Devil's Advocate: Shobhaa De on Mumbai vs Bombay

VIEW FINDER: Author Shobhaa De says what MNS chief Raj Thackeray stands for isn’t wrong.

        

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What’s wrong with Mumbai? A city known for its cosmopolitan culture has become a victim of parochial, divisive identity politics. Is Raj Thackeray right in his violent objections to having ‘outsiders’ take up jobs and make a living in the city? Should it be compulsory to have an understanding of Marathi to live in Mumbai?

Author and editor Shobhaa De fields these questions on Devil’s Advocate and is clear about one thing – while what Raj Thackeray stands for isn’t wrong, it’s how he says it is a problem too politically-incorrect for comfort.

Karan Thapar: Hello and welcome to Devil’s Advocate. After a week of violence and mass arrest, everyone’s asking a crucial question: What’s happened to Mumbai? That’s the issue I should raise with renowned author and editor Shobhaa De.

Shobhaa, millions and millions of Indians symbolise the cosmopolitan, broad-mindedness, the excellence and success of Mumbai. And yet today the city seems associated with Raj Thackeray’s attacks on Biharis because he thinks they are outsiders; with Bachchans because they speak Hindi; with shopkeepers because their signboards are not in Marathi – How do you respond to this?

Shobhaa De: With enormous sadness but also with a great amount of introspection. Because what’s happening in Mumbai is, in a great way, symbolic of change within the city and in the psyche of the people. Being a Maharashtrian myself, it’s distressing to see what the general audience – internationally and locally – make of this. I think we haven’t analysed enough as to why this is happening and why Raj is being portrayed as the monster.

Karan Thapar: I want to come to the analyses but let’s talk about Bombay itself – or Mumbai as it should be called. Today, when people come from outside Maharashtra to live in Mumbai, do they have as much a claim on the city as Maharashtrians or is it Maharashtrians first and everyone afterwards?

Shobhaa De: In fact it’s quite to the contrary – it’s Maharashtrians’ last and everyone else’s first. I don’t blame the ‘everybody else’ and I don’t look at them as outsiders. I think Maharashtrians need to do a great deal of inward thinking and inward looking to figure out for themselves as to why the city’s complexion has changed the way it has and why it has been hijacked – in their minds – by outsiders who are laying claim to it.

Karan Thapar: You’re saying two very interesting things – it’s been hijacked in their minds and that today Mumbai is every one else’s first and Maharashtrians’ last. Are Maharashtrians being discriminated against?

Shobhaa De: I would, to some extent, agree that they are being discriminated against in terms of job applications like the Railways – we saw last week what happened there – because Maharashtrian himself/herself has not perhaps fought for their rightful position within the state or the city. I say that with a great amount of compassion, not just for Maharashtrians but a system that seems to not recognise the dreams and ideals of the locals.

Karan Thapar: Before I come to why they haven’t fought for their rights, you are really seriously saying that today in Mumbai – the capital of Maharashtra – Maharashtrains are getting a raw deal?

Shobhaa De: I am definitely saying Maharashtrians get a raw deal which does not mean that I, in any way, support violence or endorse what Raj Thackeray stands for. What I am saying is that the raw deal has a lot to do with the Maharashtrian way of asserting or not asserting themselves.

Karan Thapar: They are not assertive enough?