It is instructive that language — an anti-Hindi stance — was used as a prop to project a notion of unity, after two decades, between the Brothers Thackeray. Uddhav Thackeray, the leader of what is left of the erstwhile Shiv Sena, and Raj Thackeray, who leads the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, another fringe force in the state, joined hands to protest against a resolution by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government to make Hindi mandatory in state schools from Class I. After all, the allegation of a step-motherly treatment towards Marathi coalesces well with the regional — parochial — sentiments that the Thackerays have traditionally employed to mobilise the Marathi manoos. The Devendra Fadnavis government’s decision to blink on the issue — the official circular has been withdrawn — prompted the once estranged cousins to even pitch for a ‘victory rally’. Even though there is no word yet on a formal pact between the SS(UBT) and the MNS, the two parties may join hands to fight the looming municipal polls; success, if any, in this endeavour may prompt the Thackerays to bid for lost turf across the state. In this, Maratha identity and exceptionalism are expected to play a big role.

But would the Marathi manoos respond positively to the overtures of the cornered Thackerays as they once did when Bal Thackeray had played the original card of provincial bigotry? Mumbai and, arguably, Maharashtra are much-altered entities — culturally and politically. Commerce and its attendant features, cohabitation and cosmopolitanism — Mumbai’s hallmarks — have, time and again, triumphed against narrow, divisive sentiments in this city. In fact, the rowdyism indulged in by especially the MNS in its eagerness to promote Marathi asmita could end up alienating it from the wider electorate. Uddhav Thackeray’s 'liberal' turn is also likely to be tested severely by his decision to re-embrace parochial pettiness. Moreover, the Maratha vote is also splintered, principally on account of the Shiv Sena’s fracturing. Most importantly, the BJP, the dominant political force in Maharashtra — it won 132 of the state’s 288 assembly seats in the last elections — has tasted spectacular electoral success by creating a collective allegiance to an overarching Hindu-Hindutva framework that undermines the kind of regional chauvinism that has been the ace up the Thackerays’ sleeve. So the road to political rehabilitation of the Thackerays is likely to be long and tough.