Shiv Sena's Nazar on Maryadaa..

Shiv Sena (Marathi: ??? ???? Siv Sena, meaning Army of Shiv, referring to Shivaji), is a far-rightpolitical party in India founded on 19 June 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray. It is currently headed by Thackeray's son, Uddhav Thackeray. The party originally emerged out of a movement in Mumbai, (then called Bombay), broadly favouring increased influence of Marathis in Maharashtra. It built a strong base amongst the Marathi community in the sixties based on its ideology that Maharashtra belonged to the Marathi community and that they be given preference over migrants from other Indian states.

Although the party's primary base is still in Maharashtra, it has tried to expand to a pan-Indian base. Gradually the party moved from solely advocating a pro-Marathi ideology, to one supporting a broader Hindu nationalist agenda^{[citation needed]} as it aligned itself with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The party has taken part in numerous Maharashtra state governments at several times and was a coalition partner in the National Democratic Alliance cabinet that ruled India between 1998-2004. Members of Shiv Sena are referred to as Shiv Sainiks.

Origins

After the Independence of India in 1947, regional administrative divisions from the colonial era were gradually changed and states following linguistic borders were created. Within the Bombay Presidency a massive popular struggle was launched for the creation of a state for the Marathi-speaking people. In 1960 the presidency was divided into two linguistic states, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Moreover, Marathi-speaking areas of the erstwhile Hyderabad state were joined with Maharashtra. Mumbai, in many ways the economic capital of India, became the state capital of Maharashtra. On one hand, people belonging to the Gujarati and Marwari communities owned the majority of the industry and trade enterprises in the city.^[1] On the other, there was a steady flow of South Indian migrants to the city, and who came to take over many white-collar employments.

In 1960 Balasaheb Thackeray, a Mumbai-based cartoonist, began publishing the satirical cartoon weekly Marmik. Through this publication he started disseminating anti-migrant sentiments. On 19 June 1966, Thackeray founded the Shiv Sena as a political organisation. At the time of its foundation, the Shiv Sena was not a political party as such.^[2]

Early years

The political approach of the Shiv Sena was centred around the concept of bhumiputr (sons of the soil), the idea that Maharashtra inherently belonged to the Marathi community. The Shiv Sena was thus born out of a feeling of resentment about the relative marginization of the native Marathi people in their own state by people whom they perceived as outsiders.^[3]

The Shiv Sena especially attracted a large number of disgruntled and often unemployed Marathi youth, who were attracted by Thackeray's charged anti-migrant oratory. Shiv Sena cadres became involved in various attacks against the South Indian communities, vandalising South Indian restaurants and pressuring employers to hire Marathis.^[4]

Another main characteristic of the early years of the Shiv Sena was the frequent struggles against communist trade unions. Prior to the formation of the Shiv Sena, the Communist Party of India played a dominant role in labour politics in Mumbai. The Shiv Sena was supported by elements inside the Indian National Congress, who hoped that the new organization would be capable of weakening the communist trade union influence. Soon Shiv Sena cadres were involved in a series of violent conflicts with the communist trade union activists. In 1970 the CPI MLA of Dadar, Krishna Desai, was assassinated. CPI charged the Shiv Sena for the murder, and held Thackeray as responsible for the act.

Shiv Sena was involved in violence in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir on 14 July 2008, as they were blocked by Central Reserve Police Force personnel from marching towards Jammu city.^[38] The Sena was demonstrating against a decision by the government of Kashmir to not hand over land to a Hindu shrine board, as the proposal had caused some of the largest protests in Kashmir's history, and stirred resentment and fears of "demographic dilution". Shiv Sena has raised the squadron on occasion since at least 1987, when 125 activists participated in what was termed "morale boosting" activities aimed at strengthening the Hindu community in Punjab during the 1980s insurgency there.^[39] The group also vowed to send this squad to Srinagar in 2004 to hoist the Indian flag at the city's main intersection, Lal Chowk.^[40] Later that year, the Shiv Sena attempted to disrupt India and Pakistan from playing cricket in Delhi.^[41] Shiv Sena claims the members are willing to sacrifice their lives for what they believe is India's rightful existence as a Hindu nation.^[38]