The Shiv Sena: Protecting Marathi and Hindu Interests

The Shiv Sena occupies a unique place in Indian politics. Few regional parties have shaped a single state as deeply as the Shiv Sena has shaped Maharashtra, and fewer still have managed to transform their core ideology so dramatically while retaining a loyal voter base. Born out of frustration in 1960s Mumbai and built around the demand for Marathi self-respect, the party went on to embrace Hindu nationalism, share power at both state and national levels, and eventually fracture into rival camps. Understanding its journey reveals how identity politics actually works on the ground.

The origins of the Shiv Sena 🔗

The Shiv Sena was founded on 19 June 1966 by Bal Thackeray, a Mumbai-based political cartoonist. The party emerged at a specific moment in the city’s history. After the Bombay Presidency was split in 1960 into the linguistic states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, Mumbai became the capital of Maharashtra. Yet the city’s economy did not feel like it belonged to the Marathi-speaking population. Gujarati communities owned much of the trade and industry, while a steady stream of South Indian migrants took up white-collar and clerical jobs, creating a sense of displacement among locals.

Thackeray captured this discontent through his satirical Marathi weekly Marmik, launched in 1960. The magazine focused on the problems of the common Marathi manoos, including unemployment and the position of migrants in the job market. Through Marmik, Thackeray campaigned against the growing influence of non-Marathis in Mumbai, and its office became a rallying point for frustrated youth. The party that grew out of this movement carried his combative, direct style from the very beginning.

The meaning behind the name 🔗

The name itself was a political statement. “Shiv Sena” translates to “Army of Shivaji,” a reference to the 17th-century Maratha warrior king who fought the Mughal Empire. Thackeray’s father, Keshav Thackeray, who had been active in the Samyukta Maharashtra movement for a separate Marathi state, suggested naming the new organisation after Shivaji. Among followers outside Maharashtra, however, the name became more closely associated with the god Shiva. The choice instantly tied the party to Marathi pride and martial heritage.

Protecting Marathi identity: the “sons of the soil” doctrine 🔗

At its core, the early Shiv Sena was built on what is known as the “sons of the soil” doctrine. This is the idea that the natives of a state should receive preference in jobs, education, and economic opportunity over migrants from elsewhere. The doctrine was first openly championed during the Shiv Sena movement of the 1960s, when non-Marathi migrants were blamed for occupying jobs that locals believed should be theirs.

This nativist agenda had a powerful unifying effect. The promise of preferential treatment for Maharashtrians cut across caste lines. The Sena brought together upper castes, Marathas, Other Backward Classes, and Dalits under what observers have described as a common “Marathi umbrella,” uniting otherwise divided communities around regional identity rather than caste.

Early targets and tactics 🔗

The party’s first targets were South Indians, particularly migrants from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka who dominated clerical positions. The movement was associated with the aggressive slogan “pungi bajao, lungi bhagao,” and Shiv Sena cadres became involved in attacks on South Indian communities, vandalising restaurants and pressuring employers to hire Marathis. The party also positioned itself as a rival to the communist trade unions that then dominated Mumbai’s labour politics. Interestingly, the ruling Congress under Chief Minister Vasantrao Naik initially patronised the Sena as a tool to weaken these unions, which earned the outfit the nickname “Vasant Sena.”

Entering electoral politics 🔗

The Sena moved into electoral politics quickly. It contested the Thane Municipal Council polls in 1967, and the following year it made its mark on the city that defined it. In the 1968 Bombay Municipal Corporation elections, the Shiv Sena won 42 of 120 wards, signalling that the Marathi pride plank had real electoral weight. Control of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, India’s richest civic body, would become a cornerstone of the party’s power for decades.

The shift towards Hindu nationalism 🔗

By the late 1970s and 1980s, the Shiv Sena’s ideology began to change. The “sons of the soil” cause was losing some of its momentum, and the party started placing greater weight on Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism. This shift moved the party from xenophobic regionalism towards an anti-Muslim, Hindu nationalist strand that broadened its appeal beyond purely linguistic concerns.

This was a strategic transformation. Marathi regionalism could only take the party so far, since its base was geographically confined to Maharashtra. Embracing Hindutva allowed the Sena to tap into a much larger ideological current sweeping through Indian politics and to align with the Bharatiya Janata Party, which shared similar views. In 1989, Thackeray launched the newspaper Saamana as the party’s mouthpiece, helping it spread this expanded message.

The Babri Masjid moment and its fallout 🔗

The Sena’s Hindutva turn reached its peak around the Babri Masjid dispute in Ayodhya. The party strongly backed the construction of a Ram temple and presented itself as a defender of Hindu interests. During the 1992-93 Mumbai riots that followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the Sena’s role became deeply controversial. Thackeray’s Shiv Sena was seen as a primary instigator of those riots, an implication later confirmed by the Srikrishna Commission. These events cemented the party’s hardline image even as they damaged its standing with critics.

From regional force to ruling party 🔗

The alliance with the BJP, formed in 1989, transformed the Shiv Sena from a Mumbai-centric agitational outfit into a serious contender for power. The partnership was mutually beneficial: the BJP gained a strong regional ally, while the Sena gained access to national political networks.

The breakthrough came in 1995. The Shiv Sena combined with the BJP to win a majority in the Maharashtra state elections and took control of the state for the first time. It was under this government that the city’s colonial name, Bombay, was officially changed to Mumbai. Thackeray himself never held formal office, famously describing himself as a “remote control” running the government from outside. The alliance with the BJP would last, with interruptions, for roughly twenty-five years.

The dramatic break and the 2022 split 🔗

The long-standing partnership with the BJP began to unravel after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections. A dispute broke out over who would become Chief Minister, with the Sena demanding the post for Uddhav Thackeray, Bal Thackeray’s son, while the BJP wanted to retain Devendra Fadnavis. The disagreement proved irreconcilable.

In a move that stunned observers, the Sena turned to its former arch-rivals. Uddhav Thackeray formed an alliance with the centre-left Nationalist Congress Party and the Indian National Congress, creating the Maha Vikas Aghadi and becoming Chief Minister. For a party historically opposed to the Congress, this was a remarkable ideological pivot towards a more secular, composite politics. It was also the first time a member of the Thackeray family personally held the state’s highest office.

The vertical split of 2022 🔗

The coalition did not survive long. In June 2022, a senior Sena leader named Eknath Shinde led a rebellion. Shinde revolted against Uddhav along with a large group of backers and aligned with the BJP to become Chief Minister, which collapsed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. With most of the sitting MLAs siding with Shinde, Uddhav chose to resign rather than face a floor test.

The split set off a bitter legal and political battle over the party’s identity. In February 2023, the Election Commission of India allotted the name “Shiv Sena” and the traditional “bow and arrow” symbol to the Shinde-led faction. The Uddhav Thackeray group was renamed Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), or Shiv Sena (UBT), and was given a flaming torch as its symbol.

Two parties, one legacy 🔗

The split produced two parties competing for the same legacy. The Shinde-led Shiv Sena positions itself as the keeper of Bal Thackeray’s hardline Hindutva roots, while the UBT faction advocates Marathi pride, secularism, and a more inclusive, progressive image under Uddhav and his son Aaditya Thackeray. In the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the contest tilted decisively towards Shinde, whose faction won 57 seats compared to just 20 for the UBT, strengthening his claim to be the “real” Sena. The question of who truly inherits Bal Thackeray’s mantle, however, continues to play out in successive elections.

Why the Shiv Sena matters 🔗

The story of the Shiv Sena is, in many ways, a case study in the flexibility of identity politics. The party began as a movement protecting Marathi linguistic and economic interests, broadened into Hindu nationalism to expand its reach, and then split apart over questions of power and ideological direction. Throughout these shifts, it retained a devoted base by tapping into emotions around regional pride and cultural belonging. For students of Indian politics, the Sena demonstrates how regional and religious identities can be mobilised, combined, and contested within a single democratic framework.

What do you think? Does the Shiv Sena’s journey from Marathi regionalism to Hindutva show that identity-based parties must constantly reinvent their core appeal to survive, or does it risk diluting the very identity they were founded to protect? And after the 2022 split, which faction do you believe genuinely carries forward Bal Thackeray’s original vision?

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiv_Sena
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal_Thackeray
3. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shiv-Sena
4. https://theiashub.com/free-resources/post-independence/son-of-soil-doctrine-regionalism-employment-india
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiv_Sena_(1966%E2%80%932022)
6. https://www.deccanherald.com/india/balasaheb-thackeray-shiv-sena-and-the-son-of-the-soil-776947.html
7. https://www.business-standard.com/elections/maharashtra-elections/sena-vs-sena-shinde-faction-defeats-uddhav-s-outfit-in-36-constituencies-124112301201_1.html
8. https://www.deccanherald.com/india/ec-recognises-eknath-shinde-led-faction-as-real-shiv-sena-allocates-bow-and-arrow-symbol-1192309
9. https://www.bmcelections.com/party/shiv-sena-ubt