Mumbai arguably is one of the most linguistically diverse cities in India where a remarkable trove of languages have taken roots over the past century. It has also been the cradle for the politics of nativism espoused by parties like Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena that have stood for safeguarding the economic and political interests of the ‘Marathi Manoos’. However, when it comes to political representation, nearly half of the political representatives sent to the Lok Sabha by the city have been non-Marathis.
Across all Lok Sabha elections since 1951, a total of 94 MPs have represented the various seats of Mumbai and 42 of them (almost 45 per cent) have been non-Marathis. In fact, when it comes to major political parties like the Congress and the BJP, the majority of their MPs have been non-Marathis. There have been 43 MPs who have been elected on a Congress ticket in Mumbai. Of these, 26 who make up 60 percent of the Congress MPs, are non-Marathi. The same is the case with the BJP which has seen 15 MPs elected from the city, of which eight, accounting for 53 per cent of the total MPs, are non-Marathi. The only party which never had a non-Marathi MP was the Shiv Sena, which, with its largely nativist agenda, has sent 15 MPs all of whom are Marathi.
The need for a non-Marathi face in Mumbai’s polity is largely because of the unique demography of the city. The capital of the erstwhile Bombay State that included parts of Gujarat and Karnataka, Mumbai has been a linguistically diverse city with Marathi as well as Gujarati speakers staying in large numbers. Its reputation as the economic powerhouse of the country has also brought in a large number of migrants from across the country. Many of these migrants have sought a stake at the political table seeking representation.
It is mainly due to this varied demography that parties like the Congress and the BJP have had to pander to the demands of political representation for non-Marathi speakers. While the present political dynamic in the state has meant that in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the Congress, which is fighting on two seats, has given tickets only to Marathi faces, the BJP which is contesting on three seats has given two seats to non-Marathis.
Sociologists closely associate language with identity. The economic and demographic change that has taken place in Mumbai has now slowly ignited the process of transforming Mumbai’s identity into a predominantly Hindi-speaking city.
While there is no recent quantitative data available about the origins of each Mumbaikar, a 2011 census report on the mother tongue of residents in the city has shown that respondents who identify Hindi to be their mother tongue has grown by over 40 per cent from 25.88 lakh to 35.98 lakh in Mumbai. At the same time, the number of respondents who said that Marathi is their mother tongue fell by 2.64 per cent from 45.23 lakh in 2001 to 44.04 lakh.
The same census data shows that the population share of people who profess Marathi as their mother tongue has dipped from 37.77 per cent in 2001 to 35.4 per cent in 2011. At the same time, the number of people who claim that their mother tongue is Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu has increased from 46.79 per cent to 52.12 per cent.
This gradual change in the composition of Mumbai has had an important bearing not only on planning and governance but also in shaping the politics of the city.