In 2016-17 there was an incident where a Maratha girl was raped and killed in Kopardi Village situated in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Some years later, in 2017, the accused were charged with capital punishment. However, the incident in Kopardi gave birth to a Maratha agitation in Maharashtra as the girl belonged to the Maratha caste. From 2016, there started a campaign with a series of Maratha morchas (protests) in Maharashtra. At the initial stage, these morchas were mook (non-vocal). Later they became aggressive. Manoj Jarange-Patil emerged as a Maratha Leader. In the initial stages, these Maratha morchas were simply anti-atrocity. Later, as Maratha’s started demanding reservation from the OBC quota, the social-political environment of Maharashtra was on the boil. The state experienced prati-morchas (anti-agitations) by the Dalit, Muslim & OBC communities, opposing the Maratha demand.
Now, over five weeks ago, on December 9, 2024, a 44 year-old Sarpanch of Massajog village (Taluka Kej, district Beed) was brutally murdered by some goons. Walmik Karad, the prime accused, is also the accused in a Rs. 2 crore extortion case linked to this murder and –after vocal agitation –is currently finally undergoing 14 days judicial custody. There are MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999) charges against Karad who is also considered to be the right hand man of NCP minister Dhananjay Munde. The murdered Sarpanch was Maratha by caste and the other accused– as well as Walmik Karad- (including minister, Dhananjay Munde) belong to Vanjari caste (classified as an Other Backward Casre-OBC). Today, in Beed and Marathwada, the entire chain of events are being seen as a caste war. This incident of December 9, the murder of a loved Sarpanch has caused deep schisms and polarisation in Maharashtra. There are ongoing and consistent protests that refuse to be silenced. On a ground visit of Beed, Parli and Massajog, this journalist tried to understand the unfolding tensions in the air as also gauge the damages to the social fabric.
As one enters Beed, Shivaji Chowk is one of the centres of the city. Right as we enter, at the corners of the imposing Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue, the smiling photographs of Santosh Deshmukh can be seen hanging, signifying a vocal, not to be silenced cry for justice. Only days before, a march, ‘Samvidhan Bachao Morcha’ (‘Save the Constitution Rally’) had taken place. Such morchas, agitations and hunger strikes are not new to the struggling peoples and land of Marathwada.
Marathwada is a land of hardships. For the last 20 years, the agrarian crisis has gotten worse year after year. There are no big business projects, no major MIDCs (industrial development units), no mills which could fulfil the employment needs of the widely growing population. So, a major chunk of the young population tries hard for competitive and police services exams. There are, therefore, many, study centres at the district and Beed is no exception.
I went to one such study centre. One can easily sense the brewing anxiety amongst that group of 30-40 young girls and boys after a detailed discussion. All of them hail from small villages in the Beed district. A majority of these students belong to farmer families. We all had a heated discussion over reservation, law and order, the challenging events and the social-political future of Maharashtra. (Names have been changed to ensure anonymity)
According to Naresh, the occurrence of Maratha Morchas and the agitation for Maratha reservation was not this divisive or toxic before. Various social segments and castes, including Muslims supported the Marathas in their demand of reservation. As months progressed however, stances and speeches changed and became more radical. Maratha leaders like Manoj Jarange-Patil began targeting various OBC castes like the Mali, the Vanjaari. This is a purposeless turn of events as it achieves nothing constructive towards achieving the goal of Maratha reservation. Sheetal said, “We were brought up in an environment where we have friends from all castes. Our parents wanted me to be a broad minded and a rational Indian, always. But now, times are changing and that too, rapidly. Due to such prevalent tensions, many students have fled back to their native villages. Group-ism among the young has increased considerably. Not all, but some of my friends have started keeping a distance from me. This is reflective on the display status’ they flaunt on WhatsApp or Instagram. They keep posting and sharing particular things on Facebook. To say this out clearly, they have started to participate virtually in the war being fought between the Maratha and the Vanjari castes. They keep admiring their leaders along with trolling voices or leaders from the ‘opposite’ caste. Sometimes they use abusive language for the people who differ with their opinion. YouTube channels keep morphing the content as per their own limited agenda. Put together, these things are creating a deep impact on people, the masses. ”
Pratik belongs to the Maratha caste. He clearly expresses himself by saying, “My brothers and I are from the Maratha community and live deeply affected by poverty caused by the agrarian crisis. In my village, a large number of youth are frustrated. No good education, no employment. We are struggling to find a bridegroom as well. We need our share, we need reservation. We don’t find any answer to our unending problems except in the demand for reservation. If the central government is not able to give us any reservation, then it should also cancel the reservations of all the other castes. Why doesn’t the government give the facilities on an economic basis rather than on a caste basis?” Some of his friends nod their heads in agreement.
Anmol and some of his friends have a different view. They say, “We believe that one should keep a distance from politicians and their blind followers if one wants to be a successful person in life, acquiring a post or rank in government services. When it comes to gundaraaj and terror of some political baahubalis (mobsters), we believe that it is our fear makes them more influential. So, we should not keep being afraid of them. This is the same with politicians, they need us, and we don’t need them. We should use our voting power consciously. And if you ask us about reservation, government sectors are rapidly getting privatised. What then is the use of this reservation?”
After bidding farewell to these future government officers, I met Balu with his friends at a small Chai Thela. All of them are drivers in the intercity transport line. Balu and his friends try to tap my caste at first by saying, “Parli has become a different caste now. There is a blunt and subtle discrimination against us when we go to Pune, Mumbai or even Aurangabad. There are very few opportunities here in Marathwada, especially Beed. So people are forced to migrate from Beed to bigger cities. I am afraid this will lead to some sort of anarchy.”
Balu’s friend Rehman is a Muslim. Starting in a low but firm tone, Rehman pours out his heart, “We, as Muslims, have been the victims of religious discrimination. We can very much relate toh this grief –and hatred–caused by caste and region faced by my friends. I feel like now, similar to Muslims, many others people are sailing in the same boat, facing prejudices while accessing jobs or a home on rent. Meanwhile another friend of theirs, Shubham Gite, showed us a recent video which went viral on Instagram some weeks ago. This video shows a Vanjari sugarcane worker alleged being beaten by some men because of reportedly belonging to that caste. This video continues to be circulated widely on social media.
Black Scorpios and Fortuners (models of cars) keep passing alongside as one walks around on the streets of Beed city and district. Most of these vehicles possess VIP number-plates. Meanwhile Beed is a district known for its sugarcane workers who keep migrating to West Maharashtra in every season. Another dark identities of Beed are its drought driven agrarian crisis & considerable numbers of Atrocities on SC & ST community.
Dinkar Choure is one of the shopkeepers in Beed city. He was affiliated with AISF (All India Students Federation) in his student days. He had worked closely with sugarcane workers for a long time. Choure has a prominent question for politicians of Maharashtra. He asks, “Why do the politicians keep trying all the experiments here in our Marathwada alone? There was a time when Peshwai Yuva Manch Adhiveshan (seminars) were impacting the minds of thousands. Later there was a wave of Maratha Morchas which have changed their form now. I am sure that Marathwada has become an experiment lab for politicians. There are so many people here, living without aim or direction, due to lack of opportunities and employment. There hasn’t been any major government recruitment or any MHADA or MIDC project (industrial parks) initiated for the past several years here in Beed district. Our sugarcane workers have kept migrating to West Maharashtra for so many years. Beed got its electricity in 1985 and West Maharashtra got it in 1960. Isn’t this symbolic enough?
So, the frustration and anger keeps boiling in their young, raw mind. It is these emotions that allow young persons to become, at a call, part of a mob. Who understands this mob psychology better than politicians? One can decipher the traces of this motivated politics visibly on the ground, but few people realise that the politics brewing beneath this outer layer is even more dangerous.
We, as Marathwadis, have been losing and sacrificing so many things since the Nizam rule. The world knows that we got our freedom one year later on September 17, 1948. Today, decades later, we have nothing to lose but our land. Hence, the land acquisition for the Green Energy windmills project has now become a cash cow for businesses here in Beed district. Land which hardly commandeered Rs 10 lakhs was recently sold for 40 lakhs. This business is going to destroy the land capital of Marathas over the years but no one is serious about all this. Everyone just wants to be the ultimate leader of the Marathas. This is the only, narrow fight going on.
Though not dire, some people have already become selective while choosing a hotel or a shop in some small towns and villages. Several victims of the Maratha-OBC fight are among students and government officials. The environment in the school-collages and various government offices is getting more polluted with casteism day by day.”
One of the citizens in a tea stall anonymously told me that the colleges in the city have also allegedly got divided in the Maratha-OBC cold war. Balbheem College is mainly of the Maratha caste and the KSK College is being chosen by most of the OBC students over the past few years.
Baban Wadmare is an Ambedkarite activist. He has experienced the socio-political melting pot of Beed very closely. Wadmare was working in the State Transport Department and has recently opted for voluntary retirement. While talking about the political character of Beed, he says, “Beed has been a broad-minded district for decades. Babasaheb Paranjape, Kesharkaku Kshirsagar, Gangadhar Appa Burande, Rajanitai Patil and Babanrao Dhakne were the MLAs who got elected, in the past, from Beed. All of them belonged to different castes. The case of Babanrao Dhakne is even more interesting. He was a Vanjari and hailed from a different geographical region that is Ahmednagar district. But this now feels like a dream. Most people are behaving suspiciously with each other. No doubt there are exceptions, but in some cases I have seen people even cutting off friendships while arguing about Maratha reservation and the current Massajog issue. The tea-stalls, Paan-Beedi shops, barber saloons are the social addas (hang-out places) in India. In Beed these addas (places) are a centre for heated arguments. In this not so normal environment, Dalit & Muslims and micro-minorities are apprehensive, afraid. Muslims were earlier supporting Marathas, they even distributed water to the Maratha Morchas (agitations), but now they have backed out as Maratha Morchas have become toxic and the leaders are spreading hatred against specific castes.
While going from Beed to Massajog, I stopped at a tea stall. There was a prominent board with the name of the stall and photos of Bhagwan Baba (A respected saint & activist from the Vanjari caste) and Gopinath Munde (former Union Minister of India). With his worldly wisdom, within no time, Garje, the stall owner, sensed that I am not a native person, and I might be a journalist. After offering the tea, he spontaneously started a conversation. Garje was telling me that allegedly Maratha quota leader Manoj Jarange once stopped at his tea stall but as soon as he sensed that the stall was being run by a person of the Vanjari community, he suddenly asked his teammates to get up and then they together left from there. Garje continued to express himself, “You know, I am originally from Pathardi (Nagar dist) There I have voted for Monika Tai Rajale, who is a Maratha. Pratap Kaka Dhakne, who is a Vanjari, was defeated, stood against her. This is Maharashtra, beyond caste consciousness. We are common people, we need a work-oriented MLA, that’s it. As a common man, my life is already full of hardships, I am no more interested in these tug of wards between politicians. People like Jarange keep spreading hatred within Marathas against us OBCs. But being a Maratha Leader, I will say, Jarange has united OBCs more than Marathas. He has shown us the importance of being together in these toxic times. We should actually thank Jarange for this.
Massajog is a village with 3-4 thousand population with Maratha being a prominent caste along with some OBCs and SC families. Massajog, famous for its matki-poha dish, is situated on NH 348 highway. The economy of the village survives on the income of small shops and hotels along with farming. Now the village is in the national headlines because of the brutal murder of 44 year old sarpanch, Santosh Deshmukh, on December 9.
The village is experiencing a drama much like the ‘Peepli Live’ movie due to the overwhelming presence of media, visible for the whole month of December. When I went to Deshmukh’s home in the evening, all the women, including his wife Ashwini and mother Shardabai were sitting near his photo. One can sense that some pooja rituals had been concluded just a while ago. Shardabai says, “I want justice as soon as possible, nothing else. Hang the culprits till death. My son was the blue eyed boy for the whole village. He was admired by numerous government officials for the developmental work he was doing in Massajog.
Sudarshan Deshmukh is one of the relatives of the Sarpanch. Sudarshan says, “The criminal offenses registered in our village since the last 10 years are less than 2%. Massajog is known for its admirable work in sanitation & water supply. Our village was active during the Maratha Morchas from the start. As a village we have always been united.
Dhananjay Deshmukh, Sarpanch Santosh’s brother, was sitting in a temporary canopy where a photo of Santosh has been kept, decorated with flowers. Dhananjay, with some of the villagers, was getting ready to start for Aantarwali Sarati. Before that, I was able to have a short talk with him. Deshmukh proudly talks about the legacy of his brother Santosh. He says, “My brother has been elected as vice-president (upsarpanch) of the Massajog Gram Panchayat. Then for the second term, his wife Ashwini was the (president) Sarpanch. Then, for this third term, he became the President (Sarpanch), two years ago.
Our family is originally from Barshi (Dist. Dharashiv). A few generations ago, our family migrated from Barshi to Massajog due to drought conditions. My brother and his wife were literally the icons for the villagers. Police should have taken the atrocity complaint of the scheduled caste (SC) watchman who was beaten by the same goons who then killed my brother Santosh. This would have prevented the further tragedy. Now the whole village has united to demand justice for their beloved Sarpanch. We are wishing that this all hooliganism should forever stop soon. I can feel the tensions in the air, that just one mistake of mine can lead to some anarchy. That is why I am more than alert while reacting to any developments. The whole village is with us but we are not in any mood to show muscle power. As a family, we want a democratic justice.
The mother of Santosh Deshmukh, Shardabai, was in deep grief. After a while, she managed to talk to me while some women wiped her tears. “Maza sonyasarkha lekru gela. Navra aani lek nasal tar baichya jagnyala kay arth asto sanga…. He jyanni kelay tyanna fashi dya tarch santosh cha aatma shant hoil. (My beloved son is now no more. Without a husband and a son, the life of any woman is in vain. The goons responsible for my son’s murder should be hanged till death. Then only his soul will rest in peace.)”
One of the villagers told me, “We have lost our dear first man of the village. As that dreadful news came, not a single person cooked anything in their kitchen. Whole village was mourning in grief. Hotel owners kept the hotels closed for eight consecutive days. Isn’t this exceptional?”
While going from Massajog to Parli, I stopped at a tea stall at Kej. Suleman Bhai (name changed to ensure anonymity) runs the stall. This is where Santosh Deshmukh used to sit with his friends and colleagues. While sharing memories of Deshmukh, Suleman Bhai says, “He was a soft spoken and humble person. He has always worked hard for the betterment of his village. I strongly feel that the home minister should be held accountable for all this. Maharashtra is a state with law and order. No caste should overpower other castes in a democracy. Some people are really afraid these days, I have observed this while running my tea stall here. This is not an ideal situation in our democratic country. The people behind all this tragedy do not belong to any caste or religion. They are just sworn to power. However no person in power remains always in in power. This is the only truth. Minorities are being forced to live in a vulnerable condition today. Politics is just a game played by a few goons.”
On social media, virtually, one can witness the clashes between the young generation over the changing image of Beed and Parli. In one social media posts, a young boy outside Parli posted a mile-stone signboard of Parli Town and asked, ‘Shall I proceed or go back?’ In the same post, while commenting, several social-media users from Beed and Parli have expressed their deep anguish. Some of them logically expressed themselves by saying that a handful of people can’t decide the character of any city. Many of the users even abused that person for bad-naming their city. One can find such posts revolving around Beed and Parli with heated arguments in the comment box these days.
Parli Vaijnath is the second largest city in the Beed district when it comes to population. It is the birth place of Gopinath Munde. The city is famous for religious reasons. As one of the 12 Jyotirlingas of Shiva, Vaijanath is situated in Parli, the pilgrims from across India keep visiting the ancient temple. Nowadays, it is in headlines for different reasons.
Sunil (name changed to ensure anonymity) is a politician from Parli. He enjoys a large circle of friends which is a mix of diverse classes and castes. I went for a small tea party with Sunil and his friends. With a sarcastic tone, they started like, “We believe that the main profession in Parli is of people keeping alive heated discussions about politics with a cup of tea. If you ask us about Parli, this is a land which believes in the personality cult phenomenon. And this has its inevitable consequences.
One of Sunil’s friends says, Beed and Parli themselves have become a different caste now. When it comes to this geographical area, we are being treated as kind of ‘untouchables’. People outside Beed have already started treating us differently. Memes, sarcastic comments and jokes are enjoyable to a certain extent. There comes a time, however, when this hurts.
(To be continued)
(This is part one of the ground report. The author is an independent journalist and can be reached at sharmishtha.2011@gmail.com)
Images: Yogesh Bhausaheb Dhakne
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