Defending Marathi Manoos?

Raj Thackeray and his bunch of goons have taken up the mantle of defending the rights of Marathi manoos (people) in strange and often egregious ways. More often than not, they resort to violence to impose their worldview on people they clearly despise. The current ‘flavor of the month’ are people from US and Bihar. Think what you may of their ideology and actions, the assault on Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi by MNS legislators inside Maharashtra assembly has to be one of the worst moments in Maharashtra legislative history. The reason for their assault – Azmi took his oath of office in Hindi. And MNS insisted on Marathi. Ridiculous as it may seem, this counts for reason for outrage that an elected representative choses to use one of India’s official if not the national language. Now should I be blogging in Marathi too, Raj? The four legislators were promptly suspended for four year although I believe they should be thrown in jail for as many years.

Considering there are only 13 MNS legislators (out of 288) in the new-elected Maharashtra Assembly, how much sense, politically speaking, does it make to get one-third of your caucus suspended? MNS is partnering with Cong-NCP to quelch BJP-SS’s political clout. With 4 less legislators in the Assembly, hasn’t their power already diminished and haven’t they lost leverage within their alliance? This, of course, is regardless of the four constituencies that will basically be unrepresented in the Assembly for four year because their elected representative decided to act like animals on their first day. Unfortunately, considering Indian politics, this will in fact be counted as an achievement come election time. How else can you explain electing MNS candidates who have a one-point agenda? Perhaps those constituencies deserve them and hence will be unrepresented for the next four years.

“Defending Marathi Manoos?” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=3085] was published Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 12:15 pm by Patrix, filed under 9rules, DesiPundit, Governance, Politics, and tagged as maharashtra, Marathi, politics, Raj Thackeray. Both comments and linkbacks are closed.

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http://pehlu.blogspot.com Chetan
The unfortunate thing is that MNS seems to have succeeded in their endevour to inflame passions and reach out to voters. Just take a cursory glance at the comments on this story. Almost 99% supporting what MNS MLAs did. I think, this is going to provide a big electoral bonaza in Municipal elections for the MNS and we will be seeing more and more of these tactics from them in the future.

http://www.ipatrix.com Patrix
We get what we deserve, right? Unfortunately. So you mean, MNS doesn’t really care about Maharashtra as much as it does Bombay and all this raada is aimed at the Municipal Elections. Well, FSM help us then.

http://pehlu.blogspot.com Chetan
It’s not just Mumbai, there are other municipal elections coming up in urban centers in Maharashtra. Today’s Loksatta editorial
BTW, that is a fantastic opinion piece. Must have been penned by Kumar Ketkar.

http://www.ipatrix.com Patrix
Sad. I guess, capturing the local sense of disaffection and influence local politics is the motive here. It is a race to the bottom then. Hopefully Congress, NCP, BJP, and SS don’t start doing the same to out-crazy MNS. This strategy doesn’t have a wider appeal though which I’m sure MNS has no intentions of achieving

PK
We can blame Raj for violence., Call his action Politically motivated but unfortunately we don’t have solution to root cause of this angst. basic problem is how to manage in a Democratic set up, the Insecurity of being overwhelmed by different culture/religion.
In second half of 20th century,we have observed this all over world and in India. Assam agitation against Bengali, Gurkha against Bengali,Kashmiri Vs Non Kashmiri. Hill people Vs people from Plains. Marathi Vs Non Marathi. Telugu,Kannada chauvinism in respective states. Pakistan Vs Bollywood, In USA moves against Latinos/Spanish. in UK Immigration from EU. In Europe action against Immigrants from Africa/Afganistan,Iraq and Turkey….. list goes on.
All these countries/states are Democratic and allow free movement of people for Job,livelihood. So Constitutionally they can do nothing and resulting anger results in violence.—PK

http://www.ipatrix.com Patrix
As long as we justify and condone violence, it will be a natural reaction to not just anger but every human emotion. Raj is free to voice his opinions and sprout whatever he has on his mind as long as his lackeys do not indulge in violence and intimidation. Constitutionally, they can’t even hit someone but we don’t see the Constitution stopping them there.

shaan
Hi, you are saying that he took oath in one of India’s official languages (Hindi is NOT the national language, India does not has a national language as per the constitution). But you must understand that the problem is because he took oath in Hindi in Maharashtra and not in the parliament or any other Hindi speaking state. That too he challenged them to stop him from taking oath. So they stopped him.
Why don’t Hindi speaking people adapt to the culture of the state they live? I am from Tamil nadu where almost 10 percent of the population are of Telugu origin, but they have adapted much to the local culture and every one of them speaks Tamil. The same is the case with the Sourashtra people who migrated to Madurai long ago. Even the Malayalees and Kannada people speak Tamil. Even many north Indians in Chennai speak in Tamil because nobody understands Hindi here. The same north Indians refuse to learn Marathi in Maharashtra because all educated Marathis in Maharashtra speak Hindi and there is no real necessity to learn Marathi. Marathis are paying for the mistake of allowing Hindi to be imposed on them.

http://www.ipatrix.com Patrix
As long as there is no law (would be a stupid one, anyway) instructing you which language to use while swearing in, I couldn’t care less if any MP or MLA used Swahili. I’ve always been taught that it is more important about the content of your speech rather than the medium. You can adapt or assimilate within a culture by other means than merely speaking the language of the place you stay in. Imposing your opinion on others using violence and intimidation is what is wrong here.
What you chose to do in Tamil Nadu is no prerogative for how things should be in Maharashtra. I’m a ‘Marathi’ and I don’t care what language people talk to me in. If we are so concerned about preserving languages, why not start speaking in Sanskrit? Why did that die out?

shaan
You may be a broad minded Marathi, but I am just outlining the possible cause that has enabled Raj Thackeray to get 13 MLAs to assembly and beat up another MLA within a few years of forming his party. If he has no support among Marathis how could he have got 13 MLAs. The fact that he has support among Marathis in spite of his rowdy politics means that today Marathis are dissatisfied about their status in their own state.
In TN we don’t force Tamil on anybody. We just oppose the imposition of any language by force. There may not be a law on language to be used during swearing in, but the official language is Marathi in Maharashtra and there is something called tradition.

http://www.ipatrix.com Patrix
Whatever the cause may be, violence is never the answer and should not be tolerated by the state. That said, I admit that not all ‘Marathis’ feel the same way I do and their sense of dissatisfaction and fear is exploited by the likes of Raj Thackeray. His uncle did it successfully against South Indians and he is following in his footsteps. Too bad, we haven’t learnt from history.
Imposing traditions on anyone is not the best way to help people assimilate. You just end up disillusioning them and turn them away. And I rather not have a tradition that indulges in threatening people into submission.

shaan
I too accept that violence is not always the way to go. But instead of treating the symptom we must treat the disease. Bal Thackeray’s action against South Indians was based on the perception that they were taking away jobs. I am not the person to judge whether it was right or wrong, because I am also a South Indian. But South Indians would not have challenged or disrespected Marathi language or culture at any point of time. Now the main issue being raised is that people like Abu Azmi disrespect the Marathi language. In my opinion a person must respect the culture of the state where he lives. In democratic India everyone is free to follow their culture and speak their language in any state. But he must also respect the language of the state where he lives.

http://www.ipatrix.com Patrix
So not speaking the language of the state you live in is disrespectful to the language? Better make the Australia team learn all regional languages of the state they play in during press conferences. All Abu Azmi did was take his oath of office in the language that he prefers and that was disrespectful to someone else? So much for democracy. Gives freedom of speech a new meaning; not only are you not free to say anything but also are not free to speak in a language you want to.

Shaan
I have given the excerpt of an article by Union Minister Shashi Tharoor to make you understand my point. When you read it you would understand what I meant by tradition.
“Twelve years ago, when India celebrated the 49th anniversary of our independence from British rule, H D Deve Gowda, then the prime minister,
stood at the ramparts of New Delhi’s 16th century Red Fort and delivered the traditional Independence Day address to the nation in Hindi, the language which we have all learned to refer to (though the term has no constitutional basis) as India’s ‘national language’.
Eight other prime ministers had done exactly the same thing 48 times before him, but what was unusual this time was that Deve Gowda, a southerner from the state of Karnataka, spoke to the country in a language of which he scarcely knew a word. Tradition and politics required a speech in Hindi, so he gave one – the words having been written out for him in his native Kannada script, in which they, of course, made no sense.”
Original article is available at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3346890.cms

http://www.ipatrix.com Patrix
As you mentioned, it is a matter of understanding each other. Since most people in India understand Hindi, Deve Gowda couldn’t have spoken in Kannada. It is a simple communication issue and nothing to do with traditions. Officials speak in a language that will be understood by most. People in Maharashtra understand Hindi even though they predominantly speak Marathi. I don’t think this is a bug, in my opinion, it is a feature. A very good feature.

iu
Shaan,
> But he must also respect the language of the state where he lives.
No.
I could engage you in meaningful debate but sadly your premise is incorrect. For any definition of “respect”, nobody must respect a language.
indian
Aren’t shiv sena guys hindus. Aren’t they the ones who worship cows and animals and mutated ,transplanted people with a human body and head of elephant. So what is the big deal of Marathi it is not even a sweet language. Nothing to be proud of so why the stupidity of fighting for a language no one cares. Foreigners look at indians as towel heads and cow worshippers, be it north or south indians , be it Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, jains or what not.
Shame on you sainiks, change your name to shameniks or painniks.
Your stupid kind brings disgrace to the whole indian community abroad. Stop being puppets in the hands of your leaders who flourish making you do things no rational person does.
Grow up, this is 2009 for animalgods sake.

http://www.ipatrix.com Patrix
I don’t think this has anything to do with religion or how sweet a language sounds. So if you are going to peddle your hate for Indians in general, you ought to go elsewhere.

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