RENAMING Bombay as Mumbai, India's financial and industrial capital in the western state of Maharashtra, will be just one of many changes the progressive city will experience under the newly-elected Hindu fundamentalist government.
Over the next few months the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition plans to introduce statewide prohibition, ban English in favour of Marathi, the local language, and enforce military training in schools and colleges.
But, above all, it will review all major contracts awarded to overseas corporations by the outgoing Congress (I) government and opt for indigenous entrepreneurship over multinational tie-ups, slowing down India's four-year old market reform policies and making investors nervous.
The BJP's victory in neighbouring Gujarat, India's second most industrialised state is also making businessmen tense as party leaders have already said that 'globalisation is out'.
But above all, Maharashtra's Hindu government, committed to Hindu hegemony, spells trouble for Bombay's 1.2 million Muslims and over two million non-Maharashtrians settled in the state for generations.
For, Shiv Sena, named after Shivaji the 17th century Maratha warrior who successfully fought Muslim armies, is committed to cleansing the state of Muslims and outsiders.
