Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena (IAST: Śhiva Sēnā) (lit. 'Army of Shivaji') is a right-wing Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by Bal Thackeray.[16] Currently led by Eknath Shinde, this party is the ruling party of the Indian state of Maharashtra since 2019. Shiv Sena's election symbol is the Bow and Arrow. It uses the saffron colour in its flag and a image of a roaring tiger.[17]
Not to be confused with Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).
Shiv Sena
SHS
19 June 1966
Anand Ashram, Thane, Thane district, Maharashtra, India[2]
Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena (BVS)
Yuva Sena
Shiv Sena Mahila Aghadi
State Party
- NDA (1998–2019, 2022–Present) (National Level & Maharashtra)
- UPA & MVA (2019–2022) (Maharashtra)
Initially apolitical, the organisation was patronised by the then Chief Minister Vasantrao Naik who used it for curbing trade unions and maintain stranglehold of the Congress.[18][19][20] The organisation at the same time carried out pro-Marathi nativist movement in Mumbai in which it agitated for preferential treatment for the Marathi people over migrants from other parts of India.[21] It ran a strong movement against South Indian people who were living in Bombay, alleging they did not respect Marathi people and their culture.
Although Shiv Sena's primary base always remained in Maharashtra, it tried to expand to a pan-Indian base. In the 1970s, it gradually moved from advocating a pro-Marathi ideology to supporting a broader Hindu nationalist agenda,[22] and aligned itself with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Shiv Sena took part in Mumbai (BMC) municipal elections for its entire existence. In 1989, it entered into an alliance with the BJP for Lok Sabha as well as Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections. The alliance in the latter was temporarily broken in the 2014 elections due to seat sharing adjustment, although it was quickly reformed. Shiv Sena was one of the founding members of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 1998, and it also participated in Vajpayee Government from 1998 to 2004 and the Narendra Modi Government from 2014 to 2019.
After 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election, the party left the alliance after disagreements with BJP over the CM post. Under Uddhav Thackeray, Shiva Sena formed an alliance with its historic rivals, the Indian National Congress and Nationalist Congress Party[23][24][25] Following the 2022 Maharashtra political crisis, the party split into two parties: Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) led by Thackeray and Eknath Shinde retaining control of the original party.
The party has had a powerful hold over the Hindi film industry.[26] It has been accused of being an "extremist",[27][28] "chauvinist",[29][30] or "fascist" party.[31][32] Shiv Sena has been allegedly involved in the 1970 communal violence in Bhiwandi, the 1984 Bhiwandi riot, and violence in the 1992–1993 Bombay riots.[33][34]
The party draws its strength from the support of the Maratha and Kunbi communities of Maharashtra which Shiv Sena drew away from the Indian National Congress.[35]
History
Origins
After the Independence of India in 1947, regional administrative divisions from the colonial era were gradually changed and states following linguistic borders were created. Within the Bombay Presidency, a massive popular struggle was launched for the creation of a state for the Marathi-speaking people. In 1960, the presidency was divided into two linguistic states: Gujarat and Maharashtra. Moreover, Marathi-speaking areas of the erstwhile Hyderabad state were joined with Maharashtra. Bombay, in many ways the economic capital of India, became the state capital of Maharashtra. On one hand, people belonging to the Gujarati community owned the majority of the industry and trade enterprises in the city.[36]
On the other hand, there was a steady flow of South Indian migrants to the city who came to take many white-collar jobs.
In 1960, Bal Thackeray, a Mumbai-based cartoonist, began publishing the satirical cartoon weekly Marmik. Through this publication, he started disseminating anti-migrant sentiments. On 19 June 1966, Thackeray founded the Shiv Sena as a political organisation.
The Shiv Sena attracted many unemployed Marathi youth, who were attracted by Thackeray's charged anti-migrant oratory. Shiv Sena cadres became involved in various attacks against the South Indian communities, vandalizing South Indian restaurants and pressuring employers to hire Marathis.[22]
Initially apolitical, the organisation was patronised by the then Chief Minister Vasantrao Naik who used it for curbing trade unions and maintain stranglehold of the Congress.[18][19] Because of its close association with Vasantrao, the organisation was also referred to as "Vasant Sena".[18][20]
The Shiv Sena declared support to the Emergency in 1975 and supported the Congress in the 1977 general election.[37] In 1980 Maharashtra Assembly election, the party did not contest from any seat however it campaigned for the Congress.[38][39][40]
Headquarters
Shiva Sena's headquarters and main office is situated at Anand Dighe's house in Thane. Dighe was Guru and mentor of Shiva Sena Mukhy neta (Main leader) Eknath Shinde. On 24 February 2023, the headquarters was relocated from Shivsena Bhavan after Shinde took over the party from Uddhav Thackeray;[75] while Thackeray's faction retained control over Shivsena Bhavan.
Shivsena Bhavan (transl. House), the former central office of the Shiv Sena in Mumbai,[76] is located on Ram Ganesh Gadkari Chowk and Shivaji Park in Dadar. It was inaugurated on 19 June 1977. The refurbished Sena Bhavan was inaugurated on 27 July 2006. It has a Copper Statue of Shivaji Maharaj and a large Poster of Bal Thackeray. In the 1993 Bombay bombings, terrorists planted a powerful bomb in Shiv Sena Bhavan; it exploded and the building received damage.[77]
Matoshri, the house of Bal Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray was an important building in this party. Many high-profile meetings are usually held in it. It worked as a command and control centre of the party in Bal–Uddhava's regime.
Activities
The Sena says it has played a central role in the emancipation of 500,000 slum dwellers in the Dharavi area of Mumbai, the largest slum in Asia. However, the policy of giving free houses to slum dwellers has been controversial since it was introduced by the then Shiv Sena-BJP government.[102][103][104]
In the 1970s, Shiv Sena was opposed to the Namantar Andolan, a Dalit-led movement to change the name of Marathwada University in Aurangabad to "Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar University", and supported views of conservative Marathas.[105]
In 1996, Shiv Sena organised the first and only live concert of American pop icon Michael Jackson in India to raise the funds for its business wing and to help create over two-hundred seventy thousand jobs for people of Maharashtra.[106][107]
Shiv Sena got an entry in Guinness Book of World Records in 2010 for "collecting maximum blood in a day". Shiv Sena organized a blood donation camp which collected over 24,000 bottles of blood in a single day.[108][109] Later this world record was broken by a blood donation camp of HDFC Bank in 2014.[110]
In 2015 Shiv Sena announced 10,000 rupees help to each drought-affected farmer of Marathwada region,[111] while they also announced 2 lakh rupees "reward" to Hindus family who had 5 children between 2010 and 2015 in Uttar Pradesh. As per Shiv Sena, the reason behind the "reward" was "decline in growth rate of Hindu population compared to Muslim population as per recent census".[112][113]
In January 2016, the Shiv Sena demanded that the words "secular" and "socialist" be "permanently removed" from the Constitution's Preamble which were added in the 42nd amendment during the emergency.[114] In April 2019, party member Sanjay Raut called for the burqa to be banned.[115][116]