People are not evil Mr. Thackeray, only individuals are! Mindlock Maharashtra Bal Thackerayâs abusive language against Biharis should be condoned. Social complexion and political dynamics are always in a flux. No society remains unchanged because change is the only permanent feature of human evolution. Maharashtrians must all speak Marathi. And they must not temper the language with Urdu, Hindi or English words. That is the only way to keep non-Maharashtrians out of Mumbai and the state, says Sena chief Bal Thackeray. Even in England there are possibly 130 odd Parliamentary constituencies where candidate must sell the political ideology of the party to a substantial South-Asian population. In Pakistani Muslim dominated Bradford, politicians must tread gingerly within demands for a unified Kashmir and foreign policy of the party. In Leister, the Gujratis and Sindhis dominate. In Birminghamâs Soho Road (not to be confused with Londonâs once notorious Soho), we used to have âSpot the white man contestâ and sometimes it took several minutes before one could be spotted. Soho Road had a Banarasi Pan shop run by a Pakistani. Meat shops usually run by Pakistanis, grocery stores by all and sundry, and even a fast food bhelpuri, golgappa joint. That was during the eighties. It wasnât unusual for aspiring white political candidates to marry into South-Asian families to further their political career. And yet within the broader English society there was always a latent hostility towards these aliens. The official Britain had evolved a fine distinction between âimmigrantâ and âAsianâ. An immigrant was one who had illegally entered Britain and somehow stayed there. An âAsianâ was one who had entered legally when not even a Visa was required and eventually became a British citizen. Entry restriction on Indians was imposed first time in 1986 by Douglas Herd, Thatcherâs Home Secretary. The reason was overwhelming and I thought perfectly logical. During the seventies many businesses had closed down and many Asian workers had no job. They all got into various businesses, chiefly rag trade and food. According to British Minimum Wages Act, a factory worker had to be paid around £85 for 40-hour week plus about 9 per cent contributory PF. It meant an annual wage bill of about £5200 plus accounting costs. To get around this system, the garment manufacturers (owners) would invite women from their villages on one-year tourist visa; provide accommodation and food and about £10 per week by way of wage. The total weekly cost would come to: Food about £10 per week (which was enough for three basic meals), wages another £10, and a return ticket from Jalandhar via Amritsar to Birmingham cost about £300, a total annual cost of about £1340, resulting in annual saving of £4,160 per worker. For the village woman a saving of three hundred pound sterling translated into Rs.8400 (taking one British pound in 1985 at the rate of Rs 28). According to the local Police, there were around 80,000 women and young male workers from Punjab (of both sides) working in garment sweat shops. A young Pakistani male had over twenty young boys from his village near Islamabad making trousers. They used to live in the factory, eat in the factory and work a backbreaking 18-hour day. If the British Government decided to take legal action, as a local police official told me, it would have clogged the local courts. In course of our studies on immigrants and their occupation, we found that nearly every immigrant group, be they Jews, Turks, Greeks, Arabs, East Europeans, or Irish, had used the rag trade and food business to ensure sustenance. And women and children were always the backbone of the industry. It was only when a group of Muslim fundamentalists demanded a separate Islamic Parliament, parallel to the British, that there was a political backlash. If Thackeray clan believes they can maintain the purity of Maharashtrian soil, I wish them best of luck. But itâd be a worthwhile exercise to find out how many legal businesses, some of them household brand names, are owned by Bhojpuri speaking people of Bihar and UP. And these people actually employ Maharashtrians in addition to their own relations and friends, which is not unethical. In Arunachal Pradesh, nearly every building material business is owned by Bihari and they also supply skilled construction labour. 60-70 per cent of school teachers are from North Bihar. Overwhelming majority of construction workers, supervisors, and labour-contractors employed in hydroelectric projects in Himachal Pradesh are from Bihar, UP, MP and Jharkhand. I have found that Himachalis donât want to work in construction sector, they all want white-collar jobs; therefore, that gap has been filled by Bihari and Jharkhandi workers. Forty of the seventy brick kilns in Tripura state are owned by people of Bihar. The largest brick kiln owner of South Assam is a Jha ji from Darbhanga and had excellent working relationship with all the so-called terrorist groups of Northeast when we had met him (around 1996). In Gangtok, 70-80 per cent shops in the high street are owned by Biharis, many are married to local Sikkim girls. There are now so many Biharis in Bangalore that a common item in grocery stores is âBihar ka Shuddh Sattuâ. Perhaps the Thackerays should taste some. But let me tell you another story that should drive home a point into the thick heads of these deviants on the lunatic fringe. I know Trinidad as well as Patna, Delhi, Kullu or Birmingham. Right in the middle of Port of Spain, the capital city, there is a square with four roads meeting at the junction. These are Chhapra Street, Arrah Street, Patna Street and Bhojpur Street. These streets were named during the late 1890s and still exist. There is a district called Faizabad, named by mostly Hindu coolies. Note this, all the Hindutvawadies; and there were no '''official secularists' then either. During the nineteen eighties the blacks (of African origin), who constitute about 45 per cent of the local population, targeted the Indian population. Over 55 per cent of Trinidadâs population is of Indian origin, predominantly from Chhapra, Balia and Hazaribag region. They control 90 per cent of Trinidadâs land, almost 100 per cent of agriculture and own most of the businesses. The blacks, influenced by Black Panther movement in the US and the Rastafarian culture decided to take the Indians on. Violence broke out. A group of Indians decided to take them head-on. A quiet word was sent across to Florida to the local Mafia capo to send a boatload of weapons paid for in cash. In the streets of Trinidad, the Ramkhelawans, the Munnalals, and other bhai jis were prepared with hockey sticks, iron rodsâ¦..and other arms. Soon truce was arranged. Perhaps that is what led someone to write the famous line in 1985 or 86 Carnival, âIf I have to be born again, I want to be born an Indianâ, sung by an eight year old girl. Do the Thackerites see any lesson in this? I doubt. Frankly my memory fails. Perhaps the Thackerays should also coin a similar line in Marathi, âIf I have to be born again, I want to be born an Indian.â Trust me Mr. Thackeray, like Indians are taking over European businesses, Biharis will soon take over much of your land and establish much of the businesses in Maharashtra, just as a bunch of illiterate coolies did in Trinidad. Soon there could be a Bihari Chief Minister in Maharashtra, improbable, but not impossible. By turning Bihari people against, you are closing an option of becoming the first Marathi Chief Minister of Bihar. People are not evil Mr. Thackeray, only individuals are! Sorry Mr. Thackeray, I write on issues of our survival, not the survival options of politicians. Thusly, you and your ilk are safe. Arun Shrivastava MA (JNU), MBA (Birmingham, UK), MBIM, CMC is a Bihari, a devout Hindu, and lives in Delhi. He served as Business Advisor in the Economic Development Unit, Birmingham and briefly as Visiting Professor of Strategic Management at International Management Institute, New Delhi. He is an accredited management consultant. # This Bihari was given a prestigious âReal News Awardâ called âProject Censored Awardâ in the US, in 2007, as the citation says, âfor outstanding investigative journalismâ. http://www.mynews.in/images/ba66ffd3-1358-480c-bd14-80b614c2987fBal%20Thackeray--marathi%20rag--45---big--1.jpg
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