Marathi-Non Marathi issue
I have been reading about this Marathi-Non Marathi thing for the past so many days. As a Maharashtrian I too have my own views on this matter.
This whole thing started when Raj Thakre launched his agitation against the North Indian students appearing for Railway exams in Mumbai. Raj’s point was very fair that Railways should publish ads in Marathi newspapers for the Railway vacancies in Maharashtra. Its fact that MP’s from Maharashtra had been sleeping when the rule was amended in favour of North Indian states. (Now Mamta Banerjee has declared that the Railways would be sensitive to the local population and reserve some low level jobs for the locals). The next part of this agitation was against the North Indian taxi drivers of Mumbai. This too is true that anywhere you go in Mumbai you will find a UP/Bihari taxiwalla. These guys don’t even know the roads of Mumbai. The law states that to get a taxi permit one needs to have knowledge of Marathi and another local language as also the local geography. This also raises the doubt that there was some possible bending of the rules in Mumbai RTO.
The guys coming from UP/Bihar are poor people and their state government has to be taken to task for forcing them to migrate to Mumbai. For sixty years since Independence the central government has pumped in money in these states only to find it vanish. Nitish Kumar has shown that Bihar is not a wasteland by achieving a superb growth rate.
But one also has to be fair to the local Maharashtrian who now has to fight for his share in the already reduced job market. Everyone wants his share of the little opportunities that are available. The Maharashtra government too has done little to create employment and growth avenues.
This led to the fight between the locals and North Indians. Politicians seized this opportunity to build their base and add fuel to fire. Gujaratis celebrate Garba in Maharashtra with a bang, Bengalis celebrate Navratri, South Indians perform Ayyappa's rituals. But chhatpooja is not just a religious festival. "Leaders" like Sanjay Nirupam, Abu Azmi and Lalu Yadav have made it into a political rally. Do Maharashtrians living in other states invite Sharad Pawar or Ashok Chavan to give fiery speeches?
The next step was by the Hindi and National media which made it into a Marathi-Non Marathi issue. Hindi never had the status of a national language. It is just an official language as are other languages. Yet all Hindi speaking politicians keep on referring to it as a national language thus equating speaking of Hindi as a mark of anti Marathi sentiment!
There have been agiatations in the past too - Assamesse agitation against Bengali, Gurkha against Bengali, Kashmiri Vs Non Kashmiri, Kannada/Tamil chauvinism in respective states. But this was not raised by the media in the way that they have done in the so called Marathi-Non Marathi.
Rahul Gandhi (a seemingly sensible politician) made a remark that Mumbai was saved by Biharis on 26/11. When are these people going to understand that 26/11 was an attack on India not just Mumbai alone. By making that one insensitive remark he negated the efforts of the local police. Huge migration demands for making Mumbai a Union territory and the biased Medias constant bashing of any expression of Marathi consciousness are responsible for the MNS and Shiv Sena taking to the streets quite often. Slogans of Mumbai for all and “All are welcome” further contributes to the anxiety and insecurity faced by the middle class Maharashtrian. Since the leadership in the state depends on Delhi’s support for its own survival, it is spineless and insensitive to the interest of the states language and culture.
In all domains of social, economic and political life, Marathi is facing downturn. The Marathi film industry faces tremendous competition from Hindi films. The jobs are going to people migrating from other parts of India. Generally Maharashtrians are an extremely tolerant and mature society. Communication is effected in the best possible way as people learn Hindi and English. So whenever a conversation takes place with a North Indian automatically a Maharashtrian switches to Hindi. But this has led to a huge influx of migrants. The percentage of the population speaking Marathi as primary language has consistently gone down over the years. This has created a cultural invasion. No amount of heavy dose of national unity is going to change the ground reality that Mumbai and Maharashtra are pushed to the wall by huge migration from the Northern states. Sena and MNS are expressions of cumulative frustrations of the middle class Maharashtrian (referred to as Marathi Manoos so fondly by the National electronic media).
The argument that the Marathi Manoos is nullifying growth potential and making Mumbai less attractive is merely a capitalist and pseudo intellectual propaganda. The precondition for any development is that it should be sensitive and inclusive to the local populace. Just for the sake of argument will it be possible to exclude Tamilian interest in Chennai or Bengali interest in Kolkata?
This whole thing started when Raj Thakre launched his agitation against the North Indian students appearing for Railway exams in Mumbai. Raj’s point was very fair that Railways should publish ads in Marathi newspapers for the Railway vacancies in Maharashtra. Its fact that MP’s from Maharashtra had been sleeping when the rule was amended in favour of North Indian states. (Now Mamta Banerjee has declared that the Railways would be sensitive to the local population and reserve some low level jobs for the locals). The next part of this agitation was against the North Indian taxi drivers of Mumbai. This too is true that anywhere you go in Mumbai you will find a UP/Bihari taxiwalla. These guys don’t even know the roads of Mumbai. The law states that to get a taxi permit one needs to have knowledge of Marathi and another local language as also the local geography. This also raises the doubt that there was some possible bending of the rules in Mumbai RTO.
The guys coming from UP/Bihar are poor people and their state government has to be taken to task for forcing them to migrate to Mumbai. For sixty years since Independence the central government has pumped in money in these states only to find it vanish. Nitish Kumar has shown that Bihar is not a wasteland by achieving a superb growth rate.
But one also has to be fair to the local Maharashtrian who now has to fight for his share in the already reduced job market. Everyone wants his share of the little opportunities that are available. The Maharashtra government too has done little to create employment and growth avenues.
This led to the fight between the locals and North Indians. Politicians seized this opportunity to build their base and add fuel to fire. Gujaratis celebrate Garba in Maharashtra with a bang, Bengalis celebrate Navratri, South Indians perform Ayyappa's rituals. But chhatpooja is not just a religious festival. "Leaders" like Sanjay Nirupam, Abu Azmi and Lalu Yadav have made it into a political rally. Do Maharashtrians living in other states invite Sharad Pawar or Ashok Chavan to give fiery speeches?
The next step was by the Hindi and National media which made it into a Marathi-Non Marathi issue. Hindi never had the status of a national language. It is just an official language as are other languages. Yet all Hindi speaking politicians keep on referring to it as a national language thus equating speaking of Hindi as a mark of anti Marathi sentiment!
There have been agiatations in the past too - Assamesse agitation against Bengali, Gurkha against Bengali, Kashmiri Vs Non Kashmiri, Kannada/Tamil chauvinism in respective states. But this was not raised by the media in the way that they have done in the so called Marathi-Non Marathi.
Rahul Gandhi (a seemingly sensible politician) made a remark that Mumbai was saved by Biharis on 26/11. When are these people going to understand that 26/11 was an attack on India not just Mumbai alone. By making that one insensitive remark he negated the efforts of the local police. Huge migration demands for making Mumbai a Union territory and the biased Medias constant bashing of any expression of Marathi consciousness are responsible for the MNS and Shiv Sena taking to the streets quite often. Slogans of Mumbai for all and “All are welcome” further contributes to the anxiety and insecurity faced by the middle class Maharashtrian. Since the leadership in the state depends on Delhi’s support for its own survival, it is spineless and insensitive to the interest of the states language and culture.
In all domains of social, economic and political life, Marathi is facing downturn. The Marathi film industry faces tremendous competition from Hindi films. The jobs are going to people migrating from other parts of India. Generally Maharashtrians are an extremely tolerant and mature society. Communication is effected in the best possible way as people learn Hindi and English. So whenever a conversation takes place with a North Indian automatically a Maharashtrian switches to Hindi. But this has led to a huge influx of migrants. The percentage of the population speaking Marathi as primary language has consistently gone down over the years. This has created a cultural invasion. No amount of heavy dose of national unity is going to change the ground reality that Mumbai and Maharashtra are pushed to the wall by huge migration from the Northern states. Sena and MNS are expressions of cumulative frustrations of the middle class Maharashtrian (referred to as Marathi Manoos so fondly by the National electronic media).
The argument that the Marathi Manoos is nullifying growth potential and making Mumbai less attractive is merely a capitalist and pseudo intellectual propaganda. The precondition for any development is that it should be sensitive and inclusive to the local populace. Just for the sake of argument will it be possible to exclude Tamilian interest in Chennai or Bengali interest in Kolkata?
Very well articulated . And I too being a punjabi had the same opinion as you have. But it changed overnight when i met a local goon in maharashtra whose only objective is to trouble non marathi for a single reason that they do not have any support or vpice in this maratha land.
ReplyDeleteI basically belong to M.P. and being a hindi heartland never realised while living in M.P so many of my friends were Marathi. Now when I am in maharashtra and I hear those surnames I am realizing that there are so many maharshtrians living in M.P . But we all treat them at par as in it is ingrained. Only division is between hindu and muslim. But here in Maharashtra the problem of immigration will not solve by beating non marati people . You are alienating a whole section of people against Maharashtrians.
My view towards marathi manoos has changed , thanks to the so called ghati people of this state who thinks they can bully people from other state just because they are vulnerable.
I fractured one of my hand to realise the true hatred of marathi people towards non marathi and he did that only because I objected to his goonism in my area and spoke in hindi.Having said that this hatred in me is spreading, anyone who listens to this story feels agitated against marathi manoos an time will come when people will see marathi manoos with same animosity as some people currently see muslims. long live maharashtra but more you force your language and culture on others, more hard is the push back. I am a punjabi and lives proudly in M.P. A goon , a policemen, a tea vendor , a stall owner , an autowala and lot of people in my state doesnt discrminate with me based on my surname. But here in maharshtra , its different . I think you should go to other states and learn what is receptivity. Maharashtra was a receptive state long ago not anymore and years of economic downfall will soon make you realize that, what migration has done to our maharshtra state But it will be too late by then.
I just hope that people as educated as you shouldn't think this way and stop promoting divisive politics of MNS.
its bad that someone hurt you but for the people of other states it would be better for them to stop flocking to maharashtra and instead of doing that they should built their own state and fix their totally bs politics ,
Deletewe maharashtrians do not need to learn compassion from people of other states especially from a hindi speaking state because we know how those people really are ,
let me tell you if you were at tamilnadu instead of maharashtra , they would had fractured a lot more for speaking hindi ,
hindi people are only for their selfish interest so for that matter if they start to call us muslims or anything for not serving their selfish interest it wont any matter to us ,
and its your misunderstanding that we are forcing our language or culture on others if you cannot respect our language or culture then you should not argue about it , because it maharashtra homeland of maharashtrian people and culture and language ,
when maharashtrians talk about their state or culture or language are not promoting mns or any other political party of maharashtra ,
when maharshtrians talk about state or language or culture because its their heritage ,
people from anywhere at the world would do the same ,
so stop doing your propaganda of defaming maharashtrians under the name of a political party for your selfish interests ,
and dont worry about maharashtra economy but worry about economy of your own states ,
maharashtra was better and forward thinking state before you people ever got here ,
and thats why maharashtra is called as a land of reformers .