Mumbai has always been perceived as the New York of India – where the people were more refined, less brash and aggressive, more cultured. Women were always considered safer in Mumbai, more than any other urban center in India, in fact, because you just did not have any of the blatant chauvinism of the north or the stifling traditionalism of the south. Mumbai, or Bombay as it used to be known, was the home of India’s film industry, and from where the entire nation took its cues when it came to fashion, trend, and music.
Bombay Bygone
But today, almost none of that holds true. It is almost as if the change of name - part of a renaming frenzy that overtook India’s politicians in the end of the last century, and four of India’s five metros were rechristened with less Anglicized names – has also changed the very nature of the city.
‘Bombay’s’ underworld was renowned for its omnipresent and violent nature, but in truth it never affected or interfered with the lives of the Mumbaikars. But in post-Bombay era, with the rise of homegrown political parties like the Shiv Sena and the MNS, a new culture of hooliganism, violence and aggression seems to have infected the formerly metropolitan nature of the city. And now it affects everyone. Frequent ‘strikes’ are called by one political party or another, where you have to toe the line and shut down your business, not go to work or simply be afraid for you and your family’s safety. You can choose to go against the mob, of course, but it is another feature of the city that most people prefer not to.
A Culture of Violence
The slim electoral successes of these parties – in spite of their purported claim to be fighting for the indigenous population, the ‘sons of the soil’ - is a ray of light at the end of the tunnel, faint as it may be. But when the entire culture of political discourse has been changed, can any future movement, on whichever side of whichever fence it may be, afford to be seen as ‘weak?’ If you cannot bend the entire city to your will, can you really make a mark for yourself here? Have these parties set a tone which will be difficult to change, at least in the near future?
Rising instances of rapes and kidnappings, murders and suicides also point at the fraying veneer of Mumbai as a cosmopolitan hub. These were things that locals always said, ‘oh those kinds of things happen in Delhi, not here.’ Not anymore. The local politicians may cry themselves hoarse that this is directly attributable to the unwanted northerners immigrating to the city, but it is a fallacious argument. Mumbai has always been a city of immigrants, from all over India. Never was its very soul so much in danger.
