The view from Maratha-OBC ground zero: Bad blood spills onto Marathwada streets
The districts of Beed, Jalna and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar — formerly Aurangabad have emerged as the epicentre of the rising Maratha-OBC conflict
Mumbai: In Marathwada, which has instant recall across the country for its numerous farmers’ suicides, a different kind of tragedy is taking root. The districts of Beed, Jalna and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar — formerly Aurangabad — that form an inverse L on the map of the region, have emerged as the epicentre of the rising Maratha-OBC conflict that is reshaping Maharashtra’s politics.
The region is riven such with calls for economic boycotts and frequent violent protests that Sharad Pawar warned last week that unless the Maratha reservation issue was resolved swiftly, the state could possibly head into a Manipur-like conflict.
The demand for Maratha reservation had been on a slow simmer since the 1980s and each time it threatened to get out of hand, the government of the day would appoint a commission. (Three commissions prior to 2014 had ruled against reservation for the community while a government committee and two commissions have since favoured reservation). But the fracture of politics in Maharashtra after the 2019 Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi combine came into play, has brought the Maratha demands to a boil.
Last year, chief minister Eknath Shinde, a Maratha himself, agreed to allow reservation for Marathas under the fold of the Kunbis. An off-shoot of the Maratha community going back to the rule of the Nizams, the Kunbis get reservation under the OBC quota. This ingenious solution, looking to bypass the Supreme Court-mandated 50% cap on reservation, has deepened the fault lines between the Marathas and the OBCs. An officer from Beed police told HT that over 200 FIRs have been filed for violent inter-community skirmishes in 10 months.
But in a region where financial distress is rampant and obvious, nothing cuts deeper than economic boycott. In Nandurghat village in Kaij taluka of Beed district, the Vanjaris who are the dominant OBC grouping have announced Vanjari farmers will purchase fertilizers and seeds for the kharif season only from one of their own. So far, Rameshwar Deshmukh, a Maratha, has been largest trader for fertilizers and seeds. “There are snaking queues in front of shops owned by the Vanjari trader but they prefer to stand in line for hours rather than go to Deshmukh’s now-empty shop,” said Govind Bikkad, a young Vanjari villager.
Last week, Laxman Hake and Navnath Waghmare who are leading the OBC agitation against the Marathas had to be persuaded by the authorities to reroute their OBC Aarakshan Bachao Jan Aakrosh Yatra away from the village of Antarwali Sarati where Manoj Jarange-Patil was running his agitation. Jarange-Patil, a lanky farmer with a city-slicker’s goatee, has emerged as the leader of the Maratha agitation in the last ten months. “The divide between the two communities runs deep,” says Bikkad, also one of the accused in the violence that broke out in May after a social media post by a Maratha villager against Vanjari leader Pankaja Munde. “We do not attend the last rites or the 13th day death rituals of any member from their community and vice-versa. This boycott extends to happy occasions too like naming ceremonies and weddings.”
Munde’s loss in the Lok Sabha from the prestige family seat of Beed to Bajrang Sonawane, a Maratha candidate from Sharad Pawar-led NCP, shocked the OBCs who are over 52% of the population and marked the beginning of the social and economic boycott. A viral social media post laid out the contours of this boycott. “If you want to buy medicines, see a doctor, eat tobacco, drink tea, or even alcohol, go to the shop or establishment owned by any caste except by a Maratha. You must not engage in any financial transaction with someone who hails from the Maratha community,” says the man in the video, not being named here at the request of the villagers in Mundhewadi where it was filmed. “Even if anyone gathered here wishes to organise a spiritual gathering, you must not invite anybody from the Maratha community. Those breaking this diktat will be fined with ₹2000 and will be boycotted for certain period,” continued the video shot at a temple in Mundhewadi. It sparked violent protests and has been taken down since.
Nandkumar Thakur, superintendent of police, Beed district, said, “There are over 22 cases registered under various sections of Information Technology Act, Indian Penal Code including 153A for spreading hatred in society. Chargesheets in these cases have been filed after action against the accused.” Bandhs, rasta rokos have become a daily occurrence in Parli, a Vanjari-dominated tehsil and in Ambad, the Maratha-dominated tehsil in Jalna, say villagers.
Another police officer from Beed who has been trying to broker peace offers context to the rising ill will. “Mundhewadi is a Vanjari-dominated village but the most of the shops which are a few hundred meters outside the village are all owned by the Marathas and the shopkeepers would often treat the Vanjari clientele shabbily. The intensified tussle between OBCs and Marathas has triggered the economic and social boycott of the Marathas.” This boycott spree from both sides, says Shubham Tambade, a Vanjari who runs an electronics shop in Nandurghat, has resulted in at least 50 per cent loss for business for both communities.
Hotels along highways have started displaying Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s photos prominently to prove their Maratha credentials even at risk of boycott. Deepak Borade, a Vanjari, who runs a hotel in Jafarabad at Jalna said his business had dropped by nearly 80% after the economic boycott.
“We had nothing against Jarange-Patil and the Marathas until the former started seeking the quota under the OBC share,” said Baliram Khatake, the OBC protest coordinator from Wadigodri village. He conceded that though losses were accruing on both sides, the OBC were worse off. “We cannot match the spending capacity of the Marathas and sadly this rift shows no sign of waning anytime soon.”
This is especially remarkable given that when Jarange-Patil first started his campaign for Maratha reservation and protestors were subjected to a brutal police lathi charge on September 1 last year, several OBC villagers had rallied in the protestors’ support, providing food, water, transportation and first aid. But the Maratha demand for reservation under the OBC quota and Jarange-Patil openly putting his weight behind Maratha candidates in the Lok Sabha elections has strained ties. Such was the impact that in seven of Marathwada’s eight constituencies the Maratha candidate won. The only exception was Latur which is a reserved seat. These losses included Pankaja Munde’s, and made worse by a crowing social media post by Nilesh Lanke, the Maratha MP from Ahmednagar which was deleted after violence broke out in Parli tehsil.
Tukaram Saraf, an educationist from Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, said the social upheaval reminds his of the contestations of the 1990s during the renaming of the Marathwada University. “From the time of the Nizamshahi rule this region was divided on the basis of caste basis and it took decades after Independence to restore the social fabric. What we are seeing now is a throwback to troubling times.”
The introduction of politics into this meld of old antagonisms and new anxieties has been like flame to a cloth dipped in oil. For many villagers, caught in the cross-fire, the percolation of this hatred between communities among children, is most troubling. A video of a school girl from Antarwali Sarati recently went viral in which the teenager proclaims that she no longer shares her tiffin or plays with non-Maratha students. “After schools reopened this year, I found some students in the secondary classes bunking school to go around villages with community flags on their bicycles and hailing Jarange-Patil,” said an education extension officer from Ambad taluka.
“A teacher from the OBC community in a Nanegaon school was suspended for issuing an appeal on social media to OBC teachers to boycott Maratha students. His suspension was withdrawn only after OBC organisations made a presentation to the chief officer of district council and showed her hundreds of similar posts by Maratha teachers,” added the officer. A Maratha teacher from a government school in Ambad tehsil was transferred in November last year after he made students from his school take this pledge: Ladhen tar jatisathi, maren tar jatisaathi (will fight for the caste, will die for the caste).
“In this academic session several parents have shifted their wards from one school to another because of the community to which the school owners belonged,” said another district education officer speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Concern that the upcoming assembly elections will likely worsen the situation has led to calls for de-escalation. Earlier this month OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal met Sharad Pawar in Mumbai and asked him to intervene and help cool down temperatures. Pawar met CM Shinde and has announced a tour of the troubled regions in Marathwada staring August 12.
Beed SP Nandkumar Thakur said the police has already withdrawn 36 of the 200 cases registered against Maratha protestors. “This number may go up if the government extends the cut-off date for withdrawal of the social-political cases beyond January 31, 2024. The cases that involve the loss of lives and property however cannot be withdrawn,” he said. During Jarange-Patil’s hunger strike in October-November last year, Maratha protestors had set ablaze the homes and offices of sitting MLAs Prakash Solanke and Sandeep Kshirsagar who belong to Maratha and Teli-OBC community respectively. Another hotel owned by a close aide of Chhagan Bhujbal too was set on fire.
In addition, authorities are reaching out to the spiritual heads of the Marathas and the Vanjaras in Beed. While the Vanjaras worship Bhagwan Gad Tirthkshetra, the Marathas worship Narayan Gad Tirthkshetra, and at both places the religious gurus wield great influence over their flock. However, when asked about a possible intervention, Mahant Namdev Maharaj Shastri, head of Bhagwan Gad Sansthan told HT, “People from all community and religion worship at the Gad and we do not interfere in the political affairs. The rift between the communities is a phase, and will heal only in due time.”