However, the Sena had its roots in Mumbai, because the massive unemployment of Marathi youth was mainly in Mumbai. The rest of the state was poor but not particularly affected by the economic crisis. The only appeal that could attract the aspiring youth and lumpens was to their identity. That identity crisis continues to dog the Marathi community even today, notwithstanding the fact that the economy and social ambience have changed. Raj Thackeray, it appeared, when he floated his MNS, would provide a new agenda. He declared that he wanted to move away from the legacy of the Sena. He publicly announced that his politics would be secular, liberal and inclusive.

It was at this time that Uddhav and particularly Manohar Joshi too began to realise that if they wanted to come back to power, they would have to create a support base among non-Marathi communities. Mumbai had changed and the appeal that succeeded in the mid-sixties would not prove effective. The top SS leadership then decided to spread wings and even start celebrating the Uttar Pradesh Divas. This new avatar of the Sena was facilitated by BJP-style ‘Hindu integration’.

Raj was just looking for an opportunity to strike. He pounced on this so-called new integrationist approach of the Sena and said that if the north Indians want to live and work in Mumbai, they must respect Marathi identity, Marathi language and Marathi culture. The idea of that respect is nebulous. Most Marathi families, not only in urban areas but even in some rural areas, send (or want to send) their children to English medium schools, just as Uddhav and Raj have done. As far as the work culture goes, hardly any Marathi family would regard selling bhel or driving taxis as “respectable”. Life in Mumbai has forced everyone to be accommodative and tolerant. If in the past, cosmopolitanism was a kind of lifestyle, today it is a prerequisite for survival.

... contd.