BAL THACKERAY – Complete Profile

Bal Thackeray – WikiPedia Profile

This article contains the following headings

1 – Early life and career
2 – Controversies
  2.1 – Views on Muslims
  2.2 – Views on Bihari migrants
  2.3 – Views against terrorist Afzal’s clemency
  2.4 – Admiration of Hitler
  2.5 – Pro-Tamil Tiger Views
3 – Rift in party
4 – Valentine’s Day protests
5 – Cultural references
6 – References

Bal Keshav Thackeray (Marathi: बाळ केशव ठाकरे) (born January 23, 1926), popularly known as Balasaheb Thackeray, is the founder and chief of the Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist, Marathi ethnocentric and populist party active mainly in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.

Early life and career

Thackeray was born to Keshav Sitaram Thackeray (also known as Prabodhankar Thackeray because of his articles in his fortnightly magazine named Prabodhan or “Enlightenment”) in a lower-middle class Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu family. Keshav Thackeray was a progressive social activist and writer who was against caste biases and played a key role in the Samyukta Maharashtra Chalwal (literally, United Maharashtra Movement) in the 1950s to form the Marathi-speaking state of Maharashtra along with Mumbai(erstwhile Bombay) as its capital.

Bal Thackeray started his career as a cartoonist in the Free Press Journal in Mumbai in the 1950s. His cartoons were also published in the Sunday edition of The Times of India. In 1960, he launched a cartoon weekly Marmik with his brother. He used it to campaign against the growing influence of non-Marathi people in Mumbai targetting south indian labor workers.

He formed the Shiv Sena on June 19th, 1966 with the intent of fighting for the rights of the natives of thestate of Maharashtra (called Maharashtrians).^[1] The early objective of the Shiv Sena was to ensure job security for Maharashtrians against immigrants from Southern India and Gujaratis and Marwaris.

Politically, the Shiv Sena was anti-Communist, and wrested control of major trade unions in Mumbai from theCommunist Party of India and demanded protection money from mainly gujarati and marwari business leaders. It later allied itself with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP-Shiv Sena combine won the 1995Maharashtra State Assembly elections and came to power. During the tenure of the government from 1995 to 1999, Bal Thackeray was nicknamed “remote control” since he played a major role in government policies and decisions from behind-the-scenes.

Thackeray has claimed that the Shiv Sena has helped the Marathi manoos (the Marathi commoner) in Mumbai,^[2] especially in the public sector.^[3] Opposition leftist parties allege that the Shiv Sena has done little to solve the problem of unemployment facing a large proportion of Maharashtrian youth during its tenure, in contradiction to its ideological foundation of ’sons of the soil.’^[4]

Controversies

Thackeray is very vocal in his opposition to people who migrate to Mumbai, to non-Hindus (especiallyMuslims), and to illegal Muslims immigrants from Bangladesh. In the late 1970s, as part of his “Maharashtrais for Maharashtrians” campaign, Thackeray threatened migrants from South India with harm unless they left Mumbai.

In 2002, Thackeray issued a call to form Hindu suicide squads to counter alleged Muslim violence:

If such suicide squads are formed only then can we take on perpetrators of mindless violence.^[5]

In reaction to Thackeray’s call, Maharashtra government registered a case against him for inciting enmity between different groups.^[6]

Asia Times further reported on Thackeray’s rhetoric:

“to take the Muslims head on”. “Trouble-making Muslims should be wiped out from the country … kick out the four crore [40 million] Bangladeshi Muslims and then the country will be secure,” the Shiv Sena leader said. Urging Hindus to start calling India “Hindu rashtra” (Hindu nation), he maintained that only “our religion [Hinduism] is to be honored here” and then “we will look after other religions”.^[7]

At least two organizations founded and managed by the retired Indian Army officers namely Lt Col (retired) Jayant Rao Chitale and Lt Ge. P.N. Hoon (former commander-in-chief of the Western Command), answered Bal Thackeray’s call to set up the suicide squads in India. Lt Gen. Hoon claimed, Thackeray instructed him to set up the training camps.^[8]

Thackeray continues to publish inflammatory editorials in his party’s newsletter, Samna (Confrontation).

Views on Muslims

Thackeray’s views have typically been highly anti-Muslim, usually attacking them and occasionally sympathizing with them. He has declared that he is “not against every Muslim, but only those who reside in this country but do not obey the laws of the land…I consider such people traitors.[1] His party is viewed as being anti-Muslim, though Shiv Sainiks officially reject this accusation. [2] When explaining his views on Hindutva, he has conflated Islam with violence and has called for Hindus to “fight terrorism and fight Islam”.^[9] In an interview in Suketu Mehta’s book ‘Maximum City’, he advocates the hanging of Indian Muslims and mass expulsion of Muslim migrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

In the 1980s he had stated that:

“They [Muslims] were spreading like a cancer and should be operated on like a cancer. The … country should be saved from the Muslims and the police should support them [Hindu Maha Sangh] in their struggle just like the police in Punjab were sympathetic to the Khalistanis.”^[10]

Bal Thackeray criticized and challenged Indian Muslims through his party newspaper, Sāmna, around the time the 16th century Babri Masjid was demolished by members of the Shiv Sena and the BJP in the northern town of Ayodhya, on December 6, 1

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 21:42 and is filed under Hindu Fascism, India, Politics, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.