The Importance Of Instrumentalism In Bal Thackeray

Instrumentalism suggests that ethnicity is neither innate in human nature nor possesses intrinsic value. Ethnicity, rather, is about a more profound nature of interests that are political or economical . According to Horowitz , ethnicity is basically the feeling of belonging in a collective environment. The common factor could be based on common descent, language, history, culture, race or religion and sometimes a combination of two or more than two of these. Conflicts take place because political leaders strategically manipulate ethnicity for attaining resources from the state or just for gaining political power . A ‘linguistic province’ is a province that has complete freedom to grow its own distinct nationality and an opportunity to develop
Udupi – a chain of restaurants owned by Kannada speaking individuals). He attacked them, sometimes, on the account that they were taking away local jobs, which the Maharashtrians (local public) deserved. He also referred to the South Indians often as ‘lunghiwalas’ and ‘yandugunduwalas mimicking their culture, clothing style and language. Bal Thackeray caricatured the south Indians as ‘madrassi’ in his publications in the newspaper, thus publicizing his opinion which was, surprisingly, widely accepted by the Maharashtrians and the Marathi population had expressed its xenophobia to the migrants who came to Bombay to settle and earn their livings. In its very first Manifesto in 1966, Shiv Sena divided the population as migrants and locals as they blamed the South Indians for all the issues (mainly employment and lack of resources) the locals faced. All the Maharashtrians were asked to refrain from employing people hailing from the southern states, namely, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. One reason why the South Indians were targeted among other migrants were because of their over representation in white-collar jobs . Belonging from the same industry, Bal Thackeray knew this occupational structure well and thus it took almost no reluctance for him to direct his words and swords
Raj Thackeray, nephew of Bal Thackeray entered politics as a Shiv Sainik with the ideologies of Shiv Sena and later separated to form his own Hindu nationalism party. Raj Thackeray supported the idea of Marathi Nationalism and introduced the identity of the locals as ‘Marathi Manoos’ (Marathi Man). This created a further rift among the residents of Bombay and further isolated the local identity from that of the immigrants’. Shiv Sena and MNS played an important role in the renaming of important British architectural structures to regional names on account of Marathi Nationalism. Victoria Terminus became Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Railway Station) and Sahara International Airport became Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The extent to which these political parties publicly rejected any foreign influence was heightened when they imposed the use of ‘Mumbai’ instead of ‘Bombay’ on the local public on the argument that the Marathi natives called the city ‘Mumbai’ in reverence to their deity ‘Mumbadevi’ before the British