Maharashtra: As Modi gathers strength, rival parties play the anti-Gujarati card

by Guest Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:44 pm

http://scroll.in/article/682833/As-Modi-gathers-strength-in-Maharashtra,-rival-parties-play-anti-Gujarati-card

by Guest Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:45 pm

Mentioning Gujarat invokes memories of the bloody agitation in the late 1950s, when the Samyukta Maharashtra movement fought on the streets to demand that Mumbai should be included in Maharashtra state, rather than becoming a Union territory, as Nehru had proposed. More than 100 people died in police firing ordered by Morarji Desai, a Gujarati who was the chief minister of the territory that was then called Bombay state.

It has been over 50 years since Maharashtra was formed, with Mumbai as its capital, and the Gujarati community is fully immersed in the city’s culture. But petty grievances remain. Gujaratis are often portrayed as rich and exploitative, though this hard-working business community generates more jobs than it takes away from Maharashtrians. In fact, in the very early days of the Shiv Sena, founder Bal Thackeray used to mock Gujaratis, before later fixing on “dhotiwalla” South Indians as his target.

Maharashtra: As Modi gathers strength, rival parties play the anti-Gujarati card

Maharashtra: As Modi gathers strength, rival parties play the anti-Gujarati card

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