100 Maratha groups behind the faceless protests across state

MUMBAI: The silent Maratha protests gripping the state, portrayed as a faceless agitation led by the people, are backed by nearly 100 organisations across districts

MUMBAI: The silent Maratha protests gripping the state, portrayed as a faceless agitation led by the people, are backed by nearly 100 organisations across districts and a core of hardline organisations that have been working in the state for more than two decades.

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The protests were triggered by the brutal rape and murder of a minor in Kopardi in western Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district in July this year. What is now a huge state-wide mobilisation of the community began with small local rallies in Ahmednagar and later in Marathawada – both regions marked by strong caste politics – after the Class 8 student was gang raped, tortured and murdered by three Dalit labourers when she was on her way home from her grandfather’s house.

But the big rallies began with a call by the Sakal Maratha Samaj – an umbrella group of nine organisations - on August 10 in Aurangabad. The rally not only saw an unexpected turnout, but also got several organisations across districts joining the movement in just a month-and-a half.

The first rally was not taken seriously by the administration or Maratha politicians, but it set a pattern for the rallies to come – non-violence, young women protesters, the absence of leaders and remarkable discipline – all of which marked a shift from the community’s history.

Many hardline groups, such as the Maratha Mahasangh, the Maratha Seva Sangh, Sambhaji Brigade, Chaava and Jijau Brigade, started joining the protests. These Shivaji-cult organisations are also distinctly anti-Brahmin and have been seen as close to the Nationalist Congress Party – dubbed a party of Marathas. They have been for several years spearheading the community’s demands, including reservations. And, in the past, they have successfully galvanised the unrest among the youth over issues of injustice, honour and victimisation. One example is the Sambhaji Brigade’s vandalism of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune in 2003-04. The organisation was protesting against a controversial book on Shivaji by American author James Laine.

What is significant is that all such protests were seen as political and have stayed on the fringes.

Why has the community shunned leadership and political support?

“We held a round table conference at Satara two years ago and envisaged massive protests across the state over reservation, but a majority of the participants had political links. The community is fed up of the established leadership of the community as it has been equally exploitative and promises haven’t been kept. This led to the idea of leaderless, silent protests, even though all our organisations have been active since the beginning,” said a leader privy to organising the marches.

After the success of the first few rallies, the leaders representing these organizations and political parties tried to hijack the show, but sources said they were shown the door.

“Spiritual leader Bhaiyyuji Maharaj, Shivaji descendents Udayanraje Bhosale and Sambhaji Raje tried to intervene at various levels, but they had to bear the brunt over social media. Even political leaders across party lines have been kept at bay and they have been asked to join the marches from the rear rows. They have been prohibited from giving any reaction to the media,’’ one organiser said.

“Recently, even leaders of the Opposition were told to stay away from the government’s offer to join them for the dialogue with the community,” the organiser said.

Insiders, however, reveal that political leaders, industrialists and bureaucrats from the community have been chipping in with expenses for the rallies.

“It takes but an hour to collect funds. In a majority of the districts here, local politicians across party lines have contributed to fund-raising in our personal capacities, as just regular participants,” a Congress politician from Marathwada told HT.

“The established leadership has been kept away from organising the protests as the community is disillusioned with its leaders. I would not be surprised to see if a handful Maratha ‘empires’ in politics bite the dust in the near future,” said Kumar Saptarshi, a socio-political analyst.

Pradip Salukhe of Maratha Seva Sangh said that the silent protests across the state are the result of the movement run by various Maratha organisations for the past few years.

“Although none of the organisations is a driving force behind the protests and we have been putting a united show, we have been working on the issue for more than 15 years. Today, smaller groups have been formed at district and taluka levels, with different names to gather people under one flag. It is nothing but the outcome of the thought process and brainstorming put in place by us for years,” Salukhe said.

The state’s history shows Maratha-led organisations have played active roles in showing their unrest against the government, whenever the community has realised to have loosing its grip on power. Some of this was felt in the 1980s over the appointment of AR Antulay, a Muslim Congressman, as the CM or the establishment of the Shiv Sena-BJP government headed by a Brahmin CM in 1995, the organizations have played active role in the keeping unrest burning.

Besides Kopardi, the Fadnavis government’s attempt to target the cooperative sector controlled by the Marathas has also proved to be a crucial reason for the uproar, observers said.