Despite the clear political motivations and the all round condemnation following in the wake of Raj Thackeray’s comments and the violence unleashed by his supporters against north Indians in Mumbai, the virulence of his methods has opened up a can of worms that cannot be wished away any time soon.

Resentment on regional lines has been evident at the ground level in Mumbai for some years now. Koli fisherwomen agitated against the loss of their livelihood to vendors from the north. And stray instances have been known to occur, such as a local policeman asking a taxidriver from Uttar Pradesh when he was likely “to leave Maharashtra”. A traditional competitiveness with the north may underlie this resentment but studies by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the International Institute of Population Studies find that there may be a statistical basis for the perceived threat from the north. According to data analysed, inter-state migration from Uttar Pradesh has sharply increased, while a declining trend in migration has been evident from other parts of Maharashtra and neighbouring states like Gujarat and Goa. The studies also found that more migrants were arriving from rural rather than urban centres in the north, suggesting the possibility of a different stratum of migrant.

Migration is and has always been a sensitive issue in Mumbai. Mumbaikars are proud and protective about their cosmopolitanism. But they have been known to succumb to efforts at demonising communities. Our experience in recent times, with Mumbai in 1992-3 and Ahmedabad in 2002, also show that modernising cities are more not less vulnerable to divisive ideologies. But Raj Thackeray’s rhetoric and the reaction to it have ramifications that stretch beyond Mumbai. The BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad, for instance, condemned the use of violence employed in the MNS’s protest; an intriguing complaint given the repeated use of violence by the BJP and its sister organisations to protest against activities it considers inimical to Indian culture. Similarly, Raj Thackeray’s attack on Bachchan for taking on the role of UP’s brand ambassador and not doing the same for Maharashtra raises the ghost of the ‘Tebbit test’ which demanded a demonstration of loyalty to country by supporting the country’s cricket team. The same has often been used by the Hindutva lobby against the minority Muslim community.

... contd.