Pratibha Patil may become the first Maharashtra resident to become President. But her impending ascension to the Rashtrapati Bhavan is not to be confused for a Marathi icon in the making says Loksatta editor Kumar Ketkar in a piece in today’s Indian Express.
“To non-Maharashtrians, this may appear to be strange. But the fact is that the average Marathi person is far less ethnically chauvinistic than he is made out to be by the Shiv Sena and the English media. With malice towards none, one can say that Maharashtra does not have the ethnic-cultural-linguistic pride which is so dominant in Bengali, Tamil, Telugu or Punjabi societies.
“In communist West Bengal, from Vivekanand to Jyoti Basu and from Rabindranath Tagore to Sourav Ganguly, each stalwart generates proud ethnic waves. In the south, MGR in Tamil Nadu and NTR in Andhra Pradesh captured people’s imagination. There is nothing comparable to this regional pride in Maharashtra…
“Not because the Marathi people disrespect Pratibha Patil, but simply because she does not represent a comprehensive Marathi ethos—if indeed there is such a thing.”
Read the full article here: Great Maratha who?
WOW !!..
Read the article and felt a lot of similarity between what Ketkar had to write about Maharashtra & our very own Karnataka….
What with our state too split with the Konkani, Tulu, Coorg and also Kannadigas (not withstanding the huge influx of Tamilians, Teleguites & the people form other states !!)
Oh! What is ethnic pride by the way. If you bank upon so much of it , ask those people who proposed her name for the prestigious and respected post. You want to give prominence to ladies and proclaim so on all platforms. Whether it is Patel or Patil, Shekawat of Shaik, Sri. or Smt. don’t bother give the respect to the post and the person who occupies it.When Mr. Kalam became the President nobody looked at him as a Tamilian or Muslim or some such thing. Expect the best from them. Whether Maharashtrians accept her as belonging to their state or not , it is immaterial.
really good article that captures the sentiments of Marathi people….could not have agreed any more…
In fact, pratibha’s ascension to Raisina Hill makes me feel ashamed…..
how on earth can she succeed APJ,KRN ?
how can unfettering loyalty to the new Mrs G be the sole criteria ?
As far as her maharashtrian roots are concerned, I would say that such credentials are irrelevent while electing Our First Citizen…. this post is above such petty things…
And, she has not done anything great for marathi Manoos in any way….
Just like most other “Patils” (read maratha politicians), she has simply used the Cooperative movement in maharashtra-which was once a pride-to the benefit of her family and Chamchas!!
All the coop banks and other institutes started by her have been ruined ….and majority of the bad loans ahve been allocated to her kith and kin !!!
And had BEING MAHARASHTRIAN been the sole criterion, i can suggest hundreds of marathi personalities who are more deserving than her…..As for Shivsena, it HAD TO support….it did not do any favor to the
Congress……
“MGR in Tamil Nadu and NTR in Andhra Pradesh captured people’s imagination.”
Dumbass analysis. What does an MGR or NTR “capturing people’s imagination” have to do with ethnic pride? Let’s say MGR stood for election as councillor from a Tamil-dominated ward in Bombay and won it. Then there is some justification to say that he represented Tamil linguistic pride. What has a Tamil guy (Malayali, actually!) winning elections in Tamilnadu got to do with “ethnic-cultural-linguistic pride”?
Dimwitted “analysts” are dime a dozen in our media.
In my years in Mumbai, I almost never missed Shri. Kumar Ketkar’s writings in MaTa (“Maharashtra Times”), even though generally I preferred reading “Loksatta.”
Shri. Kumar Ketkar hits bull’s eye this time too.
I agree that the two most liberal/non-chauvinistic linguistic communities in India are probably the Maharashtrians and the Kannadigas.
That’s the reason Mumbai and Bangalore — both cities of great original culture — have been literally overrun by the so-called “outsiders.”
Kannada is losing ground in Bangalore, and Marathi has lost all importance in influential circles in Mumbai.
My family is from western Maharashtra and the Konkan; Marathi is my mother tongue. But I was raised in Kannada, so Kannada is my second mother tongue. I also speak Tamil because my parents lived in Tamil Nadu for many years — but of course TN is a different kind of animal!
In fact, the rise of extremist politics such as the Shiv Sena’s or the KRR’s is a response to the liberal attitude of the average Maharashtrian/Kannadiga.
Seen another way, the Sena and the KRR really do not really represent the people they claim to.
Mysore Boy!
Nicely observed and spoken from the heart!
IMHO both Shivsena and KRV exist because they act like restraining mechanisms against the culturally-insensitive types like the Northies (Maharastra) and Classics (AKA Tamils) and others. I am willing to bet these language-militant orgs have the approval of the local community in their respective states.
Mysore Boy!
Let me qualify my last remark–they enjoy support but not strong enough to form the government on their own. That is democracy in action. Although Shivsena seems to have had some success in winning more elections, KRV is just starting out!
DB, Mysore Boy:
I largely agree with Ketkar. As usual, he hits the nail on the head. In the English media, there is no one who has understood or understands Maharashtrian (as opposed to Maratha) politics and identity better than him. He is a very good bridge between the Maharashtrians and the larger English-speaking world. His point that the average Maharashtrian is not very parochial at all is spot on.
However, Mohan’s point is also valid. NTR and MGR have little to do with ethnic pride per se. Both owe their popularity to the film movement as well as the welfare schemes they instituted after being CMs. Hence, while they certainly enjoyed mass support of a kind no one-esp Bal Thackeray- enjoys in Maha- their success is not a reflection of Tamil/Telugu subnationalism.
Actually, TN, AP are in one boat while Maha, Karnataka, are in another for the simple reason that neither of these two states have had much experience of people migrating to their states in large numbers. (Especially Andhra.) Even if Chennai has substantial Telugu, Malayali, Kannadiga populations, all of them can speak Tamil. And there has been nowhere near that much migration to Hyd/Chennai as there has been to Mumbai/Bangalore.
There is also another factor to it: migrants go where the economy is doing best. And in post-independence India, no city has offered as many opportunities-or has been seen that way-than Mumbai/Bombay. No city has had a bigger economy, paid more taxes or gotten more media attention that Bombay. In such a scenario, expecting migrants not to come is highly unrealistic. As they came (and are coming) now to Bangalore.
Before we talk of Kolkata and Chennai, IMHO, these cities have suffered from their image of being parochial (esp. Chennai.) Before saying that these two cities really reflect the culture of their states (which is true) and don’t get much migration (which is also mostly true), please look at the respective size of the economies of these cities, their growth, economic importance, jobs on offer and general industrial prowess in the last 30-40 years. Then compare them to Mumbai. And Bangalore. If Chennai had as big an economy as Mumbai, there would also be substantial migration there to from other states (slowly, it is starting to happen-note Bihari migrants are seen on Marina Beach). The only thing is that it would have been less.
Anyway, with India’s economy growing, there will be son of the soil movements in other places-viz Chennai, Kerala, AP as migration inexorably migrates to places where jobs are plentiful and law & order is present. Other people will then say the same things Kannadigas and Maharashtrians are saying.
Maharashtra and Karnataka are “hindutva” states.Andhras were referred to as asuras in the puranas.Independent of economy etc,the tamils have a chauvinist strain,understandable from their view point,because of which kannadigas have suffered most.Tamils have also perfected the art of blackmailing the centre,to get unfair benefits.
On a different note, a kannada film is being shown in a theatre in madras after a long time.Its about time tamils learn to be grateful to karnataka for the bounties of Cauvey.
The movie is mungaaru male.2 shows a day at casino.Atleast a beginning.Very happy to share this information.
What ever be ur comments..the bottom line is she is the president of India.
And to top it all shares my surname..I am proud of her…
PP – Seattle USA