Opinion Pune’s endless identity wars

In Maharashtra,where the Maratha empire eventually passed into the hands of the Brahmin Peshwas,the Marathas and the OBCs form a major chunk of population. Both communities claim to represent over 35 per cent of the population. The non-Brahmin polarisation was a manifestation of the anguish that orthodox Brahmins ruled everyone’s socio-economic as well as religious lives.

A century later,Pune has again become a hotbed of caste politics. James Laine’s controversial book,Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India,polarised Maratha leaders,who believe that history has been distorted by Brahmin historians portraying a larger-than-life picture of Shivaji’s martial arts teacher Dadoji Konddeo. They are particularly annoyed at doubts raised over Shivaji’s lineage — that Konddeo,not Shahaji,was his biological father. The Bhandarkar Research Institute,visited by Laine,was ransacked by a Maratha outfit,the Sambhaji Brigade.

The caste polarisation this time is not like it was a century ago,when most non-Brahmin communities had united. Now,Marathas in general,and those in the NCP in particular,are central. The predominantly Maratha NCP allied with the Shiv Sena-BJP to wrest power in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) from the Congress in 2007,to establish its supremacy in western Maharashtra. The PMC,in which the NCP is the single largest party,passed a resolution to shift Konddeo’s statue — from a group of statues of young Shivaji,his mother Jijamata and Konddeo at Lal Mahal in Pune — and shifted it in the dead of night on December 27. It is to be substituted with Shahaji’s statue.

One of the reasons for the NCP’s strong reaction is that it has been humbled by the Congress in both Lok Sabha and assembly elections in 2009. That humiliation continues: several projects,such as Lavasa,linked to Pawar or his family have been under the scanner of the Central government for violating norms. By shifting Konddeo’s statue,the NCP has put the Congress,its ally in the state government,in an embarrassing position. The Congress has chosen to pass the buck to the PMC saying that the civic body is within its jurisdiction to shift the statue. The Sena has been opposing the NCP’s move,as the Sena has always been pro-Brahmin.

The statue episode also has an OBC angle. The NCP wants to reach out to OBCs on two counts: because they form the backbone of the Shiv Sena,and because a section of the OBCs are annoyed after Chhagan Bhujbal was asked to quit as deputy chief minister so that Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit could get the post.

Hence,the state home ministry headed by the NCP’s R.R. Patil chose to expose the Sena by tapping the phones of the Sena MLC from Pune,Neelam Gorhe,and Uddhav Thackeray’s secretary Milind Narvekar,on the eve of the Pune bandh the Sena called to protest against the statue shifting. The tapes revealed that the leaders had issued instructions to their workers to indulge in violence and arson. This is nothing new for the Sena,known for taking the law into its hands,but it has put Uddhav in a tight spot: if he disowns responsibility for the telephone conversations and blames it on the Sena cadre,it could imply that he has lost some control of the party to rump leaders such as Narvekar. And if he says Narvekar was acting on his orders,he can be booked for instigating violence.

For now,the gainer in this game seems to be the NCP. But the Sena is not likely to take it lying down,and has already dug up another old ghost — reviving its campaign to rename Aurangabad Sambhajinagar,a proposal the party first mooted in 1995. Identity politics seems an open-ended chapter in Maharashtra.

rakshit.sonawane@expressindia.com