Caste politics during Shivaji’s time that took place in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu

Shraddha Kumbhokkar, professor and head of the history department of Savitribhai Phule University, Pune, while recalling Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s nephew Raj Thackeray, asked NCP (Sharad Chandra Pawar) leader Sharad Pawar who is the person to whom all Maharashtrians belong. Accepted and liked. Mr. Raj was implying that Mr. Pawar was that person, only for the latter to say that it was Chhatrapati Shivaji. As Mr. Pawar said, various political forces and caste groups in Maharashtra today took the oath of Shivaji, which was evident in the recent Maharashtra assembly elections.

Caste equations in Maharashtra and how Shivaji sought and received Brahmin approval for his coronation were the subjects of a Tamil drama two years before independence. ShivajiKanda Hindu Rajyam It was a play by DMK founder CN Annadurai who asked how and why Brahmins could have the right to deny a brave warrior, who had heroically won freedom for his people from the Mughals, was crowned as the king of the Maratha Empire.

Anna’s intentions were clear: he was giving a political message to the Tamils. Incidentally, the Marathi Brahmins of Shivaji’s time spoke the contemporary Tamil Brahmin lingo in his plays. The plot of the play is a set of events of Shivaji’s coronation which is opposed by some Brahmins as he is a Shudra, a farmer. A devoted Brahmin follower of Shivaji, Moropant (Pingle) opposes the coronation on caste grounds. But the high-caste Kayastha Chitnis are adamant and come up with a plan to get Gaga Bhatt’s approval, a Brahmin from Varanasi. The Brahmins of Maharashtra assure that if Bhatt approves, they too will.

At first, Bhatt was angry. He then agrees, seeing the possibility of continued Brahmin supremacy, as it would show that even the highly popular and respected Shivaji wanted their approval. Bhatt takes out huge amounts – money, jewellery ThulabaramA month-long festival for Brahmins, and so on. Moropant convinced the Bhattas against Shivaji’s coronation and said that Shivaji would then create a dynasty of Shudras. Bhatt then comes up with a devious plot and tells Chitnis to crown Chitnis instead of Shivaji. This infuriates the loyal Chitnis. Seeing the absolute and fierce devotion of the Chitnis, Bhatt again flip-flopped to Shivaji’s side, though not wholeheartedly.

Parimalmaya Sudhakar, associate professor of MIT World Peace University, according to folklore, used to apply tilak on Shivaji’s forehead not with his fingers but with his feet during the coronation.

Pvt. Kumbhojkar says that there is no record that Moropant was against Shivaji’s coronation but Chitnis had a grudge against the Brahmins for refusing his request. Upanayanam for his sons. The Chitnis, Prabhu, being a Kayastha, put themselves on the same level as the Brahmins, only to show them their “true” position, she adds. Shivaji’s loyal soldier Chandramohan does not accept till the end. He advocates not taking the approval of Brahmins. He asks how Shivaji agreed to host a feast for the Brahmins during a severe drought. Shivaji banishes Chandramohan from the kingdom as an affectionate slur, making it clear that at a critical juncture he cannot pit the Brahmins against him.

Alternative title

Shivaji scandal Hindu Rajyam There is an ‘aka’. It has an alternate title ChandramohanPeriyarwadi of the Shivaji era who was the real hero of the play.

R Kannan, Author The DMK years And Anna’s biographer, states that there is no other reference to Shivaji in any of Anna’s writings and attributes the theme of the play to the fact that Annadurai was a voracious reader who must have read about Shivaji as on many other subjects. . Shivaji and the Maratha kingdom were not alien to the Tamils ​​either.

M. Naganathan, a former vice-chairman of the Education and Tamil Nadu Planning Commission, recalls seeing a ticketed play in Chidambaram. It was so popular, he says, that it was staged many times. In a twist of irony, Anna played Gaga Bhatt.

Mr. Kannan says that DV Narayanaswamy, who later played the role of Chandramohan and whom Anna adored, suggested MG Ramachandran to play Shivaji and the two met for the first time. MGR, however, developed cold feet a week before the premiere of the play. “It was a time when Periyar and his followers were a group espousing highly radical ideas, and MGR wanted to take no risks,” recalls Mr. Kannan.

MGR rejecting the offer became VC Ganesan’s opportunity. Anna gave a 90-page script to Ganesan, who absorbed it within seven hours and cast Anna, says Mr. Kannan. Actors KR Ramasamy and his drama colleagues including Ganesan were under Anna’s care at the time. As a result Ganesan became Sivaji Ganesan, the name Periyar officially gave him when the play was first staged on April 29, 1945 at St. Mary’s Hall, Madras.

Parimalmaya Sudhakar says that in Maharashtra, the story of Shivaji has two narratives: the Hindu warrior who fights the Mughals and the reformist lowborn who convinces his mother not to perform sati, to become a great warrior and king. Mr. Sudhakar says that Hindutva advocates point to the brutal killing of Shivaji’s son by Aurangzeb but remain silent on how Sambhaji was betrayed by Brahmins, leading to his capture.

The Maharashtra elections had just concluded, and there was a debate over who would become the chief minister – the Brahmin, Devendra Fadnavis or the Maratha, Eknath Shinde. Prof. Sudhakar says Brahmins were part of the Congress, the Socialists and the Jana Sangh in Maharashtra until the 1980s when they began to coalesce around the BJP. Recalling how the Brahmin Peshwas re-established their dominance over the Maratha Empire shortly after Shivaji’s death, some critics see a parallel in the ascension of Mr. Fadnavis, the state’s second Brahmin Chief Minister.