By Kavita Mistry 
Moreover, the government was also forced to blink as a rare public show of unity by the estranged Thackeray cousins could give a fresh lease of life to their parties, especially the Shiv Sena (UBT), which is battling for survival ahead of the polls.
“In Mumbai, it is a revival game for Uddhav Thackeray and if both the Thackerays had come together, it would have impacted the BJP in the BMC polls as Marathi votes would have consolidated. Marathi voters vote differently for the BMC polls as against the Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha. They still hold Thackeray in their DNA,” political analyst Abhay Deshpande told ThePrint.
Both Thackerays saw the GRs as an opportunity to regain lost ground by tapping an emotive issue and planned a mega protest rally on 5 July, which could have galvanised support and given them a platform to possibly form an alliance for the polls, said analysts ThePrint spoke to, adding that public opinion was mobilising against the government on the Hindi imposition issue.
“This topic created a social movement and public opinion, which was going against the government. An undercurrent was brewing. This helped the political opposition come together because uniting on linguistic topics is easier. Though their space is smaller or weaker, it definitely would have helped alter the narrative,” said Ajinkya Gaikwad, a professor of politics in Mumbai.
Though the government has withdrawn the GRs for now, it has announced that it will form a committee under economist and former Rajya Sabha MP Dr Narendra Jadhav, who will study the issue and recommend a way forward.
However, stakeholders ThePrint spoke to said the move was a face-saving exercise by the government.
“Why form a committee if the government has said it is taking back the GR. This looks like it’s being done to avoid a backlash in the BMC polls,” said Mahendra Ganpule, former vice-president of the State Headmasters’ Association.
“There is also a question mark on the appointment of the committee head. He is an economist, but what are his credentials in school education? If the government had brought in experts on child psychology or an education expert, then we would have accepted it,” he added.
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Marathi manoos plank
Linguistic identity has always been an emotive issue in Maharashtra.
When it was formed on 1 May 1960, the state went through a series of violent protests under the Samyukt Maharashtra movement with different parties and ideologies coming together to keep Mumbai within the state on linguistic lines.
One of the prominent figures leading this fight was Prabodhankar Thackeray, Raj and Uddhav Thackeray’s grandfather. And it was on the Marathi pride and manoos issue that Bal Thackeray formed the Shiv Sena in 1966. It resonated amongst the Marathi-speaking population and has always been a dominant and emotive issue in the state since.
“Maharashtra has a history where communists and socialists came together on the issue of language to form the Samyukt Maharashtra movement. And the BJP is well aware of it. So this is an emotive issue, which can cross ideological lines. If it had blown out of proportion, it would have been difficult for the BJP to control,” said Gaikwad.
He also said that although Hindi has been at the core of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideology, the decision to reverse the move could have been driven by political compulsions.
“Maybe, looking at local polls, there could have been some internal communication between the RSS and the BJP to backtrack on the movement. Although the upper class and middle class of the Marathi population do not come on the road, but even for them, this language issue is a matter of pride, which could reflect in votes. This could be the reason they revoked the GR,” he said. But Deshpande said the RSS and BJP continue to back the broader “one nation, one policy” idea in which Hindi plays a central role.
For the BJP, making Hindi a compulsory third language just ahead of the local body polls would have been a huge risk, especially after both Thackerays came together on the issue.
Although the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) just secured around 2 percent vote share in the Maharashtra assembly elections, it still has a voter base in Mumbai, especially in Marathi-speaking pockets.
Raj Thackeray has a history of violence against the Hindi-speaking population and has never deviated from his core Marathi identity issue. Uddhav Thackeray’s immediate response to a united rally with Raj energised the cadre on both sides, giving the issue momentum. Posters and banners of them coming together adorned the streets of Mumbai last week. Social media chatter showed massive support for the cousins.
According to estimates by political parties, Mumbai has nearly 34 percent Marathi voters, followed by 19-20 percent Muslims, 17-18 percent north Indians, and 15 percent Gujaratis and Marwaris.
Marathi voters have primarily been divided between both the Shiv Senas, the MNS and the BJP, whereas the marginalised section from this base has been a Congress vote bank. So if both Thackerays come together on the Marathi issue, it could further consolidate this base, which the BJP cannot afford. “In all of this, they did not expect Raj and Uddhav to come together immediately. In this case, the BJP had expected Raj Thackeray to grow politically, which would have then divided the votes of Marathis, but they did not want both Thackerays coming together and a Marathi consolidation,” said Deshpande.
“Besides, the BJP does not just want to fight the BMC polls, but is also looking at the other 28 municipal corporations across the state. So this would have impacted them in rural Maharashtra,” he added.
But Deshpande also said that the Shiv Sena (UBT) has to tread carefully, as any alliance with the MVA could disturb the newer voters it attracted after joining the MVA.
‘2nd GR was afterthought due to political backlash’
Apart from Marathi and English medium schools, Maharashtra has seven other mediums of instruction: Hindi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Urdu.
Maharashtra has long followed a three-language policy, especially in non-Marathi and non-English medium schools. The state has 2.11 crore students in the education system. Of this, 1.94 crore students are learning in Marathi and English schools.
For English and Marathi medium schools, the third language was introduced in Class 5.
According to the GR released in April, Hindi was made a mandatory third language from Class 1. However, after much uproar and backlash from civil society, the government introduced a second GR in June, which said that Hindi wouldn’t be mandatory but a default language. This meant that if more than 20 students in a class opted for another language, the school would offer it. Otherwise, the school would have to teach Hindi.
“Many rural schools don’t have enough students. So this GR was anyway misleading. If the government was serious, then it shouldn’t have taken out the second GR after the backlash over the first. This taking back of the GRs and forming another committee just looks like an afterthought because of political backlash and environment,” said Ganpule.
Academicians questioned the need to impose Hindi as the third language from Class 1.
“What is the need to teach students from Class 1 so many subjects. By teaching them Hindi at such an early age, we are not carrying out any revolution,” said Gayatri Lele, a professor at a Mumbai college.
Those ThePrint spoke to also said that they were not opposed to Hindi as a language per se. Hindi is widely spoken in Maharashtra, be it in Vidarbha or parts of Marathwada. Besides, the Hindi film industry was born in Mumbai.
But what they question is the need for students to learn Hindi compulsorily at such a young age. “In our state, especially in rural schools, every class might not have 20 students. So, according to their second GR, by default, they would learn Hindi,” said Bhausaheb Gawande, former joint director of the education department of Maharashtra.
“Nobody is against Hindi in Maharashtra as such. We have absorbed Hindi into our culture. In fact, in Vidarbha, many people speak Hindi. People here watch Hindi movies; so it is not against Hindi but the imposition,” he added. “Young kids feel burdened if it is imposed. Why do that when we already have a three-language policy from Class 5? This unnecessarily created a rift between people.”
However, the government is trying to defend itself by saying that the National Education Policy (NEP) recommendations of the Raghunath Mashelkar committee were accepted by Uddhav Thackeray’s MVA government in 2020-21. The committee’s report suggested introducing Hindi from Class 1.
“When they were in power, they accepted the Raghunath Mashelkar committee report and now they are opposing Hindi. Uddhav Thackeray should be named palturam,” Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis said at a function to elect the BJP state president Tuesday.
Uddhav defended himself, saying that the report was made for higher education and though some of the recommendations regarding Hindi were in place, his government did not accept it by issuing a government resolution.
Gawande said there were only passing references to making Hindi compulsory from Class 1 in the Mashelkar committee report because the entire report was on higher education.
Stakeholders said they would monitor how the new committee’s functioning, especially whether it engages with all stakeholders. They added that the fight to not have a third language from Class 1 will continue. Until then, all eyes are on the Thackeray cousins’ 5 July rally in Worli, billed as both a victory rally and a show of strength after the rollback.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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