maharashtra day

Yesteray was Maharashtra Day, a state holiday and a rememberence of when Maharashtra became a state (in 1960. Before that, the Marathi and Gujarati areas of India were both part of the state of Bombay).  This is a really interesting time for me to be here, because its the first time that North Indian migrants have organized special events for Maharashtra Day, and also because it has only been a couple of months since the violence instigated by Raj Thackeray and his anti-migrant party (the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena).  Unfortunately, its kind of hard to find a published schedule of events for the day and I only had vague ideas about when/where to go... so I woke up, left the apartment and hoped to stumble upon interesting stuff.

My first attempt didn't work out.  I got to Shivaji Park, one of the main venues for events, in the late morning, but the ceremony and pomp was already over.  This was the official event by the government of Maharashtra and there had been music, speeches and a parade.  I was really disappointed to miss it.  And I swear, this is the first time I have heard of anything starting before 10 or 11am in this city.

Since I happened to be in a shopping district, I couldn't resist looking in some stores for a bit.  And then I hailed a cab to take me to Juhu, where I had read there was to be a symposium in celebration of Maharashtra Day about the role of migrants in Mumbai's development.  But I didn't have an address or time for the event (not for lack of trying).

Luckily, I hailed the right taxi.  I explained to the driver where I was trying to go, and he knew nothing about it either but he said he would figure it out once we got to Juhu.  He also had a newspaper with a schedule of other events for the day.  He helped me plan where to go and I hired him to drive me around for the rest of the day.  This worked out wonderfully because he was from UP and pretty tuned into politics... I was able to interview him in detail as we were driving.  It was also nice not to have to worry about how to get places... he did all the leg work, like stopping at corners and asking for directions.  

We ended up finding information about the Juhu event on a banner on the street.  The event was a symposium organized by Sanjay Nirupam, a former Shiv Sena party leader who made headlines in 2005 when he switched parties because of the Sena's anti-migrant stance.   He is now in the Congress party and his signature issue is migrant rights.  His event was in a really ritzy club in Juhu (itself a posh area).  I got there early, and as I was sitting around waiting, Mr. Nirupam came into the room and said hello to everyone.  When he walked by me, I asked if he had some minutes to spare for a couple of questions.  And he immediately sat down next to me!  It was kind of ridiculous.  Luckily I had prepared questions for this unlikely possibility.  

Much of what he said were standard soundbites about how two thirds of Mumbaikars are migrants and about how Marathi-only politics don't make sense because "language is to communicate, not to fight."  One thing that surprised me is that he actually supports a proposal to give hiring priority to local laborers.  He made sure to say that he thinks reservations like these don't make sense for the skilled sector, because industry will suffer, but for unskilled labor, he thinks people who have lived in Mumbai for at least 15 years should have job priority.  I asked him why he supports this prioritization, and he basically just said "because they're local" (but in a more complicated way).  This is a spin on one of the hottest migrant-related issues right now: proposals to reserve a percentage of jobs in Mumbai for Maharashtrans in particular.  I'm surprised that Mr. Nirupam supports some version of this plan, though I guess as an elected official, he has to be somewhat accommodating in his stances and the inclusion of "locals" in his plan means that Maharashtrans aren't the only beneficiaries.  

The migrant symposium itself started off with almost 2 hours of music and dance performances... and I had another event (also at 5) that I wanted to attend, so I left before the speeches.  I figured I could read about them later.  Here's his new website that was launched at the event and below is a picture of the banner advertising the symposium (the man pictured is Nirupam):

The other event I went to was very different, sponsored by a Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand (basically North Indian) cultural forum.  While the Nirupam event was posh, kind of small, and seemed to be aimed at professionals, this event was in a huge public ground with probably a couple of thousand people attending.  Again, the main thing on the program was popular songs and dances, and a Maharashtran patriotic song as well.  The audience was obviously there for the music and dances... the young men whistled and clapped a lot, and the performances went on for a couple of hours.  The whole thing was infused with Maharashtran patriotism.  I thought it was interesting that the North Indian association took the strategy of being super-patriotic toward Maharashtra (this was also a contrast to the Nirupam event).  An alternate track they might have taken would be to emphasize everyone's common Indian identity and minimize the salience of local languages and cultures.  But there was tons of Maharashtran imagery, cheer and even a bit of Marathi spoken. 

There were a handful of high-level government officials on the stage, and they were recognized and made some speeches that expressed the right of Uttar Bharatis (North Indians) to be part of Maharashtra's economic and cultural landscape.  One of the men said, Maharashtra is our home and livelihood, North India is our family and lineage, and the two coexist.  It sounded poetic in Hindi.  There was also a lot said about how Maharashtra day is also for North Indians, because they come to Maharashtra, work hard, and along the way move the state and the country forward.  The symbolism at this event was pretty interesting.  For example, all the dignitaries were presented with matching Puneri pagris (a type of Maharashtran cultural hat) and Banarasi gamchhas (a famous North Indian scarf). 

 

The entire event had a positive atmosphere and a well-behaved crowd.  I did feel kind of out of place, but people talked freely to me, (often asked why I was taking notes), and wanted to know how I liked Mumbai.  It was fun.  More pictures from Maharashtra Day here.