Thread by @dhavalkulkarni

The outrage over the refusal of a Gujarati-dominated housing society to allow a #Maharashtrian woman to rent an apartment/ office at Mulund in #Mumbai is not the first such instance of housing apartheid directed at #Marathi speakers in their own capital. The roots of this discrimination run deep in #history.

Some political activists got together and ensured that the father-son duo in the Mulund society apologised to the woman. But soon, it will be back to business for them. At least, until the next outrage…

Even today, there is no clarity over whether that silly "rule" which was cited as the basis for the denial has been rolled back.

Thread

#Marathi #Maharashtra #MarathiIdentity #Marathipan

One must note that while the liberal intelligentsia is quick on its feet to denounce any expression of nativist, pro-Marathi sentiment in Mumbai, they often ignore similar regional and linguistic chauvinism, sub-nationalism and xenophobia in their own states. They also fail to acknowledge that opportunities are often secured through networks linked to caste, linguistic and regional identities with merit per se taking a back seat.

#Mumbai was a part of #Maharashtra in the geographical, historical, and socio-cultural sense. #Marathi speaking groups like the Agaris, Kolis, Bhandaris, Pathare Prabhus, Pachkalashis etc populated the clutch of islands that make today's Mumbai. These indigenous residents had to eventually pay the highest price for Mumbai's 'development.'

Marathi merchant princes and entrepreneurs like Rama Kamat Lotlikar and Jagannath 'Nana' Shankarseth Murkute, and the middle and labour class have built Mumbai brick by brick over the centuries and so have people like Nagu Sayachi and Raosaheb Papanna, who spoke Telugu but were culturally Maharashtrians. Economic migrants from other states came here later because they saw opportunities here and because they felt Mumbai was the mythical El Dorado, the city of gold.

Anyone denying this reality are living under a rock, or perhaps, they are THE rock.

The Samyukta Maharashtra movement had to fight tooth and nail to ensure that Mumbai was retained as part of Maharashtra and was not hived out as a union territory or merged with Gujarat as big money and capitalists wanted it to. The point to be noted is that the leaders and foot-soldiers of Samyukta Maharashtra also included the Telugu-speaking working class and journalists and activists like Va. Ra. Kothari, a Jain, who were Maharashtrians by conviction and belief. Maharashtra secured Mumbai on 1 May 1960 after the martyrdom of 106 people. Those who wanted to usurp Mumbai by hook or crook have certainly not forgotten this "slight!"

Mumbai had a strong working-class movement. This was broken down after mill owners, politicians, bureaucrats, builders, and the underworld colluded to sell off lands on which the textile mills stood. This was a barbaric case of dispossession. The mills were syncretic spaces and supported a strong manufacturing ecosystem. This was broken down. The communal strife in Mumbai during the 1990s owes much to this. The same story repeated itself when it came to the engineering units.

The sale of lands belonging to the textile mills in central Mumbai was a game-changer. The erstwhile labour class dominated areas were gentrified. The chawls which dominate the local skyline are syncretic spaces where people came together across caste and religious lines and resulted in cultural intermingling. So, Marathi and Gujarati neighbours learnt each other’s languages and culinary traditions. It is this spatial integration which makes Mumbai into the melting pot that it is today. The gated complexes that are replacing these chawls are exclusive and allow access to the uber rich belonging to certain mercantile groups.

The proliferation of vegetarian only or Jain only housing complexes in Mumbai is an affront to the sensibilities of other groups and is deeply discriminatory. In no other state will this insult to the locals be tolerated.

Of course, the moot question is, even if these housing complexes allowed Maharashtrians to buy or rent housing units, can most of them afford it? The builder-politician nexus has taken over the city and the state and pushed real-estate prices beyond the means of most in Mumbai. Housing is unaffordable for most up to Virar, Panvel and Badlapur. The middle and lower-middle classes have to stay in the extended suburbs, spend half of their waking hours commuting in sub-human conditions in the mobile concentration camps called local trains.

But who are the real traitors to the Marathi cause? The prime culprits are the politicians who play politics around #Marathi identity yet have no qualms parking their (slush) money in construction projects where this discrimination is practiced. Ask around in Maharashtrian localities like Parel, Lalbag, Chinchpokli etc, and local residents will tell you what this is about.

These nativist parties are like the proverbial Sheikh Chillis who cut the branches of the tree that they are sitting on. They have reduced the core vote base themselves! The real rulers of the city are the builders and real-estate developers who have the ability to buy politicians and policy makers on the ‘show me the man, and I will tell you the price principle.’

The weakest link in the nativist politics in Maharashtra is the inability of these political parties to link linguistic politics to a larger ecosystem that includes economic power and cultural heft. Hence, the Marathi manoos holds political power in Mumbai (at least for now) but not economic authority. So, the parties playing lip service to the cause of the Marathi manoos will protest seeking Marathi signboards on shops without bothering about who owns and runs these commercial establishments!

The Dravidian parties down south practice their version of xenophobia but are at least honest when it comes to their brand of identity politics unlike the leaders of our Marathi manoos who run with the hares and hunt with the hounds.

Of course, Marathis are an accommodating people who are willing to accept and assimilate outsiders. But it is also necessary for Maharashtrians to confront their own deep-rooted sense of casteism and discrimination. Will the residents of Marathi upper-caste dominated localities and housing societies be comfortable with Bahujan, Dalit or Muslim neighbours in their midst? Will we confront this elephant in the room?