Hindu nationalism: ideology and practice. Part of 3. Shiva's army and the "king of Bombay"

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After India’s independence was declared, the priority position in the ideology and practice of Hindu nationalists was the struggle to preserve Hindu identity - Hindutwa, by which representatives of the country's ultra-right organizations understood, first of all, opposition to alien cultural and political influences - Islam, Christianity, Marxism. In addition to the already existing "Hindu Maha Sabha" and "Rashtriya Svayamevak Sangh", in India 1950-x - 1960-x. there are new right-wing organizations, as a rule, acting from more rigid positions than their "senior" partners.

Hindu nationalism: ideology and practice. Part of 3. Shiva's army and the "king of Bombay"




As is known, Maharashtra was the epicenter of Hindu nationalism since the first half of the twentieth century. It was here that such apologists of Hindu nationalism as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Keshavrao Baliram Khedgevar and Madhav Sadashiv Golvalkar were born and acted. Marathi, one of the largest nations of India, played a very important and prominent role in stories country. At one time they had a very serious resistance to the Mughal Empire. The Maratha state became a bastion that protected the Hindu civilization from the pressure of the Muslims of North India. Then the Marathi for a long time resisted the British colonization, waged bloody wars with the British. Marath by nationality was Bal Gangadhar Tilak - one of the patriarchs of the Indian national liberation movement. At the end of 1950's in Bombay State, which then included Maharashtra and Gujarat, riots broke out on interethnic grounds. Marathi demanded the creation of their own purely Marathi state. In the end, the state of Bombay was divided into two states - Maharashtra and Gujarat. In the Marathi movement took part Keshav Tuckery and his son, Bal Keshav Tuckery. The latter soon became one of the key figures in the Hindu nationalist movement.

Bal Keshav Takery (1926-2012) was born on January 23 1926 in the city of Pune, which was then part of the Bombay residence of British India. In his youth, Ball Tacker worked as a cartoonist, then became a journalist. The project was Takereya daily newspaper "Marmik", speaking from opposition positions and criticized the Indian National Congress. Gradually, Thacker became increasingly convinced that the policy of the INC was not capable, as he believed, of solving the problems facing modern India. In 1966, on the initiative of Takarey, a new political organization was created - “Shiv Sena”, which is translated from Sanskrit as “Army of Shiva”. From the very beginning of its existence, this organization has taken ultranationalist positions. Its press organs were the Saamana editions in Marathi and the Dopahar ka saamana in Hindi.

In ideological terms, “Shiv Sena” is guided by the principles of “Hindutwa”, cooperating with the largest right-wing party in India - “Bharatiya Janata Party”. Originally, Shiv Sena operated within the state of Maharashtra, positioning itself as a Marathi nationalist organization. Acting in this vein, the party proclaimed its main goal to achieve maximum self-government for the Marathas and protect their interests and rights. These goals determined the set of the main tasks of the party. Shiv Sena sharply criticized labor migration to Maharashtra, especially in Bombay (Mumbai). A developed and large city, Mumbai attracts labor migrants from all over India, especially from the neighboring state of Gujarat. This is very disliked by a significant part of the Marathi population of the region, whose interests are expressed by “Shiv Sena”. The organization advocates priority Maratha rights in employment in the state of Maharashtra.

The second main task of Shiv Seine, in addition to the struggle for the labor rights of the Marathas, was squeezing the ideological opponents and potential competitors for the sympathies of the social strata of Maharashtra from the political arena. In 1970-1980-s in Maharashtra, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) enjoyed great popularity. They were active in the Mumbai trade union movement, supported by a significant part of the industrial workers of the city and state. For Shiv Sena, the Communists were not only rivals in the struggle for influence on the masses, but also important ideological opponents. After all, the Communists, on the contrary, welcomed labor migration, as they saw potential supporters in migrants.



In the fight against the communists, Shiv Sena did not stop at the use of open violence, especially since the party managed to form powerful and numerous armed formations from among the representatives of unemployed Marathi youth. It is noteworthy that the activities of “Shiv Seine” met with the secret support of the Mumbai police, as the authorities of the Indian National Congress sought to free themselves from the dangerous rivals in the face of the Communists. Militants "Shiv Sena" engaged in periodic attacks on the branches of the Communist Party, the activists of the Communist Parties and trade union organizations. For this organization, Takereya received very negative evaluations from the Soviet press. “Shiv Sena” was portrayed in no other way than as a pro-fascist organization acting from extremely reactionary positions and directed against the Indian communist movement. To some extent this was true.

His role in the attitude of the left public to "Shiv Sena" was played by the statements of Bal Takarei himself. In the past, the artist, Takery, was very positive towards another failed artist, who also went to the right-wing policy - to Adolf Hitler. As we know, sympathies for Hitler are not something out of the ordinary for Indian society. Even before the start of World War II, Hindu nationalists saw in Nazi Germany a promising patron of the anti-British liberation struggle. Later, a significant part of the Indians began to treat Hitler negatively, including due to the fact that such pillars of the Indian national movement like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru took anti-Hitler positions. Vinayak Savarkar, leader of the Hindu Maha Sabha, also supported Britain in World War II. However, such nationalist figures as Subhas Chandra Bose, remained loyal to the Axis countries to the last. In 1970-ies, Ball Tucker began to make ambiguous statements about Hitler. For example, he has repeatedly stressed that India does not need a democratic model imposed by the West, but must find its dictator “such as Hitler”. Thacker argued that Hitler combined in himself both good and bad qualities, but what could not be taken from him was power over the masses.



The popularity of Shiv Seine among the state's Marathi population grew, and in 1977, the party made a major contribution to the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in parliamentary elections. But the real success of “Shiv Sen” reached only with the beginning of the 1990-s. In 1995, the alliance of right-wing parties, which included the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena, won the elections to the regional parliament of Mumbai. The state government was headed by a representative of Shiv Seine, Manohar Joshi, who remained Maharashtra’s prime minister from 1995 to 1999. Since that time, Takerii actually began to determine the policy of Mumbai, although formally did not occupy the post of head of state government. One of the main achievements of Takarey was the renaming of Bombay to Mumbai, carried out in the framework of the "nationalization" of geographical names. Takerey continued the policy aimed at approving the priority rights of the Marathi population.

At the beginning of the XXI century, the ideological priorities of “Shiv Seine” changed somewhat. Religious and political rhetoric rather than struggle against communists and labor migrants in Maharashtra came out on top. The main target of criticism of Bal Takerey and his followers were Indian Muslims. “Shiv Sena” actively used the wave of Islamophobia that was growing in the world after the September 11 attacks in order to strengthen its position in India. Of course, Tuckery himself in every way denied religious xenophobia and argued that he opposes only those representatives of other faiths who do not comply with Indian laws. But in fact, many of the statements of the Shiv Seine leader were filled with extreme radicalism. For example, Takeri spoke on the need to form Hindu terrorist organizations that could be an alternative to Islamic religious radicalism. Extremist speeches Tucker found sympathy among a large part of the Hindu youth, as well as among former military and police officers. Not only did India’s longtime opponent of Pakistan, Pakistan, but also Bangladesh, which India was directly involved in, which had given him direct support in the national liberation war against Pakistan, began to be attacked by Takarey. Takei demanded that the Indian government introduce a visa regime with Bangladesh and deport from India numerous Bangladeshi migrants - Muslims who were forced to seek work abroad because of overcrowding in Bangladesh and total unemployment in that country.

Aversion to other confessions is explained by the belonging of “Shiv Sena” to the circle of “Hindutva parties”. In Islam and Christianity, supporters of this concept see the threat of a unique Indian civilization, and the core of this civilization is considered to be Hinduism and other Indian religions - Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. However, Takeray’s claims for leadership in the Indian Hindu nationalist movement faced his own Marathi nationalism. For example, Tuckery continued to advocate for restricting migration to Mumbai from other states of India in 2000. At the same time, exceptions should not be made for migrants practicing Hinduism. In practice, the “Shiv Seine” policy against migrants resulted in violent clashes between Marathas and migrants from other states. Takareya’s obsession with Marathi nationalism led to the exclusion from him of representatives of the Shiv Sena branches in other states of India.

- Ball Tuckery, "King of Bombay"

Nevertheless, until the last days of his life, the elderly Bal Tuckerey had tremendous influence on the political life of the state of Maharashtra and no less political authority - not only in the state, but also beyond its borders. He could rightly be called one of the most prominent Indian politicians of the 1970s-2000s, which was recognized even by political opponents and open opponents. On November 17, 2012, Bal Thackeray passed away in Mumbai at the age of 86. The news of the death of a prominent politician forced the Maharashtra state authorities to put police and army units on high alert. The leadership of the state, as well as the country as a whole, was afraid of possible riots that Shiv Sena supporters could organize in memory of their leader. Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh himself addressed the population. But he also honored the memory of Thackeray as an original and authoritative politician. The day after his death, November 18, 2012, the funeral of Bala Thackeray took place. They were given the status of an event of national importance. Several million people took part in the funeral ceremonies.

Condolences over the death of Takarei were expressed by Narendra Modi - then he served as head of the government in the neighboring Maharashtra state of Gujarat, and in 2014, he became the Prime Minister of India. These condolences were not “on duty phrase” - as you know, Narendra Modi heads the largest nationalist party in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has long been working with Shiv Sena and is in power in the country since 2014. For "Bharatiya Janata Party", Ball Takeari also occupies one of the places of honor in the gallery of ideologues and leaders of Hindu nationalism of the twentieth century.

After the death of its founder and unchallenged leader, the Shiv Sena party continued to exist under the leadership of his son, Uddhava Takareya (born in 1960, in the photo), who in the middle of 2000 took the post of the senior president your father's age. At one time, the party "Shiv Sena" belonged to Narayan Rana (born 1952), who held the post of Prime Minister of the State of Maharashtra in XXUMX in the year. However, then, in 1999, Narayan Rana transferred to the Indian National Congress, which was associated not so much with a change in political views, as with the contradictions that arose with Bal’s son, Takarey Uddhav, who became the executive president of Shiv Sena. The youth organization “Shiv Seine” - “Yuna Sena” - is headed by the grandson of Bal Takareya and the eldest son of Uddhava Takareya, the poet Aditya Takarei (born in 2005 year).

Currently, Shiv Sena remains one of the largest and most radical nationalist organizations of Hindutwa in India. It is reported every now and then by the mass media, including in connection with various riots and attacks on religious groups. But besides political radicalism, Shiv Sena, like other Hindu right-wing parties, is known for its charitable activities and social projects. For example, the party set a world record for blood collection from donors. In 2015, Shiv Sena allocated thousands of rupees to 10 to each farmer affected by a drought in the Marathwad region. In addition, according to 2 thousand rupees, the party allocates to each Hindu family with more than five children in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where, apart from Hindus, lives an imposing community of Muslims.

The ambiguous activity of “Shiv Seine” has repeatedly been the subject of criticism from not only the Indian liberal and leftist forces, but also the world community. However, the influence of the party in the state of Maharashtra is so strong that the government, especially the currently headed by the right-wing politician, will never take any tough measures against the Marathi nationalists.

To be continued ...
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  1. +3
    20 January 2017 07: 48
    Continue Ilya, very interesting .. Thank you ..
  2. +3
    20 January 2017 09: 17
    Very large articles. This is probably a book. Thank you, Ilya.
  3. +2
    20 January 2017 10: 53
    AI Fursov said: "The caste system of India is natural fascism."
    1. +1
      20 January 2017 18: 52
      The caste system is, of course, an abomination, but not so simple. In our university environment, there is actually katstvost, and sons and daughters of professors mostly hang out in graduate schools. Despite the fact that the son of a locksmith, for example, may not be dumber than them, he is unlikely to get there. Thank you for the article.
      1. +1
        22 January 2017 17: 33
        In India, the caste system exists ~~~ 3000 years and organically connected with the ancient religion. At the same time, our social elevators are almost equal to 0.
        Quote: Type 63
        The caste system is, of course, an abomination, but not so simple. In our university environment, there is actually katstvost, and thanks for the article.

        But not only in high school. Practically any environment protects itself from penetration from less affluent environments. Moreover, the more affluent individuals are, the more contemptuous and rude they are to the less affluent layers of society. Sometimes I sadly observe that support and help are rendered to each other by completely impoverished people of different nationalities - collect various objects, carry them on carts and understand each other perfectly.
  4. 0
    23 January 2017 07: 03
    after working with Indians in England, I no longer have any doubt that Indians are the dirtiest and most arrogant nation! they are just parasites, they don’t want to work, they’re dirty everywhere, they treat their own as low-level beings. In England they have an unwritten special status as oppressed in the past. And they use it with interest.

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