Maratha Reservation: Untold and Unnoticed Ground

Maharashtra’s public sphere is debating the question of Maratha-Shudra community’s inclusion in the Other Backward Classes category. Every political party is backing the demand for Maratha reservation with the condition that the OBC reservations should not be tinkered with. However, the main argument of the recent protest was that if they get reservation outside the OBC category, it will not stand in the court as it will exceed the cap of 50 percent stipulated in the Indra Sawhney judgment.

This article will not talk about the validity, legal technicalities or socio-economic imperatives for reservations. My objective is to write about the condition of the Marathas, mainly their alienation from the emancipatory anti-caste history and their disenchantment from the current educational system which only reinforces their identity crisis. I am going to talk about the ‘unnoticed and untold’ shades of the Maratha community, which are often ignored due to the biases of the Brahminical forces and motivated individuals.

In the current agitation, several videos and short reels appeared on social media where Maratha youth, especially young girls, gave immature statements ignoring the community’s conditions and history. On the one hand, they claim that they are legitimate claimants of reservations but, on the other hand, say things like ‘Amhala nahi tar konala nahi’ (if we don’t get reservation, no one should), adding to the anti-reservation rhetoric made popular by the urban upper castes.

These arguments come from a place of ‘emotions’ and due to the hardships faced by Maratha youth in accessing higher education and jobs. However, the Marathas equated their misfortunes with other groups like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It will be misleading to equate the socio-economic condition of the Maratha masses with the SCs and STs. Rather, the Marathas share some cultural and economic affinity with a few castes in the OBC category such as Kunbis and Malis.

Brahminical media, instead of highlighting the nuances between the Marathas and other marginalised and upper caste groups, has indulged in sensationalism, which has further sparked conflicts either between Marathas and SCs or Marathas and OBCs. Unfortunately, along with the Marathas, OBCs too are influenced by the Brahminical narrative of their history and identity. It is the responsibility of the enlightened youth amongst the Marathas and OBCs to undo the Brahminical gaze and history.

It is not widely known that Marathas as a non-Brahmin community were enjoying reservation in the colonial period. They were not merely a part of the ‘reserved category’ but they were at the forefront of the battle against the undemocratic Brahmin dominance in the colonial political and social sphere and advocated rights for the Shudras and Ati-Shudras, which further paved the way for the idea of reservations. Unfortunately, the younger generation asking for reservation today has forgotten their historical role in the emancipatory struggle to democratise public institutions. However, blaming the common masses for their incorrect remembrance of history will be unfair for they merely remember what are told by the media, textbooks and culture industry.

The Maratha politicians and statesmen who held power in the state of Maharashtra shied away from establishing the narrative of anti-caste history due to the fear of backlash from their Brahmin bosses (that time it was Congress in power, not Bharatiya Janata Party). It is rarely seen in the world where intellectuals and politicians try to erase their own community’s history from the public memory, which has been done by the Maratha intellectuals and politicians for the sake of exemption from the ‘anti-Brahmin’ tag. It was Yashwantrao Chavhan who took this kind of position and then every Maratha leader followed him. In contrast, the Scheduled Castes, despite the state apathy and social repercussions, kept the legacy of anti-caste discourse alive. Today, the outcome is that they are more aware of their history along with the entire non-Brahmin history.

Maratha as a caste stands at a crossroads where the memory of their emancipatory historical struggle is totally erased. The modern non-Brahmin struggle which introduced them to words and books and opened the doors of education is forgotten. While the medieval identity of warriors and kings has exaggerated space in the minds of the Maratha youth. They count their worth in swords and weapons and their historical militaristic struggles but are frustrated to find that these values and skills have no currency in the modern economy and institutions.

Marathas in the New Economic World: Education & Privatisation

Barring a few elite dynastic households, Maratha is a peasant-Shudra caste like Mali, Kurmi and Kunbi. Traditionally they engaged in peasantry work, which is still continuing from generation to generation. College graduates in the Maratha community still number far less than the national average. The first generation who were able to gain formal education were predominantly educated in vernacular medium and till high school level. High school education in the vernacular medium did not prepare the Maratha youth to enter the formal economy and earn a respectful salary. The Maratha peasantry also lacked cultural capital like Brahmins and Baniyas predominantly residing in urban areas. Despite this historical deprivation of being Shudra and lack of cultural capital, there is no positive discrimination policy for the Marathas in the educational institutes. Privatisation of educational institutions further deteriorated their situation and created an apathy towards education. After the rapid privatisation policy of the Congress government, if any community was thrown out from higher education in large numbers, it was the Marathas.

Maratha, a non-upper caste social group (from Phule-Ambedkar point of view), depending on agriculture and manual labour, is disadvantaged in sociocultural capital. Education was never a cultural norm of the Maratha community. Historically, the caste faced consequences for crossing the border of education. Phule, Shahu and Ambedkar made the life of Marathas easy by facilitating access to education but in postcolonial India their access to professional and higher education was reduced by privatisation of education.

Caste-based professions, agriculture and unskilled manual labour do not generate assets. Uneven rain destroys crops, and droughts make life miserable for peasants. Most importantly, fragmentation of land is also unremunerative. Interestingly, Dr. Ambedkar had warned about this with regards to peasant castes.

Even if they try to get an education, they have to migrate to the city. Getting accommodation is another task for them. Shahu, King of Kolhapur, who himself was a Maratha, had started hostel facilities for all non-Brahmin castes. Maratha youth benefited from this system. Postcolonial Maharashtra took positive steps starting hostel facilities for the SCs and STs, which had a positive impact on the society. Maratha youth though were left out of this scheme. In cities like Pune and Mumbai, accommodation expenses are quite exorbitant, which keeps many students away from higher education.

Congress allowed the opening of private institutions of engineering, law, medicine and other institutions. It is a myth that only Maratha politicians have opened private institutions. If someone thinks that only Maratha leaders have opened private institutions, it means they don’t have an understanding of the social and geographical structure of Maharashtra and shows their dependence on the Brahmin media and academics for information. It was the Maratha, Mali, Kunbi, and Teli leaders who were with the Congress who established colleges, making money by running professional educational programmes. These institutions opened by Maratha and other caste leaders didn’t establish colleges only for their own community; they were merely an instrument to earn money.

Private engineering colleges charge almost 1 lakh rupees per year, and if the college is under management, then the fees are much higher. The medical college fees range between ₹10 lakh to ₹30 lakh. For management quota seats, students play close to ₹40 lakh. With such exorbitant fees, ordinary people will never get the opportunity to enter into these educational spaces. Due to pressure from various social movements, private institutions of Maharashtra have provided reservations for the SC, ST, OBC, NT, DNT and VJ categories and some concession in the fees. The SCs and STs used to get a complete fee waiver in all courses and for the OBCs, half the fee used to be waived. The privatisation of education in Maharashtra hasn’t impacted the SCs, STs and OBC very negatively due to the reservation policy and fee waiver but the Maratha community faces problems on both counts.

The Maratha youth do not know the social history of their own caste and others. They see SC/ST/OBCs get reservations and fee waivers. Similarly, those who come from the same social location like Mali, Kunbi and other Shudra castes get reservations and fee waivers; the Marathas think it is unjust that they are kept out. This unnecessarily creates rift between the students from Maratha community and students from reserved category. Unfortunately, no one is there to tell the history and social realities. Brahminical forces also take advantage. They use these Maratha youth against the SC and the ST. I know from personal encounters that many Maratha youth think Shahu was also from the Scheduled Caste community. They started to hate Phule, Shahu and Ambedkar. Our Scheduled Caste brothers and sisters also thought Marathas opposed them. We need to educate the Marathas about their history and the anti-caste legacy.