In the Name of Chhatrapati Shivaji, How Manoj Jarange Reshaped Maratha Identity

From a 'karyakarta' in Jalna to a cult figure of the Marathas, tracing the rise & politics of Manoj Jarange Patil.

Donning his signature pink jacket, Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra was delivering a speech at an event organised as a part of his 'Jansanmaan Yatra' in Vasmath assembly constituency of Marathwada's Hingoli on 28 August.

A few minutes into the speech, as he was listing out the Nationalist Congress Party's goals, and achievements of the Mahayuti government in the state, he was interrupted by a group of men from the Maratha who walked up to him and kept a letter before him on the dais. One of the men, who was close enough to the microphone, was clearly audible to the audience. 

"This is a request by the Maratha community," the man leading the group said.

"Ok, I will take a look," said Pawar.

"Please place your exact stand (on reservation issue) before us," the leader said.

"It has been 12 months of hunger strike. The government has done nothing so far," another man in the group said, a little more aggressively.

"Ok, I hear you, I will talk to you separately," Pawar responded.

"You must clear your stand, we want reservation from the OBC quota," the second man repeated.

Pawar then covered the mic, and told the men: "You are Marathas, I too was born as a Maratha! Hence, I am requesting you...!"

"Hence, we are telling you rightfully...!" the man said as he was dragged away.

The exchange made headlines across the state, for Ajit Pawar, a firebrand leader known for his strict and stern demeanour and direct speech, is not somebody you just heckle at a public event.

The scenes on the stage in Vasmath painted a picture of what exactly the local MLAs and MPs of the Maratha community in Maharashtra have faced in their constituencies and public events for the past entire year since the agitation for reservation flared under the leadership of Manoj Jarange Patil.

The episode came exactly a year since the protests for reservation, led by activist Manoj Jarange Patil, changed the course of Maharashtra's politics in a direction which has severely harmed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the state.

A year ago on 1 September, a lathi-charge on protesters demanding Maratha reservation altered the course of Maharashtra's politics against the ruling Mahayuti, leading to a wipeout of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Marathwada in the general elections, and did significant damage to the candidates of its allies Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Shiv Sena.

The community, which forms about 28% of the state's population, holds the key to the government's fate in the upcoming elections. However, the agitation has also widened the rift between the Marathas and OBCs like never before.

From 'Karyakarta' to 'Yodha': How the Son of the Soil Became a Cult

Merely 10 kms from Antarwali Sarathi, the village where it all began, Jarange's family lives in a small house in Ankushnagar. There is a small aangan (courtyard) that runs across the front and back of the house. Upon entering the premises, one is welcomed by a tulsi plant with a small lamp before it, a rangoli outside the door, a lemon tree, and his septuagenarian father, Raosaheb Jarange, who usually rests under it on most hot afternoons donning a white sadra, dhotar, and a pheta.

The house has two rooms. The first one serves as the living room and has minimal seating arrangement for visitors. In a corner lies a stack of souvenirs and paintings gifted to Jarange by scores of his supporters and Maratha outfits. One of his portraits on the wall was even drwan by an artist with his own blood.

The second room serves as a kitchen, a pooja ghar, and a bed room. A tin roof runs across both rooms, which houses a family of at least 6-7 people at any given time - Manoj Jarange, his wife Soumitra, four children Shivraj, Vaishnavi, Pranali, and Pallavi, and his father. His mother usually lives with his sibling in another village.

While Jarange himself is mostly away on political trips, the family likes keeping a low profile and mostly avoids interacting with the media, even though the house has been bustling with visitors since the agitation began.

As Jarange's wife served tea, his father enquired about politics in Delhi upon a visit to his house when we met him back in May this year, while campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections was at its peak.

On being asked about what he feels about his son being a household name in the state, his father said: "He has been doing such agitations for quite a while now. It's the blessings of the community and Shivaji Maharaj. He should take care of his health more, though."

A small farmer himself, Jarange was born in Mathori village in Gevrai Tehsil of Beed district. In his former life, he has worked as a farm labourer, a waiter, and a daily wage worker taking up odd jobs.

This very factor — the image of being a man with no means, someone who is standing against those in power for those who cannot stand for themselves, is what drives his 'cult' among the Marathas of the state.

Jarange briefly joined the Congress in early 2000s, but quit the party citing dissatisfaction on its official stand on the controversy surrounding the banned book Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India by James Laine.

For about past 15 years, Jarange has worked as a volunteer in several movements for Maratha reservation organised by various outfits and bodies. Known for his rokthok style of oration, he would often be requested to write speeches for leaders of the community, and sometimes even deliver them himself at events.

In 2015, he founded the Shivba Sangathna and started organising several small-scale agitations at village and panchayat levels, from where he began getting his own recognition and following.

He was a part of several of the 54 'muk morchas' (silent protests) that were held for justice in the brutal gangrape and murder of a Maratha girl by three Dalit men in Kopardi in July 2016.

Since February 2023, isolated demands by various Maratha outfits for the community to get reservation under the OBC category started growing louder. Jarange, at the same time, had continued his small protests and hunger strikes in several villages.

It was this limited outreach that may have led to the local police's failure to foresee the repercussions of use of force to disperse his agitation in Antarwali Sarathi that began on 29 August 2023.

On 1 September 2023, four days after his huger strike began, the police attempted to move him to a hospital for treatment, but was met with strong opposition from the locals. A massive clash erupted, leading to many being grieviously injured, including elderly men and women.

Visuals of locals being lathi charged in the temple premises, where the demonstration was underway, and bludgeoned protesters went viral across social media platforms and WhatsApp groups of Maratha community within hours of the clashes. About the events of that day, every local of Antarwali Sarathi has a story to tell.

Manoj Jarange Patil — a name hardly known outside Maratha outfits and villages of Jalna — was being headlined on TV channels and newspapers.

Violent agitations of Marathas broke out in several districts with roads and highways being blocked, state transport buses being set ablaze, and at least 50 out of the 250 MSRTC bus stops across the state suspending services.

Within the next 48 hours, every top leader of the state including Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray, Vijay Wadettiwar, Rohit Pawar, and Sambhaji Raje had met Jarange at the protest site.

In the six decades of agitations and several leaders of the Maratha community having carved political careers out of reservation demands, hardly anybody has been able to capture the attention of the state's top leaders as quickly as Jarange did.

Though many would argue that the outrage stemmed from the virality of the gruesome visuals of the clashes of 1 September, Jarange became the face of the movement overnight.

While every community leader and Opposition stalwart posed for pictures with him within 48 hours of the incident, the protesters squarely blamed Maharashtra deputy chief minister and state's home minister Devendra Fadnavis for "ordering an attack on innocents."

Fadnavis' unconditional apology three days later on 4 September 2023 was one of the first indicators of the kind of political power that Jarange had come to wield overnight.

In the one year since, Jarange has been able to refine his image of being the ulitimate leader of the Marathas. He has forced the government to give in to several of his ultimatums, deadlines, and demands, and heavily impacted the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections leading to a wipeout of the BJP from Vidarbha and Marathwada.

But he has had help from some of his most trusted allies since before he became a household name.

Some of the people closest to him include Pradeep Solunke, a teacher by profession and Ramesh Tarakh, a surgeon, who both live in Chhattrapati Sambhaji Nagar (formerly Aurangabad). Solunkhe largely takes care of coordinating with various Maratha outfits and streamlining of strategies for the movement to forge unity among various stakeholders of the community.

Shriram Kurankar, who shadows Jarange on his political outreach tours, takes care of managing his trips and sabhas across the state.

Pandurang Tarakh, sarpanch of Antarwali Sarathi village, and Vinod Ubale Patil, who handles his social media accounts, have been instrumental in pushing Jarange's narratives.

In a conversation with The Quint back in April this year, Solunkhe had said that Jarange's rise has been able to unite the community like never before.

"The Marathas now have a national-level face that cannot be ignored. Under Jarange, most Maratha outfits have even set aside their differences and decided to be on the same page with most decisions," he said.

Jarange: Catalyst to Maratha Unity and Maharashtra's Widening Caste Divide

Though it had created some unrest among the OBCs ever since isolated demands for reservation from their quota started emerging, the first major cracks in the now ever widening rift between the two communities emerged immediately after the clashes in Antarwali Sarathi last year. Most OBC outfits and political leaders from Vidarbha and Marathwada anticipated the unrest and overhaul that was to come in the state's politics.

Jarange's demand following the unrest, however, has been more specific: To declare all Marathas as Kunbi-Maratha or Maratha-Kunbi, a sub-caste already entitled to reservation under the OBC category.

A day after the incident, Sachin Rajurkar, the general secretary of the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh said that come what may, the government must not give in to the demand of Marathas to be given reservation from the OBC quota.

"We are not against giving reservation to Maratha community. The central government should remove the 50 percent cap on reservation and give reservation to the Maratha community. But it should not be given to them from the OBC quota. If that happens, we will also hit the streets. Why should we remain silent if someone is stealing from our plate? The OBCs are still not able to fully avail even the 27% that we are entitled to. Any attempts to further redistribute our share will be will be thwarted," Rajurkar had said.

The first divisions between the two communities started emerging in Antarwali Sarathi itself.

Balasaheb Dakhane, a social activist from the OBC community and a resident of the village, would volunteer to help with the demonstrations in the first few days of the agitation after it began on 29 August.

“We were shocked to hear his demands (of reservation from OBC quota) because we never expected those words from someone who we had supported from the beginning,” Dakhane told The Quint.

"When he first came from Beed with nothing with him, we supported him wholeheartedly," recalled Balasaheb Batude, an OBC farmer from Nalewadi, a village two kilometres from Antarwali Sarathi. "But when he began demanding reservation from our quota, it felt like a betrayal."

“I have visited to Antarwali Sarathi since I was a kid. I feel the rift in the relationships among people of different communities. The friends with whom I would have tea every evening no longer sit and chat very openly. Whenever we cross each other, we don’t make eye contact,” he said.

Before Jarange's movement peaked, not all Maratha outfits were not on the same page about getting reservation from OBC quota.

Months before the clashes, Datta Shirke, a coordinator of the Maratha Kranti Morcha that now rallies behind Jarange, had said in April last year that the demand would only widen the divide between the two communities and that they have always demanded "independent reservation for the Marathas."

In the days following the incident, several prominent political leaders from the state, including Chhagan Bhujbal of the Nationalist Congress Party, Congress leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Maharashtra Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar, and Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, were some who opposed Jarange's demands staunchly.

In a statement on 4 September, Bhujbal, one of the tallest OBC leaders of the state said: "We don't mind Marathas being given reservation from the OBC quota. But if you think about it, about 54% OBCs in the state can avail on 17% of the reservation fully. If you add Marathas to the same, that will be over 80% of the state's population. The central government should rather extend 10% more on the reservation cap and give reservation to Marathas, Jats, and Gujjar. Everybody's problems will be solved."

A week after the violence, the voices of protest from OBC outfits, including the Kunbis, only got stronger.

While outfits like Akhil Kunbi Samaj declared statewide protests, several members of the OBC Kranti Morcha threatened mass suicides. OBC Vidyarthi Mahasangh leader Ravindra Tonge started an indefinite hunger strike on 11 September to oppose Jarange's demands.

That week, several leaders from both the government and Opposition, including Nationalist Congress Party - Sharadchandra Pawar (NCPSP) leader Anil Deshmukh, Congress leader and former minister Sunil Kedar, former MLA Ashok Dhawad, and BJP leader Bunty Kukde - attended a meeting called by the Akhil Kunbi Samaj to oppose Jarange's demands.

In short, leaders across all major parties have opposed Jarange's demand of all Marathas getting reservation from the OBC quota. That begs the question: Why were Bhujbal and Fadnavis targeted by Jarange and the Marathas more frequently and strongly than others?

With Fadnavis, the reasons have been amply clear. "He was the home minister of the state, the lathi charge could not have happened without his knowledge" is a claim that scores of Jarange's supporters still believe. The fact that Fadnavis himself is a Brahmin and him being present on 30 September while OBC leader Tonge called off his hunger strike did not help.

Bhujbal, many believe, contributed to the agenda himself for his own political gains.

"It was natural for OBC leaders of the state government to oppose the demand. But unlike all others who are opposing the demand, Bhujbal resorted to ugly personal attacks against Patil saheb," a source closely associated with the movement told The Quint on the condition of anomymity when asked about the reasons behind him being a more frequent target.

By November, most OBC outfits rallying behind Bhujbal, spearheaded a movement of their own.

On 17 November, Bhujbal and Congress leader Wadettiwar both shared a stage at massive rally organised by several OBC outfits under the banner of OBC Yelgar Yatra, where both leaders on opposite sides of the state's changed political equations, unequivocally warned the government against giving in to Jarange's demands.

Only Bhujbal, however, emerged as the target for Jarange and his supporters once again, where the NCP leader made several no holds barred statements against Jarange. Wadettiwar strategically told the media that he distanced himself from "personal remarks made by Bhujbal."

A year since the movement, ambiguity remains on the fact whether Bhujbal's actions were backed by the Ajit Pawar led NCP and the Mahayuti, or whether he grabbed the opportunity as a massive booster for his political career percieved to be in its terminal stage.

Whenever the media demanded clarity on the matter, most top leaders of the Mahayuti, including Ajit Pawar and Fadnavis, repeated suggestions of 'caution and restraint' to be exercised by every leader who speaks on the reservation issue. Some BJP and Shiv Sena leaders, specifically Marathas, also publicly expressed their discomfort over Bhujbal's comments.

That begs another question: Did Bhujbal's retaliation do more harm than good for the Mahayuti?

An NCP officebearer from Beed, on the condition of anonymioty said: "We respect Bhujbal saheb. It is difficult to say whether his leadership during the struggle did any harm. If not for him, who from the state's politics at the top level would have spoken up for the OBCs openly? If he would not have taken a stand, would the OBCs have consolidated in favour of Mahayuti? It may have been a better or worse performance than it could have otherwis been. You cannot conclude that for sure."

Asked about more harm than good being done over personal remarks against Jarange, they said that if Bhujbal did it he may have had some calculations in mind.

"But yes, it is also possible that other parties and OBC leaders may have played it smart by not directly engaging with Jarange," they added.

Govt Declared Reservation for Marathas. Why Did Jarange Reject It?

Even as the political class grappled with the pressures from the community and the voters, the committees tasked by the state government to find a resolution to the issue also faced the heat.

The government was processing the technicalities around the demands at three key levels:

• The Sandeep Shinde Committee: The Eknath Shinde government set up a committee under Justic (retd) Sandeep Shinde to ensure that only those whose documents can be verified with records to prove that they have Kunbi ancestry will immediately be issued Kunbi caste certificates.

• The Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC): Tasked with collecting new empirical data to help prove the social and financial backwardness of both Kunbi and non-Kunbi Marathas.

• Parleys with Jarange: A disciplinary board of the state government, that included state rural development minister Girish Mahajan and then cabinet minister Sandipan Bhumre met Jarange several times to strike a balance between the practical achievability of his demands and the tasks of the Shinde committee and the backward class commission.

By January this year, by when the commission and Shinde committee had already identified thousands of Marathas as Kunbis and issued caste certificates, Jarange had rallied lakhs of Marathas from across the state and reached the border of Mumbai to begin another hunger strike in the capital city.

In the wee hours of 26 January, the government agreed to seven of his key demands in Navi Mumbai, including issuing an ordinance to extend reservation benefits to 'sage-soyare', which includes every relative of anyone who is issued a Kunbi certificate.

The government, Jarange announced in a joint address with CM Shinde, also agreed to declare reservation at par with benefits given to the OBCs. But as far as the Mahayuti is concerned, the stand on not giving blanket reservation to the Marathas from the OBC quota or giving Kunbi certificates to all Marathas has been consistent, which has been reflective from the statements given by Shinde himself throughout the year.

Weeks after the joint address with Jarange, CM Shinde in a special session of the Maharashtra Assembly called on 20 February declared 10% reservation for the community in jobs and educational institutes. The government, however, did not implement the 'sage-soyare' ordinance citing legal setbacks.

Jarange gave a call to reject the reservation announced by the government, saying that he was "misled" into believing that the 'sage-soyare' ordinance will be implemented, and that it will not stand legal scrutiny just like the previous reservations.

The Political Cost of Caste Politics

After almost six months of giving in to his demands, and following the recently announced reservation, CM Shinde snapped bonhomie with Jarange on 25 February, a day after he claimed that "Fadnavis had a plot to poison him." The Mahayuti not only condemned his statements against Fadnavis equivocally in the Budget Session of the state Assembly held that week, but also constituted an SIT to probe Jarange's "political funding."

In the consecutive months, the Mahayuti attempted to drive the narrative while labelling Jarange as "unreasonable" and insinuating political ambitions, but suffered heavily in the Lok Sabha elections, with all NDA candidates having lost in Marathwada except Sandipan Bhumre in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar.

The fact that the Maratha reservation issue impacted the Lok Sabha elections has been stated publicly by scores of leaders of the BJP and the Mahayuti.

In scores of Lok Sabha seats where the "Jarange factor" played up, several MLAs have expressed concern over not being able to strategise a lead for the NDA candidate in their respective constituencies. In the run up to the Assembly elections, this aspect is not only playing on the minds of the candidates looking to contest, but is also being strongly discussed by their respective parties.

MLAs from Maratha majority constituencies now see existential dilemma and are being forced to take a stand, including most top leaders. Many saw the signs as early as October last year, when scores of leaders during the second leg of Jarange's hunger strike were gheraoed by protesters of Maratha protesters either in their constituencies or at events.

Two Lok Sabha MPs of the Shiv Sena — Hemant Patil from Hingoli and Hemant Godse from Nashik — resigned in September last year citing pressure from their supporters.

Villages banned entries of political leaders, MLAs, and MPs, till the reservation issue was resolved, with 600 villages in Marathwada, about 500 villages in Vidarbha, 500 in Nashik, and 200 villages in Solapur even erecting signboards to specifically state so.

Meanwhile, though the community still holds the power to impact the elections, the Maratha movement itself is percieved to have have gone haywire over the past few months, with most political parties, and caste experts pointing out the technical flaws and illegalities in Jarange's two key demands: implementation of the 'sage-soyare' ordinance and blanket reservation for the community from the OBC quota.

The government heeded his deadlines till it declared a 10% reservation in February, but most of his ultimatums have been ignored since. Moreover, the OBC movement, of which Laxman Hake and Bhujbal emerged as the strongest faces, gained equal momentum in the consecutive months.

Unlike the first six months of the movement, most political leaders avoid mentioning Jarange while talking about the reservation movement. Over the past few months, only a handful of leaders of the Mahayuti like Ashok Chavan have met Jarange personally.

Even from the Opposition, Jarange's name crops up in specific situations , but the responses are laced heavily with criticism of either the state government or the Centre, without anybody openly taking any sides.

'The Mahayuti divided the two communities,' is a narrative that the Maha Vikas Aghadi is sticking to. However, even the leaders formerly seen as allies, including Raj Thackeray and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi's Prakash Ambedkar have come under fire by the Marathas and Jarange himself in the recent past.

Sharad Pawar, in fact, is facing criticism from both communities. On 11 August, he faced sloganeering and was shown black flags in at least two events in Solapur, where demonstrators asked him to clear his stand on the reservation issue. One individual even attempted to self-immolate.

While addressing the media on 13 August in Shirdi, Jarange said: "Pawar, specifically, fooled the community for years. What did the Maha Vikas Aghadi parties do in the past one year? because these parties did nothing (in previous governments), we are asking you (NDA) for what we deserve. But you are behaving the same."

After not contesting Lok Sabha elections, Jarange has been giving hints and issuing warnings of fielding candidates from the Maratha community in several seats. A decision regarding the same was to be announced on 29 August, but Jarange postponed any announcement till a date for the state elections is declared by the Election Commission.

The activist has now launched his sixth hunger strike to press for reservation, but has so far steered clear of directly attacking any top leaders. The stand on contesting elections, though, still remains unclear.

In an address to the media on the first day of his ongoing demonstration, Jarange on 16 September said: "I am an activist, I don't wait for anybody. I don't have anything to do with elections. I will not speak one word which is political. Fulfifill your promises and don't regret later. If the government does not give reservation, Devendra Fadnavis will be responsible for it. Tell the monkeys in the BJP that I am here only to demand reservation."

Jarange also continues to squarely blame political leaders for the rift with the OBCs.

As of now, the villages Antarwali Sarathi and Wadigodhri, merely two kilometers away from each other, are loggerheads with the latter being the epicentre for OBC protests led by Hake.

Bapurao Tukaram Khetke, a farmer and a resident of Wadigodhri said: "Children who played together now form groups based on caste. It's a tragic consequence of political agendas that prioritise votes over unity."

"These divisions are tearing at the fabric of our villages. Our children are growing up amidst caste animosities that were once unthinkable," he added.

The divide between the OBCs and Marathas is wider than before, as Aurangabad-based political analyst Sanjeev Unhale pointed out.

"There are about thirty Marathas in the Lok Sabha, which indicates that, with the exception of the seats set aside for SC and STs, the Maratha influence has been significant in the majority of these seats,” Unhale said.

"With Marathas holding sway in numerous constituencies, their stance in the upcoming elections will be pivotal. Jarange Patil's influence could sway outcomes significantly, with implications for alliances and political strategies," he said.

(With inputs from Aazib Shaikh.)