Maratha quota agitation: Origins, challenges, and political implications

Although Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil broke his fast after Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's cajoling; the issue has not died down. The activist, who became a household name owing to the issue flaring across the state in the last two months, will soon be touring Maharashtra for the long time pending reservation

How did it come about?

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The issue flared since the Jalna lathi-charge incident. A violent clash broke out between the police and protestors in the Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district on September 1. Jarange-Patil, an unknown figure hitherto, had been on a hunger strike there since August 29.

While the cops alleged they only used brute force since protestors pelted stones and security personnel, the agitators maintain that the cops were aggressors which resulted in grievous injuries to some.

What ensued was a political slugfest which continued despite Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis offering public apologies. Meanwhile, Jarange began an indefinite hunger strike and only called it off after repeated cajoling from CM Shinde that the government would give Kunbi caste certificates. He gave them a 40-day deadline for the same.

Although CM had established a committee to look into the matter and come up with a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), upon the expiry of the deadline Jarange initiated his second hunger strike insisting all politicians be banned from entering villages until Marathas received their quota.

He has since then called off his hunger strike after a government delegation convinced him to grant more time to grant the reservation.

Is it difficult for the government to grant reservations to Marathas, why?

Abhay Deshpande, a renowned political analyst, speaking to mid-day.com said that the government tried twice to grant Marathas reservation but the case did not survive in the Supreme Court.

He explains, "The basic reason behind their failure is that according to the Indira Sawhney judgement of the Supreme Court, a maximum 50 per cent reservation can be granted. The limit can be exceeded only in extraordinary circumstances," and added, "The Maharashtra government could not prove that Marathas were being given reservation under extraordinary circumstances."

Speaking about the issuance of the Kunbi certificates to the Maratha community members, he said that the government cannot immediately grant everyone certificates since it could create tensions with the OBC community.

History of the Maratha reservation movement

When quizzed about how the movement for the Maratha reservation began, Prof Dr Balasaheb Sarate explained that though the current movement is referred to as the Maratha quota movement, it is the Kunbi farmers' movement. "The people of Marathwada we refer to as Marathas were traditionally Kunbis. They still are dependent on traditional agrarian occupation and largely live in rural areas," he said.

He explained that according to Ganjendra Gadkar judgement of 1963, there were three indicators of social backwardness-poverty, rural habitation and either labour-extensive work or low-remunerative occupation (long-term). He said the judgement also stated that caste cannot be the sole reason for reservation.

"Subsequent judgements in two other cases, the court had upheld that caste cannot be the sole reason to grant reservation. However, in 1967, under a government resolution, an arbitrary caste was declared as OBC. Maratha, Mali, Bhandari, Gurjar, and Vani were excluded and there was no explanation offered. The reservation's foundation is unconstitutional in Maharashtra," he said and added that without any report or justification, different castes were added to the list.
He explained in six decades, no such study has been undertaken in the state.

Dr Sarate added that Marathwada was a very backward region and no development had happened in the region. However, because of the nomenclature of Maratha, they were unable to access the reservation.

"Until the 1970s, there was not much literacy in the community. To prove we are Kunbis, we needed records but due to illiteracy, we did not have access to the documents. Even the Mandal Commission, referred to Maratha as a forward Hindu caste without justification. Only this commission treated the Maratha community as such," the reservation researcher added.

He said that Marathas' representation in politics was obscure and until 1955, the community was out of politics.

"The Supreme Court, during the Indira Sawhney judgement, stated that every state and union territory will establish a Backward Commission and it was made responsible for checking the backwardness of communities mentioned in the list OBC. The court also put a ceiling of 50 per cent and they gave a pre-condition that frequent review had to be done. However in Maharashtra, till 1994, no commission was formed violating the judgement and arbitrarily they suddenly increased OBC's reservation by 16 per cent," he said.

Dr Sarate, who has worked as an expert researcher for the collection of empirical data for the Justice Gaikwad Commission, said that up until March 23, 1994, the state of Maharashtra had only 34 per cent reservation and arbitrary rise blocked any chances of Maratha community claiming the reservation. This became the root cause of the quota issue, he stated.

While explaining further, he said the application of 50 per cent reservation in the education system, policies becoming more urban-region centric due to globalisation and the same communities receiving political reservation and thus this disabled the Kunbi community who was known as Marathas could not avail any benefits.

"People had grown resentful due to being denied reservation benefits for nearly three decades, which took a form of agitation," he said.

The agitation began after a due homework and thus we demanded to be recognised as Kunbis and this became more pronounced. Marathas in Marathwada were genuinely backward and the movement only got support from various communities.

Understanding Jarange's success

When speaking about Jarange-Patil's success, who has now become a prominent face of the Maratha quota issue, Dr Sarate said that the activist studied well before reigniting the movement.

"Marathwada's geographical conditions are different. Jarange visited over a hundred villages in the region and convinced everyone to collectively fight for the reservation for the long term.

He said in 2016, the Khopardi case was a proximate cause for the movement to intensify, and in 2023, the cause became the state's lathi charge. It became national news since Sharad Pawar immediately visited the site.

"The government was forced to acknowledge the movement. The lathi charge also shifted the focus of people's sympathies and following that incident, Jarange too became a hero for the community," he said,

Question looms large
When asked about how can the researchers prove the backwardness of the community, Dr Sarate noted that it could be done through methodology or modality. "The real question is what will the government do if the backwardness is proven," he noted.

Deshpande, too, stated that the government is walking on a tightrope. Upon being asked about the political ramifications of the issue, he said, "Right now, people can only make assumptions about it. Secondly, when a community is polarised on an issue, the community whose interest will be hurt by this will also be reversed polarised. I think that after two months, we will get to know whether the government or the opposition will benefit from the prevalent agitations."