Once again the fascists have had their day in India. Once again the media has stood down and refused to offer any worthwhile commentary on the subject. Once again the specter of violence has been raised by a 'Sena' element and once again everyone with a 'voice' has been cowed down into submission. One wonders what Independence Day celebrations every year are about if the most basic freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the land cannot be defended against such naked displays of street power. Is the idea of India only something that can be celebrated in jingoistic songs, comformist movies and compromised talent shows? If the 'Constitution' or 'law' or the 'judiciary' are not backed up by adequate 'force' these remain merely words and completely impotent. This is why the Sena brigade is never too bothered by any legal injunction. The fight is won or lost on the streets of Maharashtra and the Sena has a monopoly on goons when it comes to their state.

For the second time this year Raj Thackeray has gone up against the Bachchans on the most trivial of reasons. The language issue is really a non-issue. Much as the earlier UP/Maharashtra controversy was also a concocted one. Politicians in India are great at such concoctions. Specially those in a hurry to get somewhere as Raj Thackeray evidently is. Or those eager to remain a part of the discourse as Bal Thackeray assuredly is. Raj Thackeray is still a small player compared to his uncle. After all the latter has the great achievement of the Bombay pogroms (following the demolition of the Babri mosque) to his name. Raj Thackeray would seem to have a hard act to follow.

Perhaps a Freudian explanation suffices here. As is well known, Raj Thackeray is a rather avid viewer of Hindi movies and an even more avid follower of Bachchan's cinema and iconology. Perhaps all he really wants to do is to somehow take on the 'mythic' Bachchan and as such enhance his own stature. There is certainly nothing on Raj Thackeray's agenda this year other than 'Bachchan-bashing'. Then again this might even be another anxiety with respect to the uncle who is after all another HINDI film addict.

The utter hypocrisy. This is bad faith with a stench. These are the politicians who are defending the interests of 'Marathi' against 'Hindi'. This uncle and nephew couple are in all probability not even as well versed in Marathi cinema as they are in Hindi cinema! The uncle forever courted the company of movie glitterati, was forever desparate to associate with 'stars', even has a daughter-in-law who produces Hindi films. But one should not be surprised. Bal Thackeray changed the spelling of his family name (Thakre) to make it the same as that of the English novelist he admires and loves. After this sort of move he decided to defend Marathi interests.

The fight was picked with the Bachchans earlier this year and used an as excuse to target North Indian migrants in Maharashtra, many of whom left in droves after being attacked on the streets. The threat by the MNS has never just involved a 'minimal' violence whereby all screenings of films starring a Bachchan would be disrupted but also a 'maximal' violence using which ordinary and completely defenceless Indians would be persecuted for simply hailing from the 'North'. A Maharashtra/UP dichotomy was created. Somehow it was objectionable that the Bachchan opened a girl's school in a part of UP where there is not any kind of school for miles around. Somehow it is considered strange that someone from UP would be emotionally attached to the land of his birth. Having such a bond with one's native state, participating in the political and cultural and social life of the same somehow implied that one had not been 'loyal' enough to one's adopted state, Maharashtra. Doing anything useful in any state of India, irrespective of where one is from, ultimately strengthens the larger national fabric. Apparently not in the Sena's twisted view of things. Perhaps they are not for 'India' at all and only for 'Maharashtra'. Perhaps they should secede!

But how might one be loyal to Maharashtra? In the manner of the Sena of course. By resorting to the worst forms of fascism, by targeting any and every minority in the city from South Indian migrants to Muslim 'natives' and now most recently to North Indian migrants. Bombay, this jewel of Indian metropolises in so many ways, has become since the rise of the Sena, almost four decades ago, the most intolerant in terms of the public space granted to those who have a 'voice' or seek to have one. This is how one does things 'for' Maharashtra. By degrading and downgrading the level of public discourse in such pathetic fashion. Has the Sena ever done anything for 'India'? Of course not. It is only about a rather perverted idea of Mahrashtra. Why else would first Bal Thackeray at many points in his career and now Raj Thackeray trample every law, ethic and value of the Constitution on the streets of Bombay? But wait! It is 'Mumbai'. After all this is not a city that the British founded. Change all the names, the names of fountains and the names of cities, change all the names, change history.

Amitabh Bachchan to his credit responded rather forcefully to the initial crisis in an NDTV interview. Things eventually settled down even though along the way stones were thrown at his residence, his effigies were burnt, his posters were disfigured. Raj Thackeray will have been a Bachchan fan. More recently, Jaya Bachchan at the Drona music launch, caustically referred to the fact that the film in question was in 'Hindi' and that they should all speak Hindi. There was certainly some sarcasm intended in these remarks. This maddened Raj Thackeray once again and there were the same old threats, the same old intimidatory tactics. Eventually Jaya Bachchan rendered an apology and Bal Thackeray chipped in with his own warning.

One sympathizes with the Bachchans. Not just for the obvious reasons. They have an even heavier burden to deal with. It is not just their films that would be adversely affected. One might add here that the film industry has once again shown its complete spinelessness in refusing to comment on the issue much less offer resistance of any kind. The ones who have spoken out in each instance have ironically been among the least powerful in Bombay film ranks! But is it not just a question of Bachchan film screenings being disrupted. The example from earlier in the year reveals the extent of the Sena blackmail. Anytime Amitabh Bachchan says or does something that Raj Thackeray finds unacceptable he will not only target every member of the Bachchan family, he will also target migrants from the state of UP and in fact elsewhere in the North. One would have preferred the always gutsy and admirably feisty Jaya Bachchan to not apologize. But it is understandable. Neither she nor anyone else in her family would want defenceless people beaten up and/or chased out of Maharashtra based on anything she or her husband said. One greatly regrets that at least in a token sense Jaya Bachchan had to somehow back down before the Sena 'onslaught'. But has not a better idea of India been served this way? The Thackerays might consider the lives of ordinary Indians to be 'collateral damage' in their larger political schemes. The Bachchans thankfully privilege those very ordinary citizens of India. Those very citizens for whom Bachchan spoke so powerfully in his cinema, those very citizens for whom Bachchan has always 'acted' in personal gestures that he has also been dignified enough not to advertise in the media. The Bachchans are ultimately not very vulnerable (even if the MNS attacks on them indicate the extent to which fascist politics operates with immunity in India) but those ordinary North Indian migrants who bore the real brunt of Raj Thackeray's violence assuredly are and most of them probably bore a sigh of relief when Jaya Bachchan apologized.

Bal Thackeray now claims that Amitabh Bachchan should do more for a state which gave him recognition. And Bal Thackeray should do more for the Hindi language given that he has spent a lifetime soaking up every new Hindi film release. Amitabh Bachchan does not have do anything for UP or Mahrashtra or any other state of the Union. There is no law, no ethical or moral obligation that compels him to do so. The Hindi film industry is based in Bombay but it is not exclusively for Bombay (I will insist on this older name for the city). It is the dominant branch of an Indian film industry that also encompasses many others. The Bombay film industry does not in any way represent the state of Mahrashtra or any of the exclusive claims of Marathi nationalist politics. 'Regional' cinemas are more susceptible to such claims and as such it is the Marathi film industry that is the equivalent of something like Gujarati cinema or Punjabi cinema or Bengali cinema or Malayalam cinema. In each case a cinema that is restricted to certain regions of India, predominantly for linguistic reasons. But Hindi cinema uses the country's hegemonic lingua franca and is hence not at all the monopoly of a state like Maharashtra. Even if Bachchan were an actor in Marathi cinema he would not be obligated to do anything for Mahrashtra relative to any other state. Such decisions fall purely within the realm of individual choice.

Bombay becomes Mumbai, Flora Fountain becomes Hutatma chowk, from Victoria Terminus to Marine Drive the name 'Shivjai' is latched on in brutal renamings. When does Thackeray however get back to being 'Thakre'? Or do the rules not apply to him? Bachchan should not open a girl's school in UP but Thackeray should be allowed to follow the author of Vanity Fair? This is ethical leprosy.

But why only blame the politicians, even fascist politicians? Why only blame the Shiv Sena or the MNS? Why only blame Bal Thackeray or Raj Thackeray? It is the entire 'establishment' that has conspired in bringing about this state of affairs. The silence of the media, the silence of the film industry, the silence of the political class, the silence of the powerful in every other class. There are exceptions in all these categories, exceptions that prove the rule of miserable conformity and complicity. It is not that the Bachchans have once again been targeted that causes such anguish. It is the grounds on which they are being targeted. It is the arc revealed of the body politic toward ever increasing and increasingly tolerated levels of fascism and violence. No anger, no disgust, no shame on the part of anyone. Hence no resistance. Raj Thackeray deserves to win every time in such an India. One retreats to the gentler pleasures of Amitabh Bachchan's blog every day. An old Nehruvian idea of India is still preserved on this blog with a sensitivity to the rituals of Hindus and Muslims and Jains and Parsees, to the plight of the economically challenged, to the little man (and woman) of India and in fact outside India. A Nehruvian ideal that has been increasingly under assault for at least a quarter of a century. Bachchan preserved it in his cinema, still does as a public figure by way of his actions and utterances. That idea of India is always worth defending, always worth protesting and getting enraged about when it is under attack. This latest episode stirred up by Raj Thackeray is depressing in terms of the commentary it offers on Sena politics but even more so in terms of what it says about 'us'.