#Bombayphile : The Cosmopolitanism of Mumbai And Its Aberrations

 

 

The residential tower where I live is a microcosm of Mumbai. My neighbours are Maharashtrian, Bengalis, Gujaratis, Tamilians, Keralities, Biharis and a few from other states of India. They practice different faiths like Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism. The managing committee of the housing society comprises people of varied linguistic, religious, and regional origins. There is no rule barring a particular community from buying or renting property in the building. As long as you are paying your maintenance bills on time, you are treated with respect. There are hundreds of housing societies like mine where people belonging to different communities live harmoniously. However, recently an incident that happened in the suburb Mulund of Mumbai led to a tremendous uproar and questioned the city’s cosmopolitan image. It especially enraged a section of the Maharashtrian community.

A Maharashtrian woman and her husband went to scout for an office space in Mulund’s Shiv Sadan society. However, a Gujarati father-son, one of whom was the officer bearer of the society, told them that as per the society rules, office space couldn’t be given to Maharashtrians. When the lady tried to record their statement, her mobile phone was snatched, and the couple was roughed up. She narrated her ordeal with tears in her eyes on the social media, which went viral. It led to a huge outrage not only from the Marathi speaking population but also people from other ethnicities. Many Gujaratis expressed regret saying that the father-son duo didn’t represent the views of the whole Gujarati community in Mumbai.

The political parties were swift to pick up the issue, alleging that despite the CM of Maharashtra being a Marathi and heading a party known for championing the cause of sons of the soil, “Marathi Manoos” was getting extinct from the city. Taking cognisance of the controversy, workers of Raj Thackeray’s party MNS raided the society and compelled the father-son duo to apologise. A criminal case was registered against them for inciting bad blood among communities and were arrested.

There is a history of conflict between the Marathi and Gujarati speaking population of Mumbai dating back to 1950s when the Samyukta Maharashtra movement was launched to make Mumbai a part of Maharashtra. However, the current controversy couldn’t be viewed just in the context of Marathi Vs Gujarati. The incident has conveyed that still there are people in Mumbai who are averse to its cosmopolitanism. It has not happened for the first time when such an incident has happened in a city which takes pride in its inclusivity.

There are several housing societies in Mumbai, dominted by one particular community, that  disallows members of other communities to buy and rent out flats. These societies primarily make such rules due to their intolerance towards non-vegetarians. They couldn’t stand the smell of fish, egg or meat emanating out of somebody’s kitchen. Some societies audaciously had even put notices saying–“Only Jains Allowed.” They occupied spaces of the building walls till the eyes of some political workers caught them. I remember that around two decades back, the Shiv Sena had launched a “fish throwing agitation” on the premises of such buildings. Some societies inhabited by strict vegetarians disallowed sale and renting out flats to non-vegetarians. One morning, a group of Koli women belonging to the Shiv Sena barged into one of the residential towers in Malabar Hill and threw kilos of rotten, smelly fish all around.

In the last few years, there have been several reports where Muslim individuals and families have complained that it was tough to find a decent home in Mumbai due to discrimination based on their religion. Refusal of flats to Muslims has not been only because of their eating habits, but also rooted in the over one-and-half century long animosity between the two communities in Mumbai. From 1893 to 1993, Mumbai has seen seven major Hindu-Muslim riots in which thousands of people have been killed. The polarising politics of the recent years is further deepening the divide.   

But such incidents don’t reflect the true character of Mumbai. They are aberrations. By and large, Mumbai has successfully preserved its cosmopolitan spirit, where people from across the world arrive and thrive. It is a different fact that aberrations of such image get over-amplified in this age of social media and the politics of hate.

( Bombayphile is published every week where Jitendra Dixit writes about the past and the present of Mumbai.)