'These Marathas are farmers and they only do farming. They have no other business other than farming.'
'Now, they want reservations because farming is no longer a profitable business.'
The Maratha reservation movement, spearheaded by activist Manoj Jarange Patil, brought to the forefront the long-standing social and economic tensions simmering within Maharashtra's agrarian heartland.
In an interview to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff, veteran farmers' rights advocate and founding member of the Shetkari Sanghatna, Vijay Jawandhia, outlines the historical and structural roots of the agitation.
He traces the demand for reservation to the legacy of Maratha farmers once registered as Kunbis under the nizam's rule, and highlights how rising rural distress, shrinking landholdings, and widening income disparities have left large sections of the community feeling excluded from the benefits of state development and government employment.
What is the reason for this Maratha protest for reservations?
If you go back in history you will find that these Marathas who are protesting at Azad maidan in Mumbai, their ancestors were under the nizam of Hyderabad rule before Independence. (The areas of present day Maharashtra that were under the nizam's rule were Nanded, Beed, Parbhani, Sambhaji Nagar/Aurangabad), Dharashiv/Osamanabad).
The ancestors of these Marathas were registered as Kunbis (farmers) in the nizam's rule. And the same Kunbis, when they are counted in (the castes of) Maharashtra they are called as Marathas.
These Marathas are farmers and they only do farming. They have no other business other than farming. Now, they want reservations because farming is no longer a profitable business. And (sadly for these Marathas) they are not counted as Kunbis like Other Backward Castes are counted and who get reservations.
Now, the problem is that these Marathas want reservation as Kunbis but OBCs do not want them to be included in their share of reservation.
When the Mandal commission was implemented in 1989 Marathas were never considered as backward and they did not agitate at that time to be included in the list. So, why do they want to be called OBCs now?
The trouble is the huge salaries that Maharashtra government employees get.
Secondly, the landholding of a Maratha family has reduced considerably because of the division of land because of large family member size.
A family that owned 20 acres land has now got divided into four parts of five acres each as each son gets five acres of land today which has made farming a very unprofitable business.
It is difficult to sustain livelihood because of the high cost economy.
The salaries that government employees are drawing in villages make the Maratha community feel that they have been left out in the benefits of reservations.
Can you give an example?
Yes, in 1970, when I started farming in my village (in Vidarbha) the government teacher used to earn around Rs 90 to Rs 100. And the worker working in my fields used to earn around Rs 75 to Rs 80.
Today, the starting salary in the government is around Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 per month. And the worker who works in the field does not even gets Rs 10,000 per month. This pay gap is creating trouble for Marathas and therefore they want to get reservations and do government jobs.
What about non-reserved seats in government jobs? Why can't the Marathas compete and get jobs in the non-reserved category which is as good as 50 percent of the government jobs?
They do not get those jobs.
Brahmins never complain about reservations. They just compete.
There is a difference between Marathas and Brahmins.
Marathas live in villages and Brahmins live in cities.
There is no education facility in the villages of Maharashtra like you have in cities.
Moreover, there are no other employment opportunities too in villages. Had it been the case, they would have happily settled for other jobs but there are no other jobs in villages.
And as I told you the last time, we are making one India as super India and Bharat like Somalia.
Now everybody in villages wants to be a part of super India and no one wants to stay in the villages of India.
This is the same reason even Gujjars in Rajasthan (who are in the farming business) agitate for reservations. The same is the case with the Jat community associated with farming.
But when the Mandal Commission was set up why did the Marathas not say they want to be included as a backward caste?
They had different leaders in their community at that time. They were headed by Maratha leaders of western Maharashtra like Sharad Pawar, Yashwantrao Chavan and others. They call themselves 96 kuli sub-caste. (Traditionally called the warrior clans from the west, the 96 Kuli Marathas have been the mainstay of the state since the foundation of the Maratha empire was laid in the 16th century.)
Does it mean that the Marathas of western Maharashtra are not participating in this Maratha reservation movement?
Right now this agitation is led by the people of Marathwada and not from western Maharashtra. These Marathas of Marathwada are stating that they have been registered under the nizam's rule as Kunbis.
The trouble is that if they are called Kunbis, what will have happen to OBC kunbis? The OBCs do not want to share their reservation share.
Does this mean that if a Kunbi Maratha is a zamindar then too he is entitled for reservations?
Yes, they expect that because if a reserved category collector's son can get reservations, then why not the landed zamindars who are Marathas?
What do the Marathas produce in farming?
This is rain-fed agriculture. They produce jowar, cotton, kardi, tur, urad. It is only now that irrigation has started, which has led them to shift to sugarcane.
When 33 percent of Maharashtra's population is Maratha, how can they be deprived of the fruits of development?
The new economic policy or liberalisation and privatisation did not benefit Indian farmers. You tell us that one crop that Marathas grow in Marathwada region which gets minimum support price like tur, soyabean, cotton or oil seeds. How will farmers survive? They are not getting minimum support price.
For soyabean Rs 5,300 is the minimum support price and the farmers of Marathwada are unable to sell that for Rs 4,000. The condition is that bad.
Tur, another crop, has Rs 8,000 minimum support price and Rs 6,500 is the price at which it is selling.
Where is the short-sightedness from the government side?
Short-sightedness is on the agriculture sector. Step-motherly treatment to the agriculture sector has led to the Maratha agitation.
The British taught us capital accumulation by exploitation of raw materials. So what Indian industry wants is cheap labour for industries.
We need cheap labour for infrastructure development.
And you need cheap food for this development.
So how do you achieve it? The person who is producing food (farmers) in this chain has to be the slave of this food chain process.