One of the most controversial and renowned families of Mumbai, the Thackerays have had a lot to say on the migrants that visit and settle in the city of dreams. Evidently, with so much to say, the ancestry of the family itself has been under the lens of several researchers.
In 2012, the current Shiv Sena chief and the newly appointed Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, son of the Thackeray patriarch Balasaheb Thackeray, had once contested a claim put forth by Congress leader Digvijaya Singh that Bal Thackeray had come to Mumbai from Bihar. Digvijaya had come up with the claim based on a book by Bal Thackeray's father, Keshav Sitaram Thackeray.
Keshav Thackeray was a social reformer and a journalist, he was popularly known by his penname, Prabodhan Thackeray. He authored many books during his time.
In his recent book, journalist Dhaval Kulkarni has quoted Keshav Thackeray’s book Gramnyancha Sadyanta Itihas Arhat Nokarshahiche Bande (A History of Village Disputes or Rebellion of the Bureaucracy), stat8ing that the Thackeray family migrated from ancient Magadha (in present-day Bihar) during the reign of Mahapadma Nanda, the last king of the Nanda dynasty.
It was Prabodhan Thackeray who anglicised the family name and from ‘Thakre’, it became ‘Thackeray.’ According to his autobiography, one of his ancestors was a kiladar (custodian of a fort) at fort Dhopad of the Maratha dynasty. The ancestral Thackeray family is believed to have carried the name ‘Thakre’ before moving to Dhopad.
Keshav Thackeray’s grandfather had moved to Panvel and adopted the surname Panvelkar but for his grandson, he deemed the family name Thakre as right. While Keshav did his schooling under the name Thakre, he later anglicised the name after Kolkata-born British author, William Makepeace Thackeray.
