Bal Thackeray Life and Times Photos:
Bal Thackeray Life and Times Photos
Bal Keshav Thackeray (born 23 January 1926), popularly known as Hinduhriday Samraat Balasaheb Thackeray, is an Indian politician, founder and chief of the Shiv Sena, a right-wing Hindu nationalist, and Marathi ethnocentric party active mainly in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.
Born in Balaghat, Thackeray began his professional career as a cartoonist with the English language daily the Free Press Journal in Mumbai, but left it in 1960 to form his own political weekly Marmik.
His political philosophy was largely shaped by his father Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, a leading figure in the Samyukta Maharashtra movement (United Maharashtra movement), which advocated the creation of a separate linguistic state of Maharashtra.
Through Marmik, he campaigned against the growing influence of Gujaratis, Marwaris, and migrants from South India in Bombay.
In 1966, Thackeray formed the Shiv Sena party to advocate more strongly the place of Maharashtrians in Bombay’s political and professional landscape. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Thackeray built the party by forming temporary alliances with nearly all of Maharashtra’s political parties.
A controversial figure, Thackeray has attracted significant attention by making statements expressing admiration for Hitler, inciting violence against Muslims, expressing support for the LTTE, and taking strong stances on the aspects of popular culture, including fervent opposition to the celebration of Valentine’s Day.
Known for his caustic tongue, he was idolised by his followers in the Shiv Sena and scorned in equal measure by liberal and secular Indians for his communal, divisive politics that didn’t stop with radical expression of views against Muslims and violent action against those opposed to his extreme righwing ideas – including being firmly opposed to the visit of the Pakistani cricket team to India.
The cartoonist turned politician was often portrayed as a roaring tiger, the much cherished logo of his party Shiv Sena, which he formed to accord dignity to Maharashtrians but which became known as a party of restless youngsters out for trouble. He was a demogogue whose strong views polarised the polity at the state and the national level, but he never flinched from expressing himself with conviction despite opposition.
The posterboy of rightwing Hindu and Marathi chauvinism, he never plunged into electoral politics and never contested any polls. He never made it to the national stage either but remained an active, acidic voice, commenting on any and every issue through the party mouthpiece Saamna.
He used his cartoons to promote the Samyukta Maharashtra (United Maharashtra) movement, launched in the mid-1950s to crusade for the formation of Maharashtra. His father Prabodhankar Keshav Sitaram Thackeray was one of the five leaders who spearheaded the movement.
Spurred by this, Thackeray harped on emotive issues like “Mumbai for Marathis” and “jobs for sons of soil” through the dreaded Sthanik Lokadhikar Samitis – but nobody knows how many jobs it finally translated into. The situation was volatile. There were regular riots that led to Thackeray’s arrest in February 1969 – the one and only time he ever saw the inside of a jail.
Political power came when Sena candidates won in the 1967 Thane and 1968 Bombay municipal elections – the latter being the state’s cash cow and the country’s financial power house. In 1973, it controlled the BMC in alliance with other parties, including the Muslim League, and also bagged the mayor’s post. It captured the BMC in 1985 – and continues to rule it till date. After south Indians, the volatile Sena took up movements against Gujaratis, north Indians and Muslims.
Its anti-Muslim agitation, a perpetual one on one of its burners – either the front or the back – was among its shrillest. Thackeray’s famous comment to Time magazine after the demolition of the Babri Masjid was a vituperative “Kick’em out!”
The anti-Muslim stance fuelled by the demolition led to Mumbai’s worst-ever riots in December 1992-January 1993. It continued for another two months in some small pockets, followed by the retaliatory March 12, 1993, serial bomb blasts in the city. These incidents were largely responsible for catapulting the Shiv Sena to power in Maharashtra in the 1995 assembly elections.
Thackeray, who came to be known as Sena Tiger, could have been chief minister. But he chose to be kingmaker instead, appointing schoolmaster Manohar Joshi as the state’s first Brahmin chief minister.
In 1989, Thackeray and the late Pramod Mahajan of the BJP designed the winning saffron combination. For nearly a quarter century, despite hiccups, the saffron alliance has survived, rare in India’s quicksand politics.
Surprisingly, all this he achieved practically sitting at his Bandra home. During his entire political career spanning over five decades, Thackeray travelled out of Maharashtra only twice — to Lucknow to attend cases related to the Babri Mosque demolition.
During his political years, Thackeray was let down by some of his closest
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