Uddhav Thackeray, chief of the Shiv Sena, will become the next chief minister of Maharashtra when he takes oath at Mumbai's iconic Shivaji Park on Thursday evening. Shivaji Park at Dadar is more than a mere venue for sports events and political gatherings—many regard it as the birthplace of the Shiv Sena.
Created during the British era in 1925 as the Mahim Park, the venue was renamed after Maratha icon emperor Shivaji in 1927. While famous for gatherings of freedom fighters during the independence struggle, Shivaji Park was also the venue for playwright Pralhad Keshav Atre to attract attention for the Samyukta Maharashtra movement for forming a united state.
Atre addressed massive crowds at Shivaji Park to rally support for the movement to create a Marathi-speaking state from the erstwhile Bombay province. The new state was eventually formed on May 1, 1960.
Shivaji Park has also been prominent as a cricketing venue, having cradled legends such as Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar and Vijay Manjrekar in their formative years. However, Shivaji Park is most notable for being a venue of political gatherings of multiple parties, the most prominent being the Shiv Sena.
On October 30, 1966, Bal Thackeray, the founder of the Shiv Sena, addressed the party's first public rally on the occasion of Dussehra. In Hindu Hriday Samrat: How the Shiv Sena Changed Mumbai Forever, a biography of Bal Thackeray, journalist Sujata Anandan writes that Bal Thackeray was actually intending to hold the party's first rally in a "small town hall or a school ground" with the aim of testing the waters.
Anandan writes that Madhav Deshpande, an associate of Bal Thackeray, persuaded him to "go for Shivaji Park, Bombay’s best known and, perhaps, the largest open space, a rallying ground for all political parties".
Bal Thackeray had advertised the rally only in his weekly Marmik and not even put up posters.
Anandan writes that the public response "stunned" Bal Thackeray as Shivaji Park was overflowing with people on that day. The crowd was mostly from the working class and unemployed people who felt drawn to Bal Thackeray's rhetoric that the then-ruling Congress had been ignoring Marathi sentiments, and outsiders had been flooding into Bombay (as Mumbai was then known).
Shivaji Park thus became an integral part of Shiv Sena history as Bal Thackeray used the venue every year to advocate the cause of Marathi pride and, more controversially, target migrants, who he alleged took away opportunities from the natives.
The Dusseshra rally at Shivaji Park was undoubtedly more significant for the Shiv Sena than similar events for other parties as it often set the ideological narrative for the outfit.
Bal Thackeray would begin his address at Shivaji Park by garlanding a statue of Shivaji, which was installed at the premises.
After his death, Bal Thackeray was cremated at Shivaji Park in November 2012. After his death, the Shiv Sena demanded that Shivaji Park be renamed as 'Shiv Tirth' as the venue housed a memorial for Bal Thackeray. Arguing for the proposal soon after Bal Thackeray's cremation, Saamana, the Shiv Sena mouthpiece, argued, "There are innumerable parks named after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj across Mumbai and Maharashtra. But why has Shivaji Park gained such prominence in the entire country? Because of Bal Thackeray."
Saamana even equated Bal Thackeray with Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Shivaji. Unsurprisingly, the proposal to rename Shivaji Park found little support from other political parties.
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In 2010, the Bombay High Court ordered that Shivaji Park be declared a silent zone, restricting political gatherings. However, the Shiv Sena has continued rallies there by obtaining prior permission.
Uddhav Thackeray and the Shiv Sena have been criticised for allying with the Congress, considered a rival party. But when Uddhav takes oath on Thursday at Shivaji Park in the presence of Congress leaders, he would not exactly be breaking tradition. One of the prominent dignitaries at the first public meeting of the Shiv Sena at Shivaji Park in 1966 was Ramrao Adik, a Congress leader. Adik was considered a supporter of the Shiv Sena and the grand old party used the Shiv Sena's loyal cadre to subdue militant trade union activism in Bombay in the 1960s and 70s.
So, instead of a historic tie-up, Shivaji Park will arguably witness a 'reunion' between the Shiv Sena and Congress!