Book on Thackerays traces ghar vapasi, rivalry between brothers

Ghar vapsi or re-conversion to Hinduism may be a controversial term today. However, around a century ago, 'Prabodhankar' Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, the grandfather of Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray was part of a similar campaign.

During those days, Christian and Islamic missionaries preached their gospel aggressively in Mumbai. Prabodhankar, who was a social reformer, journalist and author, joined hands with Gajananrao Vaidya to launch the Hindu Missionary Society in 1918 at Hirabaug in Mumbai's CP Tank area to counter this.

Vaidya performed the first public reconversion and thread ceremony of a Muslim youth, Wahiduddin, at the urging of his seventy-five-year-old father. Vaidya also conducted reconversions, including those of the 'Kolis' (fishermen) on the coastline of Mumbai and surrounding areas, who had accepted Christianity. Like the Thackerays, Vaidya also belonged to the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu (CKP) community. The CKPs are a small but literate and influential caste, with a high occupational status that equals the Brahmins.

This has been detailed in 'The Cousins Thackeray: Uddhav, Raj and the Shadow of Their Senas' (Penguin Random House), which is the first political biography of the warring Thackeray cousins and is penned by DNA's journalist Dhaval Kulkarni.

The book also delves into the childhood and political initiation of Uddhav and Raj Thackeray and their subsequent bitter parting of ways.

Incidentally, while his son Bal Thackeray and grandsons Uddhav and Raj were to take a political position against north Indians, Prabodhankar traced the roots of CKPs to Magadha in present-day Bihar in his book 'Gramnyancha Sadyanta Itihas Arthat Nokarshahiche Banda (A History of Village Disputes or Rebellion of the Bureaucracy).'

Prabodhankar writes that Mahapadma Nanda (third to fourth century bc), the ruler of Magadha in present-day Bihar, and first king of the Nanda Empire, was a greedy monarch who squeezed his subjects for money. This led to many CKP families migrating elsewhere.

The Shiv Sena's birth had its roots in a campaign launched by Prabodhankar through his periodical in 1922. Prabodhankar, who was then staying at Miranda Chawl in Dadar, noted that the large-scale influx of 'Madrasi' (south Indian) youth to Mumbai as cheap labour led to the fall of average wages in government, semi-government and private firms.

After two articles in his periodical Prabodhan, the 'Madrasis' in Dadar and Matunga joined hands to unsuccessfully charge him with promoting enmity between groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth or language.

At the same time, educationist S.R. Tavde had returned from America with a diploma in higher education and applied to the Government of Madras for a job. But his attempt was stonewalled on minor grounds. Prabodhankar met the chief secretary of Bombay state which resulted in an order being issued stating that local candidates would have first preference in recruitments in any department.

This incident may have laid the seeds of the Shiv Sena's birth in 1966. Incidentally, the south Indians were in Sena's initial targets.