Bal Thackeray: The mascot of Marathi pride

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From drawing cartoons with potent messages to etching for himself a larger-than-life image on Maharashtra's political landscape, Bal Thackeray was the mascot of Marathi pride and Hindutva who aroused extreme emotions but could never be ignored.

A rabble-rouser, the 86-year-old Shiv Sena supremo was idolised with almost God-like devotion by his frenzied sainiks and demonised in equal measure by detractors.

The maverick ways of Thackeray--Maharashtra's tallest leader--always led both his friends and rivals to underestimate him politically as he called the shots in state politics, often playing the role of a kingmaker without himself becoming the king. For some, the Tiger of Maharashtra was also a cultural icon.

Thackeray, a fiery orator who could bring the country's bustling financial capital to a standstill with a wave of his finger, started out as a cartoonist alongside R.K. Laxman at the English daily Free Press Journal in the late 1950s. But he soon charted a new course when he launched a cartoon weekly
'Marmik' in 1960.

The weekly contained satirical pieces that fired up the 'Marathi manoos' to fight for their identity and existence in a city witnessing growing influx of migrants.

Thackeray's pro-Marathi plank, that propounded 'Maharashtra for Maharashtrians', saw his party breaking ranks with his long-standing ideological ally BJP in 2007 presidential election when he chose to back UPA's presidential nominee, Pratibha Patil, who is a Maharashtrian.

He even criticised cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar in 2009 for remarking that Mumbai belonged to the whole of India. Thackeray took to politics as fish to water as he launched Shiv Sena on June 19, 1966 to champion the cause of Marathi 'sons-of-the-soil', seeking job security for Maharashtrians, who were then facing stiff competition from Gujaratis and south Indians.

The frail-looking Thackeray, through his fiery oratory skills, caught the imagination of young Maharashtrians which many felt bordered on jingoism and chauvinism.

Born on January 23, 1926, he was the second of four children of Kesav Sitaram Thackeray, a writer who actively participated in the 'Samyukta Maharashtra Andolan' -- the movement for creation of a separate state for Marathi-speaking people with Bombay as its capital.