AMARATHA HEAT WAVE

THE MARATHAS ARE ANGRY AND, UNDER MANOJ JARANGE-PATIL'S SWAY, MARATHWADA COULD WELL DECIDE WHO EVENTUALLY WINS IN MAHARASHTRA

- Dhaval S. Kulkarni

In Antarwali-Sarathi village in Jalna district, a tall, gaunt man with a goatee emerges from the bungalow of his close aide and village sarpanch, Pandurang Tarakh. A hush descends on the waiting crowd that troops into the small verandah to touch his feet and take selfies. The rising tide of Maratha assertion in election-bound Maharashtra is attributed to this man, Manoj Jarange-Patil, who is now seen as the keeper of the community's collective conscience.

The 42-year-old Jarange-Patil had always been an "andolanjeevi (serial agitator)", as his admirers fondly describe him, but it was on September 1, 2023 that he fully burst into the public eye. The then little-known activist was on a fast unto death in Antarwali-Sarathi seeking reservation quotas for the Marathas when the police lathi-charged a mob blocking them from shifting him to hospital. The incident blew up, the 'butterfly effect' sending tremors that would shake up the established order. Soon, the dormant quota protests were on the boil again and politicians of all hues were flocking to Antarwali-Sarathi, located over 400 km from Mumbai. Jarange-Patil put one demand before them: the Marathas, the dominant caste in the state who have gained an association with the Kshatriya status due to their martial past, must be classified with the Kunbis (tillers or sharecroppers), their brethren in the old caste continuum, and get quotas under the OBC (Other Backward Classes) category. It is a demand he has persisted with despite the state approving a 10 per cent ring-fenced quota in jobs and education (see interview Marathas will vote to defeat the oppressors").