The Shiv Sena: A Movement in Search of Legitimacy

Abstract

]he founding of the Shiv Sena in Bombay on the eve of India's Fourth General Election and its spectacular growth into a major political force in that city are among the more important developments in Indian politics during the last few years. Its development represents the pervasive importance of primordial sentiments in a very modern sector of the Indian polity. It also reflects the increasing salience of local as opposed national concerns in India's urban arenas. It is perhaps indicative of what may become an increasingly mportant form of local political articulation in a nationally oriented party system. The creation of the Shiv Sena immediately exposed latent but intense political discontent. Founded on June 19, 1966 to safeguard the welfare of the people of Maharashtra,' the Shiv Sena at once attracted a large and militant following among Bombay's Marathi-speaking population. Its founding rally drew far bigger crowds than any drawn by the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti2 even during the heyday of the linguistic agitation. A conservative estimate of attendance at the rally addressed by Bal Thackery, the founder of the Shiv Sena, placed it at over two hundred thousand. Thackery's appeal for support at the rally evoked an overwhelming response, thousands reportedly volunteering within the first few hours by signing the Shiv Senia pledge and paying membership dues of one rupee (13 cents). By all accounts, this was a remarkable achievement for a movement whose leader was until then a political nonentity. The Shiv Sena played a prominent part in the Fourth general election held in March 1967 and launched a virulent campaign against those candidates whom it described as outsiders. It appealed the voters vote for sons of the soil. The defeat of V. K. Krishna Menon in two successive election contests in Bombay's North-East Parliamentary constituency was attributed by many the Shiv Sena which attacked him as a carpetbagger. Soon after-