitist people who are writing and manipulating the news. Let’s get down to the basics and try and see a solution to this problem.
Let us never ever forget that the poor exist in large numbers. That poverty and desperation are very strong drivers. That political parties can easily manipulate these people. We all will suffer eventually if we bury our head in the sand and think of this in an elitist way.
As for Raj Thackeray the latest news is that 200 members of the MNS have quit to join the main Shiv Sena under Bal Thackeray.
Update: 7th February 08 An article in today’s DNA (back page) talks about how the Kolis are upset that north indian fisherman have eaten into their livelihood. They say:
The association of fisherwomen passed a resolution to revive their earlier agitation against north Indian fishermen in the district. The association has alleged that the fishermen are flouting the rules for selling fish. The fight between local fisherwomen and north Indian fishermen had taken an ugly turn two years back, when fisherwomen from Thane beat up north Indian fishermen whenever they were spotted in the fish market. According to the norms set by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) fish should be sold at designated areas only…but north Indian fishermen flout this rule by selling them door to door and at open places…
I could not find an internet link for the article and therefore have quoted the important part above. The previous agitation was reported widely and the link is here.
Update, 13th Feb 08: Raj Thackeray has been arrested and to read more about Raj Thackeray’s arrest you can check out these links. Anyway, the latest news is that he has been granted bail. Much drama over nothing.
Raj, a commentator, has provided a link to a balanced analysis by P Sainath on this issue. Sainath analyses the political ramifications. Now that Raj T has been arrested Sainath’s piece is very relevant.
(Pictures have been linked to the originals)
Update, 12th July 2008: Raj Thackeray has criticized Maharashtrian officials who help people to get fake fake domicile certificates and driving licences and rations cards. He has admitted that the corruption in state’s government has led to an escalation of this issue of inter-state migration. He has asked officials not to “bend rules for petty benefits”. Well, at least he has taken the responsibility of unchecked migration on to his own government!
Related Reading: The language Issue in India
The diversity that is India
Racism against North Easterners
Will English surpass other languages of India?
Marathi “chauvinism” not liked by foreigners
Nice to see this happening!
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Maharashtra_Marathi_nameplate_must/articleshow/3116224.cms
Nita
i request you to delete point No 2 and 3 (not the entire comment) from my comment on 17 april 2008 1.00 pm…
hope you would consider the request
Vivek, I’ve done the other one, but this one I need to think and right now am a bit tied up. Let me see. But I think the best way is always to apologize for any remark that you feel is inaccurate. We all make mistakes Vivek, and there is no harm in taking your words back. Greatness lies in admitting a mistake! – Nita.
Nita,
Of course you take your time……..and i am not going to request you to edit any more comments……… but plz bear with me in this particular case………..
It’s the real face of Thackerays
Mr Bal Thackeray now want Hindus to turn into terrorists to fight with muslims….and he literally mean it
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jun/18bal.htm
Below is what he wrote in his newspaper
\\ In a controversial editorial in the Sena’s mouthpiece Saamna, Thackeray said “The threat of Islamic terror in India is rising. It is time to counter the same with Hindu terror. Hindu suicide squads should be readied to ensure existence of Hindu society \\
true, they are working to divide india…on regions and religions.
Nita, I know I am really late but here it goes.
I am a bit surprised to read this post coming from you. No, I mean i understand the underlying point. “There is no point telling a farmer if he works hard our GDP will increase, why will he care” but what I did not understand was
a) You did not give a solution to this issue !
b) Are we solving the wrong problem here?
Chirag, when I wrote this post, I wasn’t thinking of any solution, just trying to set the record straight. The media was reporting wrongly. And even now I am not sure what the solution is!
Got it. Biased media, is a problem everywhere. That’s why, I read your blogs than newspapers in most cases
.
Everybody is biased. Almost everybody, why blame the media. Even Nita is and even I am. Only thing some biases might suit you and some might not.
Great discussion.
I can only say what I believe..
You get what you deserve, by hook or by crook, you always get what you deserve.
If “migrants” are coming and taking up all the jobs of Mumbaikars, then probably they deserve the job better.
Oh, come on, Mumbai is Mumbai because of outsiders, if outsiders wouldn’t be here then Mumbai would be like any other place like Nagpur or Nasik. Another example, Pune didn’t develop unless outsiders started buying land over there…
Sandeep, I urge you to read this post of mine about why MH and Mumbai developed. Also Pune has always been a centre for education and many other things. The city has a great history but as you have probably studied ICSE or another central education board you and many others are not taught the great history of Maharashtra. That is why people make statements like that, that Mumbai is developed by outsiders. Also your logic that “by hook or by crook, you always get what you deserve” applies both ways. But yes I do buy your argument that the migrants work harder and for lower pay. – Nita.
@ Nita:
To add to your response to Sandeep Bali, Pune has, over the last 40+ years, emerged as a major industrial centre. This began initially as a spillover of manufacturing that Mumbai had become too saturated to accommodate, but within a decade the Pune urban agglomeration (which includes Pimpri-Chinchwad etc.) had become a major centre of engineering industries far more sophisticated than those in Mumbai. More importantly, this led to a significant growth of ancillary industries (set up almost entirely by “unenterprising” locals). These units, subjected to stringent quality control by the major industries to which they were suppliers, evolved into sophisticated (though relatively small) units in their own right.
These developments, too, attracted a lot of people in search of work from all over India, and Pune became a fairly cosmopolitan city. But unlike Mumbai, the inflow of workers did not generate tensions. The immigrants assimilated themselves fairly well into the local culture. They did not try to browbeat and bully the locals into speaking their language (though the locals did voluntarily speak it).
The cultural “threat” to Pune commenced when, in the 1990s, as in Bangalore before it, the BPO influx began. Interestingly enough those who feel disturbed by this phenomenon are not the unskilled, less-educated workers but the educated middle- and upper-middle class. This class may or may not subscribe to the SS/MNS ideology, but it is certainly not comprised of hoodlums who indulge in physical violence against “outsiders”.
As to those who run down Maharashtrians for their lack of enterprise, it would do well to remember that the major industrial players based in Pune include “ghatis” such as the Kirloskars and the Garwares, besides the less well-known but equally pathbreaking entrepreneurs behind the Praj group and several others. The fact that the latter do not feature on p.3 or in advertisements does not diminish the worth of their contribution or their importance to India’s development.
Sandeep Bali,
Actually there are many ones about Pune. You might want to find out yourself.
Nice attempt!
In case you are educated and studied some history of India then you can remember some Ghati names like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, GK Gokhale, Mahatma Phule, Maharshi Karve are very few of them. Pune has given many leaders (political and social). Peshwas from this city ruled India for many years. It played major role in freedom movements, social movements.
It attracts maximum number of foreign students than any other city in India because, I guess it has that strong magnetic field
Anyway, I like your humour! Keep it up!
Mr Bali
“Oh, come on, Mumbai is Mumbai because of outsiders, if outsiders wouldn’t be here then Mumbai would be like any other place like Nagpur or Nasik. Another example, Pune didn’t develop unless outsiders started buying land over there…”
Wow!!! what kind of an air headed statement is this,I hope you were joking!!
First of all I don’t find anything wrong with Nasik and Nagpur,they are much more developed than many large N.Indian cities.
You are talking of Mumbai ,Pune as if they were some backward cities of the Wild Wild West,with uneducated and uncivilized locals ,which were developed by the “enterprising outsiders” for the benefit of Maharashtra ,well then why did the enterprising outsiders fail to develop their own states.Obviously “entrepreneurship” although the most important ,is not the only quality required for growth and development.Besides you need to read Nita’s other article “Give Maharashtra some credit”,to be more informed about Maharashtra
Just for your information Pune was known as the ‘Oxford of the East”much before the outsiders started coming.
I feel sorry to see that some people took it personally here. I appreciate their replies, but am sure it could be more polite. Anyways…
@sangeeta, dyanesh & vivek
you are right to say outsiders like me know less about history of Maharashtra, but then I would leave history to historians. One person may travel hundreds of places in lifetime, you can’t expect him to read history for all of them.
And boasting about Maharashtra’s contribution to freedom?? I guess one shouldn’t brag about fighting for rights…noone did a favor to noone… Everyone fought for freedom all over India… and no single contribution was more important than the other, all are equally important, so lets not go there.
@Nita
I never said that migrants work for lesser pay, lol, and I have no idea whatsoever about it. Maybe you were talking about blue collar jobs?? But in the companies I came across, most maharastrians are working in executive posts while CEOs and all higher management staff was either north or south indian.
I find communal discussions (like the one going on here) to be pointless and waste of time as noone agrees with the other, and I personally don’t prefer to participate. I have friends from all regions and cultures we never found any difference even after MNS junkstuff or whatever. If everyone start doing their job sincerely, I don’t think there will be any problem. I personally appreciate and welcome any kind of competition, even if its a threat to my career, I hope maharashtrians should have that spirit too.
BTW, i read your other post about maharashtra.. tht was gud… i learnt many things i didnt know.. I like ur blog..
I won’t be commenting on this topic anymore. No offense taken, none given. Cheers
Sandeep, you are welcome not to join in the discussion as it probably is disturbing to you. But let me assure you that I have friends from all communities too and 90 percent of my friends are from the north. So please don’t think that just becaus we are discussing this issue, we are communal. A discussion is never communal, some people are. And yes I am talking of labourers etc, because that is what the MNS agitation is about. But probably you don’t know that either. You, probably influenced by the propaganda from some media, believe that the resentment is about the higher level employees? You think its people like you who are resented? I am so surprised that I don’t know what to say. By now it is well known that the resentment is against the class IV employees. I don’t even agree with this fully. – Nita.
Sandeep, as you have accused this discussion of being communal, may I point out to you that you have made some communal remarks in both your comments. In the first one you have made a false statement about Pune, which shows your bias against Pune and which I think shows your communal attitude or we are superior than you kind of thing. Also in your second comment you have said:
//But in the companies I came across, most maharastrians are working in executive posts while CEOs and all higher management staff was either north or south indian.//
I am sure this has happened in the companies you know, and though you have not said it, you are implying that there are no MH ceo’s or higher mgt staff. I can tell you of many names, the people I have come across but I don’t want to as it would be a communal thing to do. Maybe I am being over sensitive here, but do you really want to do a break-up of all the ceo’s and find out their home state? Surely the point you made about freedom fighters is also valid here?
I dont want to be judgemental by taking sides. But if oppurtunities have to be created, why dont governments of those communities try to create oppurtunities for their people. Why dont they create oppurtunities in their own states and prove to ppl like Raj that “Come maharashtrians work in our state, its as safe as yours”.
I am a maharashtrian myself, i think one state’s government is responsible for creatign opurtunities. I in no way support the gunda behavior of Raj but support the main idea of accusing the politicians of UP and Bihar.
Hi Nita,
Nice post. I have been trying to look for an impartial post for a long time. The moment you say to anyone that mass immigration of any type is a problem, people jump on you like you uttered a blasphemy. The people from the north immediately think that you are a supporter of MNS. No one is ready to look at the real problem. Because that will mean acknowledging them. I am tired of telling people that I do not believe in violence of any kind but that does not mean I am going to turn a blind eye to the fact that there is a problem and at the root of it are the failed states (slang BIMARU). But I do not blame my fellow countrymen (that is if they still think of us as their countrymen). It is our problem in general. It is difficult for us as a people to understand someone else’s point of view. Heck, we don’t even bother to pick garbage on the street in front of the house. As long as my house is clean, I’m good. And in this case it will probably be, it is not my state or city that is facing the issues, who cares. Then lets blame it on regionalism, narrow mindedness etc. Have you realized, that anyone who tries to stand up and protest against something very logical but which goes against the majority population is either a whiner or someone intent on breaking the unity of the nation. Minorities (of any kind) have real tough issues voicing their problems in our country. We are 10% of the country (maybe a little more or less). How much effort does it take to drown our voices? And even if we do voice, who will listen? The biased media or the centre at Delhi? I have heard arguments like we are not competitive enough! Seriously? Competitive enough for what? Low wages! The basic rule of competition is to provide the same platform for it and use the right benchmarks. To this day, I haven’t figured out how can so many people come up with such a moronic argument.
The other problem, the language and culture problem. Honestly, there was a time in my life, when I loved Hindi. I still like it. But now every now and then I think of it, I twitch. I speak to my wife in it sometimes because it is her language and she has been an exeption to the general rule followed by native hindi speakers but then that’s it. Had my wife’s native tongue been Tamil I would have learnt bits and pieces of it and spoken it too. And the reason for my twitch, it is because I realize that most of the native hindi speakers who have settled in Maharashtra for decades don’t care about marathi. It is a burden for most of them. I learnt hindi in 1 year (even less) flat. Honestly, how much effort does it take to learn marathi. It is so obvious that there is no will to learn it. Who wants marathi when there is hindi. That is the attitude. And add to it the arrogance of hindi nationalism, mass migration and we have the recipe for our identity extinction. The worst part, they all think we are crazy when we express our fear about losing our centuries of culture and language and they also feel that there is nothing wrong with doing away of all of this. I am sorry, but I am not sure this is what we signed up for when we believed in the idea of India. The idea of India was that of all encompassing, that we all had our heritages and our differences in culture and language but we loved our motherland with equal passion. That we would respect each other’s identity and that’s what made our country special. And believe it or not after this post there will probably be a few morons who will start saying that I am suggesting a separate state. Believe me, I have heard that too. After all the centuries of sacrifices and all the hardwork this is what we get. However, I am not surprised, innocent Sikhs got it, innocent Indian Muslims still get it, South Indians are scorned at once in a while. On the positive side it has helped me to empathize with other minorities or various forms in our country better.
At the end of it I am an Indian too, I realized how important my identity of being a maharashtrian and preserving my language and culture is to me only after I felt it was threatened. Until then, even I used to be confused when I saw the people of the south resist hindi so much. Now I understand what they feel. And yes, it does not make you any less Indian, if your identity is important to you. Like I read someplace (maybe one of your posts) nationalism and patriotism are two different ideas.
Thank you for your patience with my disconnected talk.
Aditya
Thank you for your comment Aditya. I guess I might as well admit that I too used to enjoy Hindi at one time, maybe it was because I loved Hindi movies and maybe it was because I grew up in a pan indian westernized atmosphere. However in the last decade or so I have had some bitter experiences and basically it is scorn towards Marathi by those settled here for decades. I realised that there was something illogical going on here, something parochial. However anyone who wanted any kind of equality for their language was considered parochial! I was supposed to speak Hindi not marathi in my own state! My nature is such that I do not like to ordered to do things and that is why the resentment started to build up. It was so illogical and wierd on the part of the hindi speakers! Even now, it is so clear to anyone that if there are any people who are welcoming and meek towards those from other states it is maharashtrians, much more so than many other regions but it is us who are maligned (as you said by the english and hindi channels) because of an illogical and selfish attitude.
Thanks for writing in Aditya, and your comment is not at all disconnected. We all need to understand that each state has a dignity which needs to be upheld. – Nita
if you say ‘mumbaikars’ then all those (irrespective of maharashtrians) who have been in mumbai for a long time or born in mumbai will be included. so do they detest outsiders?
would a up/bihar mumbaikar detest another ‘up/bihar’ new arrival? needs pondering quite seriously since it could be detested if you go by ’survival of the fittest’ or it could be welcomed if you go by ‘bhai-bhai’ stuff.
yes and as you did point out, a mumbaikar maharashtrian might detest outsiders precisely due to reasons you explained.
the objection of raj is more to do with ’staying at my place, sharing my food, not understanding a word of what i speak but emphasising on your culture, language and ‘dada-giri’…or stuff like that.
but that might just be an excuse…the real reason being…yes…there is a job shortage and you guys are cornering us. anyone would fight back when cornered and in this respect i think maharashtrians have shown exemplary patience all this while…till the going got really tough. maybe some hardliner stand is required at least temporarily till there is yet another industrial explosion.
i would strongly advocate maharashtrians to go work in other parts of the country instead of localising themselves to ‘amchi mumbai’.