Mumbai: The coastal belt of Konkan, especially Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts, is now the Hindutva battleground in Maharashtra. At least three communal incidents have been reported in the past one month. And, coinciding with this uptick in tension is the growth of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and, particularly, the Rane brothers, in this otherwise pristine, idyllic region.
In December, Nilesh and Nitesh Rane won assembly polls from this region. Nilesh from Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena won from Kudal, while BJP’s Nitesh retained Kankavli yet again. Nitesh, the younger son of former Union minister Narayan Rane, went on to become a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis-led cabinet.
Both brothers, especially Nitesh, have been pushing the Hindutva agenda aggressively across the state. The aggression has now also spilled over into their own backyard. The latest such episode took place 12 March in Rajapur, a town in Ratnagiri district, when during the Shimga festival (a week-long festival that coincides with Holi), a group carrying a tree trunk rammed at the gates of the Jama Masjid.
Nitesh, the Hindutva’s new poster boy in Maharashtra, is unabashed in his Hindutva zeal despite the shock and condemnation over the communal incidents like the one reported in Rajapur. If that was not enough, the Maharashtra minister has openly supported the destruction of Aurangzeb’s tomb in a Babri-like demolition by Hindutva outfits.
Not to be left behind is Nilesh, who is known to often use foul language against his opponents.
The Kudal MLA had supported the demolition of a scrap dealer’s shop after the latter’s son was accused to have chanted “anti-India slogans” in Malvan town after the Indian cricket team defeated Pakistan in a Champions Trophy match.
“We will expel this migrant scoundrel from the district, but before that, we will immediately destroy his scrap metal business,” the Shiv Sena MLA had posted on X. Malvan town falls under Kudal constituency.
Earlier, on 10 February, in Zarap village near the Kudal highway in Sindhudurg, a small tea stall run by a local Muslim man was bulldozed over an argument with tourists. Nilesh Rane lodged a police complaint after which the shop was bulldozed. He then arranged a grand rally in Zarap.
ThePrint reached Nilesh and Nitesh Rane through phone calls for their comments. The report will be updated as and when a response is received.
According to the 2011 Census, Ratnagiri district has 80 percent Hindus while 11.5 percent Muslims. Out of this, Rajapur taluka has 65 percent Hindus and 32 percent Muslim population.
Sindhudurg, according to the census, had about 90 percent Hindus while Muslims comprised 4 percent of the population. Kudal has 86 percent Hindu population.
In Konkan region, local residents say that despite its sizable Muslim population, both Hindus and Muslims have been living in harmony and participating in each other’s festivals. The region sees a lot of migration especially to Mumbai and Thane, as they are geographically closer.
Ajinkya Gaikwad, assistant professor of politics at a Mumbai college, said with depleting job opportunities and rising economic hardships, people are getting destabilised, desperation and anxiety. “And identity politics, if kicked in at such times, tends to work,” he told ThePrint.
For many years, Konkan has been the bastion of the undivided Shiv Sena. But the BJP began making inroads into the region in the past one decade. Post the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena, the Sena voters got divided, giving an opportunity to the BJP to make inroads in the region.
“This is definitely the doing of the Rane family, especially Nitesh. He has started creating obstruction during festivals that is why such incidents are growing,” former Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg MP Vinayak Raut told ThePrint.
Raut, a Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader, had lost to BJP’s Narayan Rane in the last year’s Lok Sabha elections.
“Konkan had been peaceful all this while but nowadays, threats, bullying, and provocative language is being used and that is why such incidents are happening. There is a concentrated effort to keep the communal pot boiling in Konkan,” he added.
Whatever used to happen in the rest of the state, it never affected the region in the past but because of the Rane family, rift has been created deliberately, the former MP alleged.
“Yes. They (Rane brothers) speak very frankly but every party has different types of people. They have a role to keep the pro-Hindutva cause going. Sometimes when they go a bit overboard, the party reins in them whenever needed. Devendra Fadnavis ji is capable enough to look after us,” a BJP functionary told ThePrint.
But with the sons becoming MLAs and then Narayan Rane becoming the MP of Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg later in 2024, the family’s influence has been only growing in the region.
Also Read: How VHP, Bajrang Dal protests over Aurangzeb’s tomb spiralled into a night of mayhem in Nagpur
Communal incidents on the rise
Konkani Muslims are more culturally connected with the region—be it language, culture, and food— rather than being seen as people of different religious identity. “When there is ethno-linguistic identity, there is less of a communal divide,” said Gaikwad.
Even when the Babri Masjid-related riots took place in Mumbai in 1992, it did not have major repercussions in the region. But now, things have slowly started to change. During Shimga around Holi, a tradition in Konkan wherein statues of local goddesses are taken out in a procession and the trunk of a coconut tree is carried across villages. When the procession crosses the mosque, the trunk is temporarily placed on the steps there as a mark of respect before the crowd moves ahead towards Dhopeshwar temple.
This ritual comes every five years and is done for two years in a row. Since it coincided with Ramzan, the gate of the mosque in Rajapur was shut as Taraweeh prayer was going on. In the above-mentioned video, a group of people is seen ramming the gate with the log amidst din.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi took to social media to condemn the episode and questioned Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the home minister of the state. “Sir Dev_Fadnavis will LAW take its own course?Is it shameful that a Masjid is attacked in the presence of Police,” he posted on X.
Konkan has been very peaceful and unique when it comes to Hindu-Muslim unity, Owais Pechkar, a lawyer by profession and a local resident, told ThePrint.
He gave an example of a temple in nearby Chiplun city where the deity’s procession passes through the Muslim villages. A Muslim family called Chowgule is the custodian of the goddess’s ornaments; the family lives opposite the temple.
“In many parts of Konkan where this Shimga festival takes place, it is a tradition that the Muslim community is accorded respect and their participation is sought. But such incidents are happening now because power is centric to one or two families—the Ranes and the Samants,” he said, referring to Shiv Sena’s Kiran Samant and his younger brother Uday, a three-term MLA from Ratnagiri and Maharashtra’s industries minister.
Communal tension has been growing since the past year or so and there is a pattern to it. In Rajapur itself, Pechkar said, there is a local dargah Noor-e-Alam, which Sakal Hindu Samaj and other Hindutva outfits have been claiming it to be a sun temple.
“This has come all of a sudden out of the blue and after so many years. The locals are concerned about it, and I have been overseeing the legal side of it. Communal tension is growing,” he said.
After the Rajapur incident, Uday Samant, who is also the guardian minister of Ratnagiri, appealed for peace, and warned of dire consequences if anyone was found guilty, without mentioning any community.
“If you work against the country, you will face action and be taught a lesson,” Samant said in a press conference on 13 March.
Konkani people, according to Gaikwad, were connected with each other on environmental issues and other issues related to their region. It was easier to bring people together as one and not divide them into different sects and religions, he said.
“Be it Hindus-Muslims, they would come together for the sake of the environment. They did not prefer major developments in the region. But BJP wants to bring in industries and development,” said Gaikwad.
“But if there is identity politics that is stronger, people get divided and other issues take a back seat because the main issue becomes religion and identity as a Hindu or Muslim. And so I feel, these days the incidents are growing.”
The Rane family
The Ranes have a history of jumping parties. Starting his career from Shiv Sena, Narayan Rane rose to become the chief minister in 1999 for a brief period. Post his disagreement with Uddhav Thackeray, he joined the Congress in 2005 and remained there until 2017. His sons followed him. The senior Rane briefly formed an independent party in 2017, only to merge it with the BJP in 2019.
Since 2019, the Ranes have picked up on hardline Hindutva. Nitesh Rane has particularly raised the anti-Muslim pitch since the last three years or so. There are multiple FIRs against him for making inflammatory speeches. He has also been on the forefront at the rallies of Hindu Sakal Samaj, an extreme Right-wing outfit.
When the Ranes were in Congress, they were not so much of hardliners and “this has never really happened in Konkan before”, Pechkar said.
For the BJP, there are two major political advantages that the Rane family brings to the table. One, the members of the Rane clan have potential as nuisance creators for the Thackerays, given the long-standing acrimony between the two sides. Secondly, their presence helped the BJP gain a foothold in the Konkan region, a Sena bastion that the party had otherwise been unable to gain a foothold.
The Ranes act independently as per a “political arrangement”, Gaikwad claims. “For Ranes, the BJP gives them shelter while it derives multiple benefits. It is a quid pro quo between them. The BJP wanted the party to make inroads into Konkan, increase presence in Mumbai-Thane, and lastly some leader who could be on street like Shiv Sena in Konkan,” the political science professor said.
“BJP off lately, has been trying to keep a moderate face while also catering to the Hindutva ideology. So, they need people like the Ranes.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
