There is a Lot of hype around this man Raj Thackeray & his methods .
While i agree that there is a partiality of behaviour towards Marathi folks in particular in Mumbai and in general elsewhere, who is responsbile for this ?? We ourselves . yes, Please.
When by 1960, there was a states reorganisation, each state got land (by protest or otherwise ) they wanted. Though there are some disputed areas still (in Maharashtra context, Belgaum and parts of Karnataka), still by and large lets keep the land issue on the back burner for a moment for this discussion. You all will be shocked to know that where do "Sindhi's" own any state of their own, yet they dominate business and Money matters and dont feel sidelined like us, that they need a Thackeray family to protect their identity ??
we are yet a loss of identity amongst all indian's which perhaps makes politicians like Raj & Balasaheb successful themselves, w/o really achieving the potential of our community long term or establishing a real progressive identity.
Now what other states and prominently amonst them did was as follows to dominate Indian scene :
1. Gujarati's- ensured that as a community they focussed on Business in growing india. Did not sell what they have in Mumbai proper and go to dombivili /Nalasopara like Marathis did in early 1970's. They stay put in Girgaon, Ghatkopar, mulund, Borivili and did their busineses. In gujrat too they did their business, went to US more than anyone else, captured African marketrs, UK , Became the offcial trading community of India along with Marwari's. overall followed a strategy of high risk, cohesiveness and got maximum returns in terms of Monetary supremacy in diamond, textile and such businesses. Law of averages supports them today becoz out of say 100 guuju's in Business at elast 20 become succesful and thus you find them monied and wealthy.
2. Marwari- Consolidated their hold in Calcutta, North, south and across India except Mumbai. Got like Gujrati's early movers advantage. They have a very high casteist system in their businesses , populalrly known as Marwari companies. They ensure that they employ members of their family, caste and even if they appoint a non Marwari at any high post, it is to the extent to get that professional advantage. Nothing else. Thus another example a community can come up by planning and internal cohesiveness.
3. Punjabi's- By far the most liberal and cosmopolitan community. Marathi's can learn a lot from them on how not to be casteist and yet have a brand of their own.
4. South Indians- A class- Tamil Nadu and Kerala- These comunities set their boundaries quite well. They knew they could not compete with rich parsis, gujju and marwari communities in 1960-1970 era. Hence took to service, took to migrations, ensured appointments within their comnmunity itself, and slowly became & established themeslves first as Knowledge managers of Business they worked for . Take any CXO team of any company today and you will find at lest one Tamil/Keralite there. Also one more thing Keralites did additionally was to capture the Dubai job market. These communities have also come up by internal promotions, recommendations within their communities itself.
5. North Indians- (UP/ Bihar)- These are currently the target of ire of Raj and his men. Now look what stratgey they have adopted. All Major metro's require folks who can give services like ,Milk, security guards, fruits and vegetable vendors, taxi and Auto drivers.Due to the poverty which exists in UP/ Bihar , these folks were willing to work at rates lower than anyone in Mumbai initially. This is called capturing the market first. Then another thing they did was to bring ,more and more people from UP/Bihar for such work and start their own system within the system. Now you will wonder what Marathi were doing all this while last 30 years. here it is below
6.Why Marathi's declined in mumbai in particular and maharashtra and India in General.
a) First we have too much gotra and caste within ourselves
b) Even say , within brahmins, we havent been able to come out of small silo's of being deshastha, GSB, sarwaswat, Konkanastha, CKP etc.. plus the added distinctions of being Maratha'/ kunbi/ Dhangar/ Maali/ OBC/ Dalit/ Republican and what not ??? Here we compete with UP/ Bihar who have been driven to their fate due to such casteism.To add fuel to the fire we have the classic mistrust of Brahmins by the majority community Maratha's and OBC due to good old Peshwai.
c) If caste is not enough a divider we have regional divisions like konkan, vidarbha with its added and difficult stress on our identity as Marathis due to constant pull of being separate regions.
d) All of us chose "service " or 'Naukri" as a vocation more than any other community since independance which has such intrinsic talent. This was more due to a fear of losing it in Business or even many times lack of capital. This is surprising as most maharaja's like gwalior, baroda, indore and shahu of kolhapur in british india were marathis. I think we carried with us the gene's of being "sardar's" of Mogul's more than the gene's of Swarajya of shivaji and peshwa's.
e) Constant bickering due to differences in a) to c) amongst us , made us very easy prey, for anyone to divide us wherever we are, in company or even in profession or business.
f) As if a to e above were not enough, we learnt crab mentality lessons also quite well. Due to the prevalent internal race to succeed amongst ourselves, we commit the following errors in our work and business life
- I will accept a shah/mehta,as my boss but never a
gokhale/kulkarni as my boss
- How can a pawar go ahead of me ( this happened with
our own shankarrao, V N Gadgil and sharad pawar ).
Remember 1991 when Narsimha Rao became consensus PM.
-Amongst Marathi's i have the most money & influence
within my inmmediate relations, friends, community
is our goal many a times. Rather why
not a few more marathi's from my community make
wealth and i rather demonstrate leadership by becoming
first amongst equals then cutting down our own people
-Iam a consumer first, Marathi next. so why buy from
Marathi shops' or encourage professionals from my
community first. Fair point, as a indiviudal, but did
you know that becoz of this someone from other
community became big on your money. Also did you
really test the person from your own community fair
enough before you made the conclusion? You all will
be surprised , each commnuity purchase first
preferencefrom vendors from their community.
- Iam making enough for Roti/Kapda and have my own makan here in Mumbai/ Thane/pune- So why should i leave this and migrate to other regions/countries. This view though now changing, our community has made a belated start in this. Always migration brings with it challenges which if met , leads to a higher arbitrage of success.
g) In terms of strategy its the onus of the few who are in the higher rungs of the social economic political ladder besdies those who are educated and have a desire to make change happen, to lead and take initiatives to uplift the community by following a cohesive " whats in it for Maharashtra" strategy.
I believe Point G is what is needed and hence some initiatives of Sena like Lokadhikar samiti are the right way to do things besides ensuring that there is a reservation for lcoals for all non managerial jobs in corporates and govt institutions . Managerial jobs and vocations/ business, must always be open for everyone.
Also within Managerial jobs, find meritocracy within our own community first. Only if you dont get, employ other communities folks like what Madrasis and Marwari's do.
I think, all these methods than just violence on the streets is going to help our community.
1 Comment
Tell a friend
Bury
While i agree that there is a partiality of behaviour towards Marathi folks in particular in Mumbai and in general elsewhere, who is responsbile for this ?? We ourselves . yes, Please.
When by 1960, there was a states reorganisation, each state got land (by protest or otherwise ) they wanted. Though there are some disputed areas still (in Maharashtra context, Belgaum and parts of Karnataka), still by and large lets keep the land issue on the back burner for a moment for this discussion. You all will be shocked to know that where do "Sindhi's" own any state of their own, yet they dominate business and Money matters and dont feel sidelined like us, that they need a Thackeray family to protect their identity ??
we are yet a loss of identity amongst all indian's which perhaps makes politicians like Raj & Balasaheb successful themselves, w/o really achieving the potential of our community long term or establishing a real progressive identity.
Now what other states and prominently amonst them did was as follows to dominate Indian scene :
1. Gujarati's- ensured that as a community they focussed on Business in growing india. Did not sell what they have in Mumbai proper and go to dombivili /Nalasopara like Marathis did in early 1970's. They stay put in Girgaon, Ghatkopar, mulund, Borivili and did their busineses. In gujrat too they did their business, went to US more than anyone else, captured African marketrs, UK , Became the offcial trading community of India along with Marwari's. overall followed a strategy of high risk, cohesiveness and got maximum returns in terms of Monetary supremacy in diamond, textile and such businesses. Law of averages supports them today becoz out of say 100 guuju's in Business at elast 20 become succesful and thus you find them monied and wealthy.
2. Marwari- Consolidated their hold in Calcutta, North, south and across India except Mumbai. Got like Gujrati's early movers advantage. They have a very high casteist system in their businesses , populalrly known as Marwari companies. They ensure that they employ members of their family, caste and even if they appoint a non Marwari at any high post, it is to the extent to get that professional advantage. Nothing else. Thus another example a community can come up by planning and internal cohesiveness.
3. Punjabi's- By far the most liberal and cosmopolitan community. Marathi's can learn a lot from them on how not to be casteist and yet have a brand of their own.
4. South Indians- A class- Tamil Nadu and Kerala- These comunities set their boundaries quite well. They knew they could not compete with rich parsis, gujju and marwari communities in 1960-1970 era. Hence took to service, took to migrations, ensured appointments within their comnmunity itself, and slowly became & established themeslves first as Knowledge managers of Business they worked for . Take any CXO team of any company today and you will find at lest one Tamil/Keralite there. Also one more thing Keralites did additionally was to capture the Dubai job market. These communities have also come up by internal promotions, recommendations within their communities itself.
5. North Indians- (UP/ Bihar)- These are currently the target of ire of Raj and his men. Now look what stratgey they have adopted. All Major metro's require folks who can give services like ,Milk, security guards, fruits and vegetable vendors, taxi and Auto drivers.Due to the poverty which exists in UP/ Bihar , these folks were willing to work at rates lower than anyone in Mumbai initially. This is called capturing the market first. Then another thing they did was to bring ,more and more people from UP/Bihar for such work and start their own system within the system. Now you will wonder what Marathi were doing all this while last 30 years. here it is below
6.Why Marathi's declined in mumbai in particular and maharashtra and India in General.
a) First we have too much gotra and caste within ourselves
b) Even say , within brahmins, we havent been able to come out of small silo's of being deshastha, GSB, sarwaswat, Konkanastha, CKP etc.. plus the added distinctions of being Maratha'/ kunbi/ Dhangar/ Maali/ OBC/ Dalit/ Republican and what not ??? Here we compete with UP/ Bihar who have been driven to their fate due to such casteism.To add fuel to the fire we have the classic mistrust of Brahmins by the majority community Maratha's and OBC due to good old Peshwai.
c) If caste is not enough a divider we have regional divisions like konkan, vidarbha with its added and difficult stress on our identity as Marathis due to constant pull of being separate regions.
d) All of us chose "service " or 'Naukri" as a vocation more than any other community since independance which has such intrinsic talent. This was more due to a fear of losing it in Business or even many times lack of capital. This is surprising as most maharaja's like gwalior, baroda, indore and shahu of kolhapur in british india were marathis. I think we carried with us the gene's of being "sardar's" of Mogul's more than the gene's of Swarajya of shivaji and peshwa's.
e) Constant bickering due to differences in a) to c) amongst us , made us very easy prey, for anyone to divide us wherever we are, in company or even in profession or business.
f) As if a to e above were not enough, we learnt crab mentality lessons also quite well. Due to the prevalent internal race to succeed amongst ourselves, we commit the following errors in our work and business life
- I will accept a shah/mehta,as my boss but never a
gokhale/kulkarni as my boss
- How can a pawar go ahead of me ( this happened with
our own shankarrao, V N Gadgil and sharad pawar ).
Remember 1991 when Narsimha Rao became consensus PM.
-Amongst Marathi's i have the most money & influence
within my inmmediate relations, friends, community
is our goal many a times. Rather why
not a few more marathi's from my community make
wealth and i rather demonstrate leadership by becoming
first amongst equals then cutting down our own people
-Iam a consumer first, Marathi next. so why buy from
Marathi shops' or encourage professionals from my
community first. Fair point, as a indiviudal, but did
you know that becoz of this someone from other
community became big on your money. Also did you
really test the person from your own community fair
enough before you made the conclusion? You all will
be surprised , each commnuity purchase first
preferencefrom vendors from their community.
- Iam making enough for Roti/Kapda and have my own makan here in Mumbai/ Thane/pune- So why should i leave this and migrate to other regions/countries. This view though now changing, our community has made a belated start in this. Always migration brings with it challenges which if met , leads to a higher arbitrage of success.
g) In terms of strategy its the onus of the few who are in the higher rungs of the social economic political ladder besdies those who are educated and have a desire to make change happen, to lead and take initiatives to uplift the community by following a cohesive " whats in it for Maharashtra" strategy.
I believe Point G is what is needed and hence some initiatives of Sena like Lokadhikar samiti are the right way to do things besides ensuring that there is a reservation for lcoals for all non managerial jobs in corporates and govt institutions . Managerial jobs and vocations/ business, must always be open for everyone.
Also within Managerial jobs, find meritocracy within our own community first. Only if you dont get, employ other communities folks like what Madrasis and Marwari's do.
I think, all these methods than just violence on the streets is going to help our community.
1 Comment
Tell a friend
Bury
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Comments
Totally in agreement with the points put in this article.
I honestly believe whatever government comes in power today is merely a reflection of todays standard of citizen. We can't deserver any more or any less.