Shiv Sena (IAST: Śiva Sēnā) (translation: Army of Shivaji), is a right-wing Marathi regionalist and ultranationalist political party in Indiafounded in 1966 by cartoonist Bal Thackeray. Originally emerging from nativist movements in Bombay (present-day Mumbai), the party agitates for preferential treatment for Maharashtrians over migrants from other parts of India. Its election symbol for Maharashtra is Bow and Arrow. Uddhav Thackeray, Bal Thackeray’s son, is party leader and serves as the current Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
Although the party’s primary base is still in Maharashtra, it has tried to expand to a pan-Indian base. In the 1970s, it gradually moved from advocating a pro-Marathi ideology to one supporting a broader Hindu nationalist agenda, and aligned itself with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The party started taking part in Mumbai (BMC) Municipal elections since its inception. In 1989, it entered into an alliance with the BJP for Lok Sabha as well as Maharashtra assembly elections, the latter of which was temporarily broken in October 2014 Assembly elections. The alliance was quickly reformed and Shiv Sena became part of the BJP government in Maharashtra in December 2014. It was a coalition partner in the National Democratic Alliance during 1998–2019, including the Vajpayee Governmentduring 1998–2004 and the Narendra Modi Government during 2014-2019. After the Maharashtra elections in October 2019, Shiv Sena claimed that promises were not kept by their alliance partner BJP and broke ties. The party later joined hands with the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party in a bid to form the government in Maharashtra.
The party has a powerful hold over the Bollywood film industry. It has been referred to as an “extremist”, “chauvinist”, as well as a “fascist party”. Shiv Sena has been blamed for the 1970 communal violence in Bhiwandi, the 1984 Bhiwandi riot, and violence in the 1992–1993 Bombay riots.
The party draws its strength from the support of the Maratha and Kunbi communities of Maharashtra which the Sena drew away from the Congress party.
History
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. Bombay, in many ways the economic capital of India, became the state capital of Maharashtra. On one hand, people belonging to the Gujarati community owned the majority of the industry and trade enterprises in the city. On the other hand, there was a steady flow of South Indian migrants to the city who came to take many white-collar jobs.
In 1960 Bal Thackeray, a Bombay-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.
The Shiv Sena attracted many 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, vandalizing South Indian restaurants and pressuring employers to hire Marathis.
Alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party
The Sena started placing more weight on the Hindutva ideology in the 1970s as the ‘sons of the soil’ cause was weakening.
The party began a coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for seats in the Lok Sabha and the Maharashtra Assembly from 1989. The two formed a government in Maharashtra between 1995-1999. The Sena was the opposition party in the state along with the BJP from 1999 to 2014. However, the 25 year alliance with the BJP was threatened in 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections over seat sharing and both contested the election independently. With the BJP becoming the largest party following the 2014 election, Sena declared opposition. However, after negotiations, Sena agreed to join the government in Maharashtra. The Shiv Sena-BJP combine governs the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Traditionally the main strongholds of Shiv Sena have been Mumbai and the Konkancoastal areas. However, in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections the result was reversed. The Shiv Sena made inroads in the interior parts of the state, while suffering losses in Mumbai.
In January 2018, Shiv Sena officially cut ties with the BJP and their NDA coalition ahead of the 2019 Indian general election after nearly 30 years of campaigning alongside the BJP. But in February 2019, BJP and Shiv Sena again announced alliance for the general elections as well as the 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election. The election saw Shiv Sena lose votes and subsequently declined to support the BJP in forming a government over the BJP’s refusal to engage in power-sharing. Shiv Sena withdrew from National Democratic Alliance, precipitating a political crisis in late October-early November 2019, which ultimately led to party leader Uddhav Thackeray becoming Chief Minister through support from the Indian National Congress, and the Nationalist Congress Party.
In July 2005, Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Sena leader Narayan Rane was expelled from the party, which sparked internal conflict in the party. In December the same year Raj Thackeray, Bal Thackeray’s nephew, left the party. Raj Thackeray later founded a new party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). After the split, clashes have occurred between followers of the two Senas.
Although the MNS is a break-away group from the Shiv Sena, the party is still based in Bhumiputra ideology. When unveiling the party in an assembly at Shivaji Park he said, everyone is anxious to see what will happen to Hindutva and, “I shall elaborate on the party’s stance on issues like Hindutva, its agenda for development of Maharashtra and the significance of the party flag colours at the 19 March public meeting.”
Leadership change
Bal Thackeray’s son Uddhav Thackeray became the party’s leader in 2004, although Bal Thackeray continued to be an important figurehead. After the death of Bal Thackeray on 17 November 2012, Uddhav became the leader of the party but refused to take the title “Shiv Sena Pramukh” (Shiv Sena Supremo).
Party structure and caste composition
Structure
As the Pramukh (Chief) of the party, Bal Thackeray took all major decisions while the activists and members of the Shiv Sena Shiv Sainiks carried out most of the party’s grassroots work. During his last days, the day-to-day activities of the party were handled by his youngest son Uddhav Thackeray. Aditya Thackeray, son of Uddhav Thackeray, became the leader of the Yuva Sena, the Youth Wing of the party. After Bal Thackerey’s death in 2012, the party was de facto led by Uddhav Thackeray.
The Sena Bhavan located in the Dadar locality in Mumbai has served as the Headquarters of the Sena since 1976. The Sena’s shakhas (Branches) spread throughout the state of Maharashtra as well as in selected locations in other states, which decide on most of the local issues in their localities.
The Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti is affiliated with the Shiv Sena. It advocates the preservation of rights of employment for Maharashtrians in Maharashtra.
Caste composition
People of various Maharashtrian castes worked together in the Sena. The party’s leaders mostly came from the so-called “high castes” i.e. Brahmins, CKPs and Pathare Prabhus – Thackerey, Manohar Joshi, Sudhir Joshi, Balwant Mantri, Dr Hemchandra Gupte, Shyam Deshmukh, Madhav Deshpande, Datta Pradhan, Vijay Parvatkar, Madhukar Sarpotdar and Pramod Navalkar. One of the above-mentioned leaders, Dr.Hemchandra Gupte, Mayor of Bombay in the early 70s and the former family physician and confidante of Thackeray, quit Shivsena in “disgust” citing importance given to money, violence committed by the Shivsainiks and Thackeray’s support for Mrs.Gandhi during the 1975 emergency.
There were also leaders from other castes such as Dattaji Salvi, Dattaji Nalawade and Wamanrao Mahadik, and those from the so-called lower castes such as Chaggan Bhujbal, Leeladhar Dake, Bhai Shingre and Vijay Gaonkar.
Over the years, other than the Sena Chief, there have been twelve senior leaders in the party, called ‘Netas’. Out of these, eight have been upper caste (four Brahmins, two CKPsand two Pathare Prabhus). Others have been either Maratha (Dattaji Salvi), Shimpi (Wamanrao Mahadik), Agri (Leeladhar Dake) or Mali (Chaggan Bhujbal). In fact, Bhujbal quit the party accusing the Sena of upper-caste bias in the leadership.
The number of dalits were also not insignificant. And even after the Sena opposed the reservations proposed by the Mandal commission, there was no dent in the percentage of OBCs in the Sena. In this way, the Sena was successful in uniting all Maharashtrians irrespective of caste under the common “Marathi umbrella”. The agenda of preferential treatment for the “sons of the soil” i.e. Maharashtrians brought them all together.
Voter base
Shiv Sena’s strength in the late 1980s and early ’90s mainly came from the support of the Maratha caste – which it drew away from the Congress. Citing the large percentage of MLAs elected from Shiv Sena belonging to the Maratha caste, Vora from the University of Pune concludes that the Shiv Sena has been emerging as a “Maratha Party”.
List of Chief Ministers
Following is the list of the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra from Shiv Sena
| No. | Chief Ministers | Portrait | Term in Office | Assembly | Constituency | Other Posts Held | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | End | Tenure | ||||||
| 1 | Manohar Joshi |
 |
14 March 1995 | 31 January 1999 | 3 years, 323 days | 9th Assembly | Dadar | Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament of India |
| 2 | Narayan Rane |
 |
1 February 1999 | 17 October 1999 | 258 days | 9th Assembly | Malvan | Minister for Revenue of Maharashtra |
| 3 | Uddhav Thackeray |
 |
28 November 2019 | Incumbent | 1 year, 143 days | 14th Assembly | MLC | President of Shiv Sena, Editor-in-chief of Saamana |
Shiv Sena ministers in central Government
- Manohar Joshi: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, 13th Speaker of the Lok Sabha
- Anandrao Vithoba Adsul: Ministry of State,Finance and Company Affairs
- Suresh Prabhu :Minister of Fertilizers and Chemicals, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
- Anant Geete: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Minister of Power
- Arvind Sawant: Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
Electoral performance
| Election | Candidates | Elected | Votes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 Lok Sabha | 5 | 227,468 | ||
| 1980 Lok Sabha | 2 | 129,351 | ||
| 1989 Lok Sabha | 3 | 1 | 339,426 | |
| 1989 Goa Assembly | 6 | 4,960 | ||
| 1991 Uttar Pradesh Assembly | 14 | 1 | 45,426 | |
| 1991 Lok Sabha | 22 | 4 | 2,208,712 | |
| 1993 Madhya Pradesh Assembly | 88 | 75,783 | ||
| 1996 Lok Sabha | 132 | 15 | 4,989,994 | |
| 1996 Haryana Assembly | 17 | 6,700 | ||
| 1997 Punjab Assembly | 3 | 719 | ||
| 1998 Lok Sabha | 79 | 6 | 6,528,566 | |
| 1998 Delhi Assembly | 32 | 9,395 | ||
| 1998 Himachal Pradesh Assembly | 6 | 2,827 | ||
| 1999 Lok Sabha | 63 | 15 | 5,672,412 | |
| 1999 Goa Assembly | 14 | 5,987 | ||
| 2000 Odisha Assembly | 16 | 18,794 | ||
| 2001 Kerala Assembly | 1 | 279 | ||
| 2002 Goa Assembly | 15 | |||
| 2004 Lok Sabha | 56 | 12 | 7,056,255 | |
| 2009 Lok Sabha | 22 | 11 | 6,828,382 | |
| 2014 Lok Sabha | 20 | 18 | 10,262,981 | |
| 1990 Maharashtra Assembly | 183 | 52 | 47,33,834(16.39%) | |
| 1995 Maharashtra Assembly | 169 | 73 | 6315493(16.39%) | |
| 1999 Maharashtra Assembly | 169 | 69 | (17.33%) | |
| 2004 Maharashtra Assembly | 163 | 62 | 8351654 (19,97%) | |
| 2009 Maharashtra Assembly | 160 | 45 | ||
| 2014 Maharashtra Assembly | 286 | 63 | 10,235,972 | |
| 2015 Bihar Assembly | 80 | 0 | 2,11,131 | |
| 2017 Goa Assembly | 3 | 0 | 792 | |
| 2019 Lok Sabha | 23 | 18 | 12,589,064 | |
| 2019 Maharashtra Assembly | 124 | 56 | 9,049,789 (16.41) |
Activities and criticism
The Sena says it has played a central role in the emancipation of 500,000 slum dwellers in the Dharavi area of Mumbai, the largest slum in Asia. However, the policy of giving free houses to slum dwellers has been controversial since it was introduced by the then Shiv Sena-BJP government.
In the 1970s, Shiv Sena was opposed to the Namantar Andolan, a Dalit-led movement to change the name of Marathwada University in Aurangabad to “Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar University”, and supported views of conservative Marathas.
In 1996, Shiv Sena organised the first and only live concert of American pop icon Michael Jackson in India to raise the funds for its business wing and to help create over two-hundred seventy thousand jobs for people of Maharashtra.
In December 2003, Shiv Sena activists damaged the cricket pitch of the Agra Sport Stadium which was supposed to host the cricket match between Pakistan and India. In April 2005, Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, the student wing of Shiv Sena, attempted to prevent the India-Pakistan One-day international match being held in New Delhi. The protester’s spokesman demanded:
India should not play cricket with Pakistan till it hands over to India 20 terrorists, including Dawood Ibrahim, and closes down militant training camps running there.
On 20 November 2009, Shiv Sena activists attacked and vandalised the offices of Hindi and Marathi TV news channels IBN7 and IBN-Lokmat, located in Mumbai and Punerespectively. The Shivsainik slapped IBN7’s senior editor Ravindra Ambekar and then attacked IBN-Lokmat’s editor Nikhil Wagle. Shiv Sena attributed the attacks to the criticisms of Bal Thackeray by the news channel over his remarks on Sachin Tendulkar. Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut described the attacks as “spontaneous”. Shiv Sena spokespersons tried to justify the attacks and refused to apologize for their acts of violence.
Shiv Sena got an entry in Guinness Book of World Records in 2010 for “collecting maximum blood in a day”. Shiv Sena organized a blood donation camp which collected over 24,000 bottles of blood in a single day. Later this world record was broken by a blood donation camp of HDFC Bank in 2014.
In October 2015, Shiv Sena issued threats which enforced a ban on a scheduled concert by Pakistani classic singer Ghulam Ali. The move was adopted to appease anti-Pakistan constituents to vote for Sena in coming elections. However, in 2015 Pakistan urged the international community to take note of the activities of Shiv Sena, while Shiv Sena claimed that criticism of Shiv Sena by Pakistan vindicates “our patriotism”.
On 19 October 2015, Shiv Sena activists attacked and vandalised the office of BCCI to stop a meeting between PCB and BCCI officials. The activists shouted anti-Pakistan slogans and held posters that read ‘Shahryar Khan go back’, determined to stop Manohar from meeting his Pakistani counterpart. Shiv Sena has also threatened to stop Pakistan’s Aleem Dar from officiating in the fifth and final ODI between India and South Africa.
In 2015 Shiv Sena announced 10,000 rupees help to each drought-affected farmer of Marathwada region, while they also announced 2 lakh rupees “reward” to Hindus family who had 5 children between 2010 and 2015 in Uttar Pradesh. As per Shiv Sena, the reason behind the “reward” was “decline in growth rate of Hindu population compared to Muslim population as per recent census”.
In January 2016, the Shiv Sena demanded that the words “secular” and “socialist” be “permanently removed” from the Constitution’s Preamble which were added in the 42nd amendment during the emergency. In April 2019, party member Sanjay Raut called for the burka to be banned.
During the 2018 Maharashtra Council election and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, many candidates fielded by Shiv Sena had criminal records or had criminal charges pending against them.
In November 2020, Devendra Fadnavis stated that the view of the Shiv Sena is advocacy for Indian reunification in the form of an Akhand Bharat. He declared that soon “Karachi will be part of India.”