The interior parts of Maharashtra is under political churn once again. Lakhs of angry people are coming out and protesting in the streets on the backdrop of kopardi incident. Yes, lakhs of them. The protesters hails from the “Maratha” community : the most populous and dominant group in the state. The Marathas never-ever in the history of Maharashtra protested in the huge numbers. Kopardi incident may have been just the trigger but the massive crowd have made everyone sit up and think. Why are the Maratha youth so angry? Is this an alarm bell for Fadnavis govt, which is perceived as a non-maratha regime? Does the protesters demands of scrapping Atrocity Act and reservation for Maratha community are legitimate? Why the media-studio’s debating only the atrocity act?
The History
In the context of state's history Marathas have always been dominated the state's politics. Of the the Maharashtra 17 chief ministers 10 have been marathas and over nearly that entire period more than half of all MLAs the state elected have been of that community. Almost 50 to 55 percent of education institutions undergraduate and postgraduate, medical and engineering - across the state are controlled by leaders who represents the Maratha community. Of 200-odd sugar factories 168 are controlled by marathas, of district cooperative banks 70% are controlled by marathas as directors, chairman or panel members.
The Disenchantment And False Enemy
If the Marathas are getting such a massive representation and if they have dominated the state’s politics and controlled most of the economic resources then why are they in the streets?
Over the years Marathas are trapped into the false pride politics. The actual problems of Marathas - the farming community - the growing agrarian crisis where every stage of farming is going out of hands of farmers, the continued water crisis and the loss of pride in farming, were never been on the agenda of that community leaders whereas the false enemies - the muslims and now dalits, were created and told the cause of their problems. The Maratha youths are frustrated because of the poverty, unemployment and less education opportunities and they find the culprit - the reservation policy for their backwardness.
The Hope And Future
It is really encouraging that the most influential players in the state's politics are on the roads. And they will definitely set future discourse of politics in the most positive way. The problem of Marathas being a farming community is they never got a farmer leader except few who could raise the real issues of farmers and apathy still continues. The future lies in getting farming on economic agenda and restoring pride in the farming. Will the Marathas hit roads on farm distress again...?
- Yogesh Lahane
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