Extremist’s funeral halts Mumbai
Mumbai – Bal Thackeray, the Hindu extremist leader of the Shiv Sena nationalist party, yesterday shut down the city he renamed Mumbai as he was cremated before hundreds of thousands of mourners.
One of India’s most divisive figures, Thackeray died on Saturday aged 86, bringing to a close one of the most extraordinary political careers of postindependence India.
A cartoonist turned activist, he used Right-wing Hindu activism to mobilise the resentment of Marathi speakers in what was then Bombay against migrants he accused of grabbing the best jobs. Muslims were a particular target.
His Shiv Sena, or Shiva’s Army, became a feared force that smashed communist-dominated unions, initially with the tacit backing of the local Congress Party.
He forced the renaming of the city to underscore the fightback by its ‘‘sons of the soil’’ against colonial and other interlopers.
Thackeray’s ability to summon overwhelming street support among his ‘‘army’’ ensured he was courted by Bollywood and other interests nervous at his disruptive power.
Among mourners were film star Amitabh Bachchan and industrialist Anil Ambani.
Although named in a judicial inquiry into riots in the 1990s, Thackeray never faced any sanction and remained a powerful political force. An admirer of Adolf Hitler, Thackeray – whose father took the name because he admired the novelist – was famous for his love of beer and cigars, and was a keen follower of India’s cultural scene.
Police feared trouble at his funeral and imposed a virtual shutdown of the city. Shops and busi- nesses closed, and taxis and autorickshaws were kept off the roads.
But the huge crowds dispersed without incident.
Indian media reports said more than 1.5 million people attended. The demagogue’s son and political successor lit the pyre to chants of ‘‘Thackeray is immortal’’.
The ceremony was in the same park where, 46 years earlier, Thackeray made his political debut at a rally.
In a tribute crafted to pay respect without undue praise, India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, called him ‘‘a consummate communicator’’.