I haven't studied this subject in depth, but being a maharashtrian and a marathi I have always heard about "Maharashtrian mentality" which is pulling the marathi community back in the race of power. Its been a common topic discussed amongst marathi as well as non-marathi community in Maharashtra.
I came across two articles on this topic by a non-marathi and a marathi. One tried to quote the reasons of Maharashtrian's failure in business and other tried to rule out any failure,rather he claimed marathi influence in the field of arts and sports.
Is it enough to compare whole marathi community on the basis of how a marathi performs his business or how his work ethics are or how much flexibilty he has at his work place? Is it enough to prove that the marathi's are not ruled by non-maharashtrian because they are excelling in sports and arts?
However its bitter but one should agree that there is a remarkable hold of non-marathi's on Mumbai and whole Maharashtra politics.Its not limited only to Mumbai but in every market and every office,even in the administrative departments we see non-marathi supremacy. We simply cannot deny that marathi people failed to defend themselves against non-marathi's encroachment on marathi territory.Or is it that we never realized that there is encroachment? And now we are so despaired that we see no hope to rise against this non marathi dominance? Or is it the "Marathi mentality" which is holding marathi people back from taking any action? Are we afraid that we would succumb to this dominance and nobody will give us a helping hand to come out of it evenif they are sympathatic and capable?
What is this "Marathi mentality"? Does this overshadows Marathi's only? Its not that non-maharashtian's are free from this mentality.Let's go deeper into this topic and try to find the roots of this mentality.If we try to go back into India's history, we could see that there was Chhatrapati Shivaji or Peshwa's were free from this mentality.Tilak,Hedgewar,Sawarkar,Agarkar,Tatya Tope all were marathi's.And Nathuram Godse also was a marathi.I am not proud or ashamed of him.He is a part of Indian history and it needs guts to murder a man.Ofcourse he had reasons and we could have different opinions about him.Anyways,let's not digress.Let's not label this mentality as "Maharashtrian".If you go back in pre-indepence era,everybody had this same thinking.We hold marathi's responsible for their downfall because we do not support each other,rather, given a chance, we betray each other for smallest of small opportunity to climb up the ladder of success.Was it not true when British ruled India?Weren't people uncoopretaive to the rebellions who wanted independent India?They not only betrayed the freedom fighter's but sold their independence to get promotion in British services or to win a piece of land.We blame marathi's to be afraid of taking any actions which could be risky for his life or career despite all the available facilities.Was is it impossible for Indians to gain our independence back from British Army?How many were they and how many were us?What held us back then?Can we call this mentality as a Maharashtrian? In first place, how did East India company become successful in establishing its roots in India? We were to busy to fight with neighbors.Weren't they from Punjab,Delhi,Haryana,Uttar Pradesh or Rajasthan?If they are so clever and alert how did they couldn't realized Company's motive? Or were they so desperate to prove their supremacy to the neighboring maharaja's that they readily walked into Company's trap?First article said that Marathis are ready to break but not ready to show flexibilty.What about those people who were not ready forget their differences temporarily and unite to fight against their enemy? These people also lacked unity.They also lacked flexibilty.They were too stupid to forgive the enemy and then killed by the same enemy.It was Sambhaji Raje from Maharashtra who denied to become a muslim and there was Mirza Raje from Rajasthan who readily married their sister to a muslim under pressure and who happily fought against Shivaji to show their faith to Moghuls. Do you expect this kind of flexibilty?It would have been impossible to fight for the freedom with such a ethical and moral flexibilty.
Non marathi's have no right to blame marathi's for being opportunists,coward,spineless and egoist because they belong to a lineage who has same character,may be worse than marathi's.Its only 58 years after independence, shouldn't a non-marathi forget his past so early and so quickly.
I agree with the second author who asked the readers to think over the circumstances with broader views.We should first see how Gujarati people or Rajasthani people are behaving in Gujarat or Rajasthan.I am 100% sure that the scenario there is not different than Maharashtra.But they are not ruled by marathi or other people.Marathi's are not faultless.They need to come out of their secured world and face the rough realities.In one of the articles it is mentioned that marathis don't have motive to make progress.They don't have competetion in their community.Kirloskar is already a hot shot in marathi community and he doesn't have a motive to become Tata,Birla or Ambani.I completley agree with this point.We do not dream big.we harp on achievements of Shivaji and Peshwe and now we have representatives in our history book why should we strive to make a history or be a noticable part of it.Acheiving a highest position in a company makes me on the top of marathi world why should I own it?I am getting my meals and other luxuries why should I work harder to be a ruler when I am getting all my comforts being a servant.Come on people think big! Its been 58 years after independence and other people are deciding the direction of politics.Business policies are decided my non-marathis.We should not tolerate this dominance.
It could be true that people from other resion of country could behave in a similar manner as a marathi behaves in Maharashtra but we never see Marathi influence on any other part of India.When they come out of their state they always unite and try to help people from their state ot community.How many Marathi do that?We don't help each other when we are outside Maharashtra.We are mean and laid back people.We are the materialssutiable for servants.No unity,no motives,no principles,no sense of belongingness to Maharashtra.We are divided.
Work hard.Be in the focus of media.Be a fierce compititor, no matter how high you are in marathi community you should not be satisfied till you reach the top of entire Indians.Do not stamp yourself as White collar people.Form non-governement organizations.Help other people in country.Show your presence and make others to notice it.
Remeber the world is changing.If your survival demands some flexibilty,aleast think about the other possibilities.Do not deny it right away.
Jai Maharashtra!
5 comments:
Thanks Spyder
Even I truly believe this...
Is there any way we can develop a very strong network of all of us and encourage all the people to post their problems and help each other to make our community the strongest of all....Kindly email me at vaibhavgokhale2004@yahoo.com
Please respond...Dont ignore atleast after reading the article...
My open letter to Bachi Karkaria who wrote in THE TIMES OF INDIA that Rahul Raj was an avenging angel and that time was not far when a Kannadiga would be held by BSF when he entered Maharashtra and would languish in jails. She also makes a silly pun on Bal Thackeray and the word Bal-kanisation. Here it is:
TIMES OF INDIA should win a prize for jingoism. And Bachi Karkaria should move to Bihar. I gather it's a much safer place. The Marathis are so primitive! And of course, she will find many 'angels' in Patna. I think, Ms. Karakaria, do think about shifting your base to Patna. And don't worry Ms. Karkaria, none of the avenging angels of Maharashtra will ever follow you there. Why, there is still a chance that Kannadigas will stream into Maharashtra, but thank God, they don't have to worry about Maharashtrians doing the same because they won't even allow Marathi Theatre buses into Belgaum! Ms. Karkaria, In Patna life will be peaceful. You'll be able to talk in your Parsi-Hindi accent and nobody will poke fun at you. As you have said, it is a land of angels. You have tried to tame the Maharashtrian devils for a long time, but they just don't listen, do they? I am a Maharashtrian who was in a minority in an Andheri Building filled with people from North India, and I was still able to terrorise them. You are witty Ms. Karkaria. I am now sure that Bal Thackeray was responsible for Bosnia and Czechoslavakia too, and the word Bal-kanisation! Not just witty, Ms. Karkaria, you are wise. And hence, it is beneath your dignity to stay among the primitive tribe of Maharashtrians, so what if they were given their state by the constitution? So what if lakhs of migrants from Bihar and UP live in unauthorised slums, use unauthorised means to get the taxi and rickshaw permits and live on unauthorised electricity? And then Raj Thackeray makes a point of the Railway Board examinations being advertised in only the Zone A (I am sure Ms. Karkaria that you know all about it) newspapers. Who the hell do the Maharashtrian think they are? Can they even read? Why should the Railway Minister coming from the Land of the Buddha give an advertisement in the Maharashtra who has produced no such enlightened being? Oh, these Maharashtrians will go ranting about Tilak who started Kesari and Acharya Atre who started Maratha and incidentally was the devilish mind who said that the Marathi speaking people should have a state of their own! The cheek of the man! The marathi speaking people never had a right of a State of their own, did they Ms. Karkaria? You call Rahul Raj, an avenging angel, Ms. Karkaria. You are truly blessed! Oh and these Mumbai Police! Maharashtrian fools of course! They shot the poor fellow! Of course as you know that Maharashtrian population in Mumbai is on a decline, so they thought that his fellow passengers and bystanders were mostly non-maharashtrians. But why did they have to worry about that? Wasn't Rahul Raj an angel with the interest of Biharis at heart? He wouldn't have hurt a fly! Just killed Raj Thackeray! And who needs Raj Thackeray anyway? That would get Mumbai one Maharashtrian less. How well you know us Maharashtrians, Ms. Karkaria. For 50 years, we welcomed everybody to make a home for themselves in our State just because we wanted to show the who the Boss was right? Ms. Karkaria, I don't know why they call you Bachi, it sounds like Bacchi. And you have made such a mature comment in your article. I admit that my little pun on your name is nothing in front of your highly intelligent, mature and responsible pun on Bal Thackeray and 'bal-kanisation'. But then I am just an ordinary Maharashtrian, Ms. Karkaria. When you do settle in Bihar, please let me know. I shall come there to seek job opportunities there with some of my Maharashtrian friends. And then you could teach me a thing or two about punning responsibly and intelligently. I see that you are stuck in a land of the devils when you actually are longing to go to the land of the angels where young men like Rahul Raj will protect you with Z security. I know, Ms. Karkaria that you have really been instrumental in shaping Maharashtra with your enlightened articles, teaching us how angels look like, but I think we don't deserve you. Go, Ms. Karkaria, we won't stop you.
http://musicandnoise.blogspot.com/2008/10/in-defence-of-marathi.html
I am a Bengali residing in Kolkata. We Bengalis are facing similer problems in Kolkata as Maharashtrians are facing in Mumbai that includes among other factors, rapid demographic changes, alien culture uprooting the indigenous values in such a fast pace that it amounts to cultural invasion rather than beneficial acculturation & abject imperial attacks on our Bengali identity.We too are witnessing Kolkata turning into a colony of Hindi speaking paan chewing garbages which also is otherwise instrumental in escalating both crime & corruption in our city.The fact is that since independence north Indian politicians who clinched the mantle for ruling India from the British have continuously conspired to turn India into a Hindia.Both the Bengalis & the Maharastrians who actually did maximum to help India being liberated from the shackles of the"foreign" rule were sidelined.Mr Raj Thakre's grievances & demands including that to make Marathi mandatory in Maharashtra is absolutely justified although his method to uphold his ideology may not be entirely correct.It's a pity that we Indian Bengalis are yet to even realise the importance of our Bengali identity & we need likes of Raj Thakre among us to "kick in" some sense into our Bengali sterile psyche today.Our bangladeshi brothers understood it from the day one & produced Bengal tigers like Sheikh Mujibur Rahman against Pakistani bullies which Indian Bengalis could not produce.
Only north Indians are pro nationals. Rest of d country being non-hindi has created only regionalism and societal problems.
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