The Maratha community has been simmering for a while, and expressing its unhappiness through a series of silent protest marches across the State.

I will spread the message about protest rally to at least 100 Maratha brothers and sisters

I will make sure that all women and girls from my family and village participate in the silent march

I will follow conduct rules strictly to display Maratha culture

I will not raise slogans and will stop anyone who tries to do so

I will make sure no garbage remains on the spot of the morcha after its conclusion

I will give priority to my sisters and mothers in the morcha and would see to it that they do not face any discomfort or trouble

If I am a government or private employee, I will take an official leave to participate in the protest.

These are parts of a ‘code of conduct’, circulated via both paper pamphlets and social media, which has defined how a very unusual series of protest marches in Maharashtra have unfolded.

At the first Maratha Kranti Muk Morcha (Maratha revolution silent protest march) in Aurangabad last month, three lakh people gathered, demanding justice for the victim of a brutal gang-rape. Similar protest marches followed in other cities (see box). Conservative estimates from police sources said that turnout in these rallies ranged from two lakh to five lakh people each. Today, a march is taking place in Pune where huge numbers are expected. There are several more marches ahead, and a mega morcha in Mumbai at the end of October, which is likely to attract protesters from across the state; more than 20 lakh people. By the, over 1.25 crore Marathas will have marched.

The movement is remarkable for numbers, arguably unprecedented in independent India. Even more unusual is that they have been, as promised, silent; not even slogan-shouting, leave alone the violence and vandalism of public property during caste-based and communal agitations in the past. With no law and order problems, the state government has had no excuse to crack down on the movement and its leaders. But these are not the only points of difference.

The movement has no formal organiser or firebrand leader; indeed such political leaders as have joined in bring up the rear of the marches. Women play a significant part: they make up around 30 percent of each march; girls and young women lead the walkers; girls present a memorandum of demands to the local authorities; a girl reads them aloud to the crowd, another girl explains the reasons. The main demands are for reservation for the caste and an amendment to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Others include capital punishment for the Kopardi murderers, fair prices for agricultural produce, hostels and examination centres for Maratha students, and government job for at least one family member of Maratha farmers who commit suicide. Then the national anthem is sung and the crowd disperses.

Roots of revolution

On July 13 this year, in Kopardi village, Ahmednagar district, 300 km. southeast of Mumbai, a 15-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped and murdered by three drunken men. The girl was found with her her private parts mutilated, hair pulled out, hands and teeth broken. She died before she could be taken to hospital. The three men were arrested a few days later.

The tragedy was a trigger for protests, but the simmering discontent that has fuelled the protests is older.

The Marathas, originally a warrior caste, now largely farmers and land-owners, are around 34 percent of the state’s population. Since the formation of Maharashtra in 1960, the state has had Maratha chief ministers for around 30 years, including Yashavantrao Chavan, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sharad Pawar, and Prithviraj Chavan. Marathas dominate the hugely influential sugar industry, as well as milk cooperatives and the cooperative banks which finance the rural economy. They are powerful, politically and economically, and the sate’s dominant community.

But, like the Jats in Haryana and the Patidars in Gujarat, similarly dominant in their states, Marathas nurture a feeling of being neglected while members of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes get the benefits of reservation policies. Observers also say the agrarian crisis in the hinterland is the driving force.

“Four years of drought has destroyed the rural economy completely,” says Rajendra Kondhare, a researcher and observer of Maratha movements for the past 30 years. “Farmers are not getting [fair] prices for their produce in the market.” They can’t afford education and healthcare, and can’t find jobs. Mr. Kondhare says.

Marathi writer Dr. Sadanand More agrees that the motive is economic rather than political: “It is a far more urgent question of the existence of the Maratha community than an emotive issue of injured pride.” He questions the ‘dominant caste’ narrative: “Undeniably, they have several influential politicians who wield tremendous political power, but the majority of the community still remains economically backward.”

Praveen Gaikwad, head of the Sambhaji Brigade, one of the many organisations claiming to be leading the movement, says whereas peopel from the scheduled castes and tribes get sops, poor and backward Marathas get nothing. He too says that the agrarian crisis is a leading cause of the unrest, and blames the state government — past and present — for doing nothing. He calls the agitation a ‘Maratha Arab Spring’.

Initially, the accepted wisdom was that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar was behind the protests, but participants have expressed bitterness and contempt for not just the Maratha strongman but for all politicians, even those who are Marathas. Liladhar Patil, former North Maharastra head of the Maratha Seva Sangh, another organisation claiming credit for the rallies, says “Marathas did hold power. But if you study deeply, it will be clear that a few families had power in their hands. And they did nothing for the uplift of their own community. The anger you see against those leaders who took us for granted.”

The politicians — from across party lines — who have joined the protests have done so as common activists. To name justa few: BJP state chief, MP Raosaheb Danve in Jalana, BJP MLC Pravin Darekar in Navi Mumbai, Congress state chief, MP Ashok Chavan in Nanded, Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil in Ahmednagar. Even State cabinet members have jumped in: in Amravati, Ranjeet Patil, a minister, and minister of state Pravin Pote actively participated.

Behind the scenes

There are different versions of the origin story.

One version says many Maratha organisations came together in Kolhapur to work out a common minimum program, and decided on the silent marches. Another version says that earlier in the year, a dozen Maratha outfits met in Aurangabad to decide on issues affecting the community. A third version: planning started a year ago. A fourth: while the Kolhapur meet was underway, the Kopardi tragedy happened; Maratha organisations sought permission for a protest in Mumbai, which was denied because the Monsoon Session of the state legislature was on. Angered, they decided on a a rally at Aurangabad. When that succeeded, they decided to hold similar rallies across Marathwada and then the state.

How do the rallies get planned? An organising committee meets wherever a rally is planned and responsibilities are decided. Social media tools, particularly WhatsApp, spread the word and deliver updates and instructions. (Around 2000 WhatsApp groups were created for the Navi Mumbai rally alone.)

Who are the leaders? There is no clarity, and this is by design. “We may have thought it up,” an organiser said, speaking anonymously, “but the community has taken it ahead. We are not coming out as the organisers to ensure this remains a peoples’ protest.” Another, unvoiced, reason is that cloaking the names makes it difficult for the government or opponents to create rifts among the leaders.

The agitation has also won support from other castes and communities, including Muslims. In the Other Backward Classes, however, there is a fear that the demand to classify Marathas as OBCs will cut into their privileges. (Organisers say that that is not their intention; they want Marathas to be a separate category.) Some Dalit and tribal organisations are planning answering protests of their own, focussing on the demand for amendments to the Atrocities Act.

Your move, Chief Minister

“The numbers are enough to make the government crumble,” says J.L. Patil, an advocate and one of the participants in the Navi Mumbai rally.

If the government is worried, its actions have not indicated that.

The official response to the agitation has been muted at best. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has thanked the community for its peaceful rallies and assured them he would look in to their demands. His call for a meeting of Maratha leaders from the BJP did not win applause, since it only looked within his own party.

If Mr. Fadnavis is to consolidate his party’s hold on the state, he is going to have to think hard and long.

Maratha silent morchas so far:

Location Crowd estimate Aurangabad 5 lakh Osmanabad 4 lakh Jalgaon 4.5 lakh Beed 4 lakh Akola 5 lakh Latur 4.5 lakh Phaltan 2 lakh Parbhani 4 lakh Hingoli 4 lakh Nanded 10 lakh Jalna 3 lakh Solapur 10 lakh Navi Mumbai 4 lakh Ahmednagar 11 lakh Nashik 7 lakh Raigad 1.25 lakh

Maratha silent morchas scheduled

Pune Sangli Baramati Satara Kolhapur

* Turnout estimates are approximate based on calculations by Maratha organisations