Art News

Culture War Brews in Indian City of Mumbai

By: Erika Kinetz, Associated Press
MUMBAI (AP).- A battle for the cultural soul of Mumbai is brewing between Hindu radicals and the cosmopolitan urbanites who are the global face of this Indian city. The radicals appear to be winning. In the last few weeks, the Shiv Sena group has blocked the broadcast of a hit reality show — after its mob tried to storm the filming set — and convinced the prestigious University of Mumbai to ban from its curriculum an acclaimed novel, saying it offends the local Marathi-speaking people. The conflicts are a reminder of the power of divisive politics in the world’s largest democracy and the fragile balance of diversity in India’s most globalized city. Shiv Sena emerged during the 1960s and bills itself as the defender of the Marathi speakers in Mumbai — the capital of India’s financial and entertainment industries, which has attracted generations of migrants, resulting in an ethnically and culturally diverse population of some 18