The Maratha community originally organized silent rallies across the state that turned violent in July with each district witnessing a huge number of participants. It was a silent protest against the rape and murder in Kopardi[1] (district Ahmednagar), the victim was a minor school girl. The incident took place on July 13, 2016 between 6:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the Kopardi Village, in Ahmednagar, district of Maharashtra. The protesters demanded death punishment to rapists as early as possible.
By Niteen Ghodke
No political leader, no slogans and well-maintained environment were notable features of the marches. Millions of people came together to protest, from all parts of Maharashtra, but no harm was done to any public or private property.
The demand for reservation was also a part of this protest. In Maharashtra Maratha, the community demands reservation in education and government services. Most farmers who committed suicide belong to the Maratha caste; division of lands in small pieces makes critical condition. Infertility and drought hit continuously Maratha. Due to lack of reservation, the unemployment becomes a major problem. A part of the Maratha community known as Kunbi gets benefits of Other Backward Class category reservation; but most people are out of benefits. Their natural demand is reservation in education and employment. Maratha Kranti Morcha broke record of human crowd in silent march and continued to break records. The minorities like the Muslim community also supported this Morcha.
The demands include punishment to culprits in this Kopardi rape and murder case, Reservation in education and government jobs, Implementation of recommendations of National Commission on Farmers chaired by Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, and the Amendment in Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 to stop its misuse.[2].
To counter the Maratha Kranti Morcha a consolidation of Other Backward Classes(OBC) and Dalits 10 splinter groups have forged an alliance and decided to organize silent morchas across Maharashtra with aim of defending their reservation quota and demand no tampering with the reservation norms or any amendment to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.[6].
The Maratha Community, in Maharashtra, is a strong community, economically, socially and politically. The sugarcane industries, education societies, financial societies like corporation banks are in the hands of this community. More than 147 members of the legislative assembly belong to the Maratha community. The village grampanchayat, the municipal corporation, and district society are all ruled by this society.
In a caste-based system, they are in the upper position after the Brahmins. So they have proud of their cast so they put subtitles after the name like patil,deshmukh etc. In short, they support the caste system and follow the hindutva agenda given by the Brahmins. The Maratha community runs the gun of violence on poor, dalits and backward classes by the brain of Brahmins who are at top position of caste system but very less in country population (only 3.5%).
Without a doubt, there is another sector of the Maratha community against Brahmanism.
My personal observation is that the wave, which is against the Brahmanism, is just using the poor people for politics.
The Maratha Kranti Morcha get Violent Demanding Reservation
