The 2008 attacks on North Indians in Maharashtra began on February 3, 2008 after violent clashes between workers of two political parties—Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Samajwadi Party (SP)—at Dadar in Mumbai, capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra.

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  • The 2008 attacks on North Indians in Maharashtra began on February 3, 2008 after violent clashes between workers of two political parties—Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Samajwadi Party (SP)—at Dadar in Mumbai, capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The clashes took place when workers of MNS, a splinter faction formed out of the Shiv Sena (a major political party of Maharashtra), tried to attack workers of SP, the regional party based in Uttar Pradesh, who were proceeding to attend a rally organised by the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA). Defending his party’s stand, MNS chief Raj Thackeray explained that the attack was a reaction to the "provocative and unnecessary show of strength" and "uncontrolled political and cultural dadagiri (bullying) of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar migrants and their leaders". In the events leading to these clashes, Raj Thackeray made critical remarks, themed around language politics and regionalism, about migrants from the North Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, accusing them of spoiling Maharashtrian culture and not mingling with them. At political rallies held across the state, he questioned the loyalty of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan towards Maharashtra, where he attained "fame and popularity", accusing him of showing "more interest" in his native Uttar Pradesh. He called the celebration of Chhath Puja by North Indian migrants a "drama" and a "show of arrogance". On February 13, 2008, the state government, which was accused of reluctance to take immediate action, ultimately arrested Raj Thackeray and Abu Asim Azmi (a local SP leader) on charges of instigation of violence and causing communal disturbance. Although released that same day, a gag order was imposed on both leaders to prevent them from making further inflammatory remarks. Meanwhile, tensions in Maharashtra rose as the news of Raj's possible arrest, and his subsequent actual arrest, angered his supporters. Incidences of violence against North Indians and their property by MNS workers were reported in Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Beed, Nashik, Amravati, Jalna, and Latur. Nearly 25,000 North Indian workers fled Pune, and another 15,000 fled Nashik in the wake of the attacks. The exodus of workers caused an acute labour shortage, affecting local industries. Analysts estimated financial losses of Rs. 500 crore– Rs. 700 crore (US$ 144 million). Although the violence receded after the arrests of the two leaders, sporadic attacks were reported until May 2008. After months of lull, on 19 October 2008, MNS activists beat up North Indian candidates appearing for the all-India Railway Recruitment Board entrance exam in Mumbai. The incident led to Raj's arrest and fresh violence. Later on October 28 2008 a labourer from Uttar Pradesh was lynched in a Mumbai commuter train. The attacks evoked critical reactions from various parts of the country, particularly the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar political leadership. Even Bal Thackeray, Raj's estranged uncle and chief of the Shiv Sena, who formed his party in 1966 to raise the voice of Marathi manoos (Marathi people), discounted his nephew's criticism of Bachchan as "stupidity". In an editorial a month later in Saamna, the Shiv Sena's political mouthpiece, however, Bal Thackeray wrote that Biharis antagonised local populations wherever they went and were an "unwelcome lot" throughout the country. The media slated Bal's remarks as an attempt to recapture his party's sons-of-soil plank, being hijacked by Raj.
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  • A guest is welcomed if he adjusts himself to the host's house. But if he tries to change the host's house through dadagiri, we won't tolerate it. And no means no! I am proud of my workers for their struggle! Please don't call it 'Rada' (hooliganism) by giving old and historic references. They hit the streets to protect their own language and culture. Police are visiting their houses again and again and beating them up like cattle to punish them for protecting their language and culture. They are tolerating it quietly. For whom? For Maharashtra! For India! It is fashionable for intellectuals here to blame my party for the unsolved problem of Marathi identity. But am I or my party responsible for it?
  • Excerpt from Indian Express editor Sudheendra Kulkarni's open letter in ''Lokmat'' to Raj Thackeray
  • Excerpt from Raj Thackeray's letter to ''Lokmat'' in response to Sudheendra Kulkarni's letter
  • I have carefully read, and re-read, your signed article in Marathi titled Maazi Bhoomika, Maaza Ladha (My Stand, My Struggle) in the Maharashtra Times of February 9, and think that some of your arguments are far too nuanced to be simply categorised as hate speech... If Abu Azmi, or some other leaders claiming to represent the ‘north Indian voters’ in Mumbai have behaved haughtily, and shown disrespect for the city’s Marathi-speaking people, protest by all means. But why are you yourself showing disrespect to the entire community of north Indians, as is evident from your article and your other reported statements? How can you allow your supporters to take law into their hands and do raada (street mayhem)? Can you justify the politics of violence against a fellow-Indian, as was evident when an innocent employee of HAL was killed in a stone-throwing incident in Nashik following your arrest in Mumbai?
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  • There is no denying that civic amenities in Mumbai are cracking under the added pressure of a migrant population seeking the riches of India's commercial capital. The solution cannot be wielding a ''lathi'' or a sword. Nor can it be in jingoistic expressions of Marathi pride or North Indian chest thumping. Mumbai will do well to remember how the city came together during the train blasts . No one asked then, who is a migrant and who is a Maharashtrian. It's dangerous to solve administrative problems with ethnic quick fixes.
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  • The 2008 attacks on North Indians in Maharashtra began on February 3, 2008 after violent clashes between workers of two political parties—Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Samajwadi Party (SP)—at Dadar in Mumbai, capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra.
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  • 2008 attacks on North Indians in Maharashtra
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  • 2008 attacks on North Indians in Maharashtra
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