Shiv Sena

Not to be confused with Shiv Sena (UBT) or Shiv Sena (2022–Present).
For other uses, see Shiv Sena (disambiguation).
Shiv Sena
FounderBal Thackeray
Founded19 June 1966 (1966-06-19)
Dissolved10 October 2022
Succeeded byShiv Sena (2022–Present)
Shiv Sena (UBT)
HeadquartersShivsena Bhavan, Dadar, Mumbai, Maharashtra
NewspaperSaamana
Marmik
Student wingBharatiya Vidyarthi Sena (BVS)
Youth wingYuva Sena
Women's wingShiv Sena Mahila Aghadi
IdeologyConservatism (Indian)[1]
Social conservatism[2]
Marathi regionalism
Hindutva[3]
Hindu nationalism[4]
Ultranationalism[5][6][7]
Economic nationalism[8]
Right-wing populism[9]
Political positionFar-right[10][11]
Colours  Saffron
ECI StatusState Party
Alliance
Election symbol
[12]

Shiv Sena (Śhiva Sēnā; lit. 'Army of Shivaji'; abbr. SHS) was a right-wing Marathi regionalist Hindutva-based political party in India founded in 1966 by Bal Thackeray, who was later succeeded by Uddhav Thackeray.[13] The party is split into two parties: the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) which has a new symbol of Mashaal (Torch) and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena (2022–Present) which has gotten hold of the original party name and the "bow and arrow" symbol.

Initially apolitical, the organisation was patronised by the then Chief Minister Vasantrao Naik who used it for curbing trade unions and maintain stranglehold of the Congress.[14][15][16] The organisation at the same time carried out pro-Marathi nativist movement in Mumbai in which it agitated for preferential treatment for the Marathi people over migrants from other parts of India.[17]

Although Shiv Sena's primary base always remained in Maharashtra, it tried to expand to a pan-Indian base. In the 1970s, it gradually moved from advocating a pro-Marathi ideology to supporting a broader Hindu nationalist agenda,[18] and aligned itself with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Shiv Sena took part in Mumbai (BMC) municipal elections for its entire existence. In 1989, it entered into an alliance with the BJP for Lok Sabha as well as Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections. The alliance in the latter was temporarily broken in the 2014 elections due to seat sharing adjustment, although it was quickly reformed. Shiv Sena was one of the founding members of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 1998, and it also participated in Vajpayee Government from 1998 to 2004 and the Narendra Modi Government from 2014 to 2019.

After 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election, the party left the alliance after disagreements with BJP over the CM post. Under Uddhav Thackeray, Shiva Sena formed an alliance with its historic rivals, the Indian National Congress and Nationalist Congress Party[19][20][21] Following the 2022 Maharashtra political crisis, the party split.

The party once had a powerful hold over the Hindi film industry.[22] It has been accused of being an "extremist",[23][24] "chauvinist",[25][26] or "fascist" party.[27][28] Shiv Sena has been allegedly involved in the 1970 communal violence in Bhiwandi, the 1984 Bhiwandi riot, and violence in the 1992–1993 Bombay riots.[29][30]

  1. ^ —"Like Mann Ki Baat and Chai Pe Charcha, Shiv Sena starts branding its public interactions". ThePrint. 22 August 2019. Archived from the original on 16 February 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2020. ...the usually-conservative Shiv Sena has now moved to give itself a branding twist with events like 'Aaditya Samvad','Friends of Aaditya' and 'Mauli Samvad' — with a bit of advice from poll strategist Prashant Kishor.
    —"No chance for young blood? Shiv Sena has bet on ageing war horses, say analysts". The Times of India. 24 March 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2020. Renominations for leaders like Chandrakant Khaire, Bhavna Gawli, Anandrao Adsul and Union minister Anant Gite for the Lok Sabha elections reflect the Shiv Sena's conservative mindset, they added
    —"The Slumdog Millionaire Architect". The New York Times. 19 June 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2020. In 1995, when the conservative Shiv Sena Party took power in elections in Maharashtra state (Mumbai is its capital)...
  2. ^ "Mumbai on high alert after politician dies". Financial Times. 17 November 2012. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022.
  3. ^ Purandare, Vaibhav (2014). Bal Thackeray and the rise of Shiv Sena. Roli Books.
  4. ^ "India's ultra-right Shiv Sena party forms coalition government with seculars". Arab News. 26 November 2019. Archived from the original on 29 November 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  5. ^
    — "South Asia | Indian cricket offices attacked". BBC News. 18 January 1999. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
    —"South Asia | Poll ban for Hindu leader". BBC News. 28 July 1999. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
    —"South Asia | Hindu activists call off cricket protest". BBC News. 21 January 1999. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
    —"Mistry defends book dropped at Mumbai University – Arts & Entertainment – CBC News". Cbc.ca. 19 October 2010. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
    —Mark Magnier (8 March 2012). "In India, battle continues over Hindu temple's riches – latimes". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  6. ^ Joshi, R. (1970). The Shiv Sena: A Movement in Search of Legitimacy. Asian Survey, 10(11), 967–978. doi:10.2307/2642817
  7. ^ Morkhandikar, R. S. (1967). The Shiv Sena—An Eruption of Sub-Nationalism. Economic and Political Weekly, 2(42), 1903–1906. JSTOR 24478083
  8. ^ Kale, Sunila (2014). Electrifying India: Regional Political Economies of Development. Stanford University Press. p. 94.
  9. ^ Freesden, Michael (2013). Comparative Political Thought. Routledge. p. 82.
  10. ^
    —Siddharthya Roy (9 December 2019). "Understanding Maharashtra's Political Game of Thrones". The Diplomat. Retrieved 4 January 2020. The ball now was in the court of the BJP's oldest ally in the state as well as at the central level: the Shiv Sena, a regionalist right-wing force, which won 56 seats
    —Malladi Rama Rao (4 January 2020). "Indian Citizenship Row Did Modi, Shah lose the plot?". BBC. Archived from the original on 3 January 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2020. "Rather than uniting Hindus against Muslims, what the duo have succeeded in doing is to alienate their own hard-core allies, namely the right-wing Shiv Sena and those erring Hindutva fans that had elected the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Assam.
    —Soutik Biswas (18 July 2019). "Maharashtra: The unravelling of India's BJP and Shiv Sena alliance". Asian Tribune. Retrieved 4 January 2020. Consider this. The 53-year-old Shiv Sena is a stridently right-wing Hindu party. It began as an ethnic, nativist outfit to support the interests of Mumbai's Marathi-speaking people.
  11. ^
    —"Shiv Sena attack derails India-Pakistan cricket talks". BBC. 19 October 2015.
    —"Hindu nationalists in India renew demand for temple". The Straits Times. 7 December 2018.
    —"Shiv Sena workers to 'commit suicide' if women enter prominent Kerala temple". The Express Tribune. 15 October 2018.
    —"Shiv Sena received 80% of all donations above Rs 20,000 to regional parties in 2015-'16: Report". Scroll.in. 18 January 2017. Archived from the original on 9 November 2019. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  12. ^ "Eknath Sinde faction gets Shiv Sena party name, bow and arrow symbol". Telangana Today.
  13. ^ Berger, Peter; Heidemann, Frank (3 June 2013). The Modern Anthropology of India: Ethnography, Themes and Theory. Routledge. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-134-06111-2.
  14. ^ "Bal Thackeray". revolutionarydemocracy.org. 19 November 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  15. ^ Patel, Sujata; Thorner, Alice (1995). Bombay: Metaphor for Modern India. Oxford India paperbacks. Oxford University Press. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-19-563688-8. The then chief minister of Maharashtra, Vasantrao Naik, deliberately encouraged this newly formed political grouping— despite its narrow concern with Maharashtra for Maharashtrians - to break the stranglehold of the Left unions
  16. ^ Srivastava, A. (2022). Sensex Of Regional Parties: Bestseller Book by Aaku Srivastava: Sensex Of Regional Parties. Prabhat Prakashan. p. 80. ISBN 978-93-5521-236-8.
  17. ^ "Why does Shinde rebellion hit so hard? A look at Shiv Sena's history". 28 June 2022.
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rediff article: sons of the soil, lungi slogan, shakhas, south Indians in 1970, shift to Hindutva, defeat of communists/ was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ "Shinde to Uddhav: Have you become secular now?". The Indian Express. 22 September 2022. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  20. ^ Banerjee, Shoumojit (10 April 2022). "Shiv Sena has turned pseudo-secular, says Devendra Fadnavis". The Hindu. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  21. ^ "शिवसेना आधीपेक्षा मावळ झाली आहे का?". BBC Marathi. Retrieved 20 February 2023.[permanent dead link‍]
  22. ^ Dean, Nelson (19 October 2010). "Author Rohinton Mistry slams Mumbai University after book ban". telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
  23. ^ Ahmed, Z.S.; Balasubramanian, R. (2010). Extremism in Pakistan and India: The Case of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Shiv Sena. Colombo: Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS).
  24. ^ Mehta, Ved (1994). Rajiv Gandhi and Rama's Kingdom. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 157. ISBN 9780300060386.
  25. ^ Bagchi, Amiya (2002). Capital and Labour Redefined:India and the Third World. London: Anthem Press. p. 344.
  26. ^ Kaminsky, Arnold (2011). India Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 628.
  27. ^ Chandavarkar, Rajnayaran (3 September 2009). History, Culture and the Indian City (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-521-76871-9.
  28. ^ Jeff Haynes (7 April 2011). Religion, Politics and International Relations. Taylor & Francis. p. 150. ISBN 978-1-136-73753-4. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
  29. ^ Human Rights Watch World Report 1999. Human Rights Watch. 1998. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-56432-190-9.
  30. ^ Brown, Cynthia (1995). Playing the "communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights. Human Rights Watch. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-56432-152-7.