The Maratha Kranti Morcha, loosely translated as "Maratha revolutionary demonstration" in the

Marathi language Marathi (; ''Marāṭhī'', ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the official language of Maharashtra, and additional official language in the state o ...

, is a series of silent and pragmatic protests organized by the

Maratha The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...

community in various cities across India as well as overseas. Other groups, such as

religious minorities A minority religion is a religion held by a minority of the population of a country, state, or region. Minority religions may be subject to stigma or discrimination. An example of a stigma is using the term cult with its extremely negative co ...

including

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

, have also supported the Morcha. The impetus for the rallies was the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Kopardi village, Maharashtra, on 13 July 2016. The protesters have demanded the death sentence for the rapists. Maratha caste dominate the power and cultural structure in Maharashtra owing to their numerical strength. The rallies feature no leaders and no slogans. Millions of people from all parts of Maharashtra came together to protest, and initially no harm was done to any public or private property until a few instances of violence were noted in January 2017. The demand for reservations in educational positions and government jobs has also been a part of these protests. Recently, the Bombay High Court upheld the reservations granted to the Maratha community but also mentioned that the percentage of quotas given wasn't justifiable. Supreme court later, however quashed the Maratha community reservations. A large percentage of Marathis are farmers, and the community has been severely affected by droughts and degraded arable land. Due to the lack of reservations, unemployment has become a major problem in the Maratha community. Some castes within the

community, known as Kunbi, do receive the benefits of reservations provided to the

Other Backward Class The Other Backward Class is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or socially backward. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with General castes, S ...

category; however, most people are allegedly out of benefits.

Demands

* Punishment of culprits in the Kopardi rape and murder case * Reservations in educational positions and government jobs * Implementation of recommendations of the

National Commission on Farmers The National Commission on Farmers (NCF) is an Indian commission constituted on 18 November 2004 under the chairmanship of Professor M.S. Swaminathan to address the nationwide calamity of farmers suicides in India. The Terms of Reference refl ...

chaired by Dr.

M. S. Swaminathan Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (born 7 August 1925) is an Indian agronomist, agricultural scientist, plant geneticist, administrator and humanitarian. Swaminathan is a global leader of the green revolution. He has been called the main architec ...

* Amendment of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 to stop its

misuse Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other t ...

Influencing factors

Social media

Social Media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

has played a key role in the protests; various

Facebook groups Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of ...

and pages were created to support the rallies and help groups organize. Many college students, graduates, and IT professionals have been actively managing the protests and providing information using

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

Social

To counter the Maratha Kranti Morcha, a consolidation of

es (OBC) and

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the Caste system in India, castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold Varna (Hinduism), varna syste ...

s splinter groups have forged an alliance and decided to organize silent morchas across

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

with the aim of defending their reservation quotas and demanding that the reservation norms not be tampered with or that the

Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (its correct name) was enacted by the Parliament of India to prevent atrocities and hate crimes against the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The Act is pop ...

not be amended.

Political

The president of a regional political party, the

Republican Party of India (A) The Republican Party of India (Athawale) ( RPI(A)) is a political party in India. The party is a splinter group of the Republican Party of India and has its roots in the Scheduled Castes Federation led by B. R. Ambedkar. The president of the pa ...

, and current member of the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

of the

Indian parliament The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the ...

, Ramdas Athawale – the

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In o ...

for Social Justice and Empowerment said that those earning an annual income of up to Rs 600,000 from all castes should be given reservations in jobs and education. He also promised to bring up the issue with Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

and BJP president

Amit Shah Amit Anil Chandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Minister of Home Affairs since 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation of India since 2021. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata P ...

Judicial

* On 7 October 2016, 2 month and 24 days after the rape and murder incident, the Ahmednagar Police filed a charge sheet running into over 350 pages before the Ahmednagar sessions court in which the trio was charged under IPC sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape), and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. * On 19 October 2016, 3 months to the incident, the Kopardi rape and murder case trial began in the Ahmednagar sessions court. The special public prosecutor and lawyer

Ujjwal Nikam Ujjwal Nikam is an Indian special public prosecutor who has worked on prominent murder and terrorism cases. He helped prosecute suspects in the 1993 Bombay bombings, the Gulshan Kumar murder case, the Pramod Mahajan murder case, and the 2008 M ...

opened the case by describing the charges of criminal conspiracy to commit rape and murder against all three accused. * On 18 November 2017, 1 year and 4 months after the incident, the Ahmednagar sessions court convicted the three men on charges of rape, murder, and criminal conspiracy. * On 29 November 2017, the Ahmednagar sessions court awarded the death sentence to all three convicts.

Silent protests

9 August 2016 - Aurangabad 30 August 2016-

Beed Beed (Marathi pronunciation: iːɖ is a city in Marathwada region of Maharashtra state in India. It is the administrative headquarters in Beed district. History Beed is a historical city of possibly medieval origin. Its early history is ob ...

18 September 2016 - Akola 21 September 2016 –

Navi Mumbai Navi Mumbai (), is a planned city situated on the west coast of the Indian subcontinent, located in the Konkan division of Maharashtra state, on the mainland of India. Navi Mumbai is part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The city is ...

23 September 2016 –

Ahmednagar Ahmednagar (), is a city located in the Ahmednagar district in the state of Maharashtra, India, about 120 km northeast of Pune and 114 km from Aurangabad. Ahmednagar takes its name from Ahmad Nizam Shah I, who founded the town in 1494 ...

25 September 2016 –

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

25 September 2016 – Yavatmal 25 September 2016 –

Washim Washim (Vatsagulma) is a city and a Municipal Council in Washim district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Washim is the district headquarters of Washim district. Etymology Washim was known earlier as Vatsagulma and it was the seat of power ...

26 September 2016 –

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

27 September 2016 –

Sangli Sangli () is a city and the district headquarters of Sangli District in the state of Maharashtra, in western India. It is known as the Turmeric City of Maharashtra due to its production and trade of the spice. Sangli is situated on the banks o ...

28 September 2016 – Dhule 2 October 2016 –

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

3 October 2016 –

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

9 October 2016 – Tweet Morcha 9 October 2016 –

Daman district, India Daman is one of the three districts of the Indian union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu on the western coast of India, surrounded by Valsad district of Gujarat state on the north, east and south and the Arabian Sea to the ...

9 October 2016 –

Badlapur Badlapur (Pronunciation: əd̪lapuːɾ is a city in Thane district, Maharashtra state, India. It is a part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Matheran Range The Matheran Range starts at Haji Malang in the north-north-west, continues to Ta ...

15 October 2016 –

Kolhapur Kolhapur () is a city on the banks of the Panchganga River in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarter of the Kolhapur district. In, around 2 C.E. Kolapur's name was 'Kuntal'. Kolhapur is kn ...

16 October 2016 –

Thane Thane (; also known as Thana, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city in Maharashtra, India. It is situated in the north-eastern portion of the Salsette Island. Thane city is entirely within Thane taluka, one of the seven talukas ...

16 October 2016 – Chiplun 16 October 2016 -

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

19 October 2016 – Chandrapur 19 October 2016 – Bidar, Karnataka 9 August 2017 –

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

The Maratha Kranti Morcha carried out its biggest silent protest in the financial capital of India,

, on 9 August 2017. Around half a million members of the Maratha community from different parts of the state gathered in Mumbai. The protest started from Jijamata Zoo Byculla and culminated at Azad Maidan in Mumbai. Schools, junior colleges, and about 450 institutes in South Mumbai remained shut. Mumbai's famed Dabbawalas took the day off to participate in the morcha. During this silent protest, leaders from the Maratha community also warned that they would switch to violent tactics after two weeks in case the state authorities chose not to act on their demands.

Gallery

File:Maratha Kranti Morcha public nagar.jpg, File:Maratha Kranti Morcha public protest.jpg, File:Maratha-Kranti-Morcha.jpg, File:Kranti Morcha.jpg, File:Maratha Kranti Morcha public.jpg, File:March-main.jpg,

Violence

January 2017

Road blockades (chakka jams) were held on 31 January 2017 to gather momentum and mount pressure on the state government before the community’s silent rally scheduled in Mumbai on 6 March 2017. 31 January 2017 –

and across

*Non-fatal injuries : at least 3 citizens *Arrests : at least 27

July 2018

On 23 July 2018, a Maratha Kranti Morcha activist committed suicide; the protesters refuse to collect the body and demanded the resignation of

Devendra Fadnavis Devendra Gangadharrao Fadnavis (Marathi pronunciation: ��ेवेंद्र फडणवीस born 22 July 1970) is an Indian politician serving as the 9th and current Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra since 30 June 2022. He served as ...

, the

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

of Maharashtra. Kakasaheb Shinde-Patil, aged 28 committed suicide by jumping into the

Godavari river The Godavari (IAST: ''Godāvarī'' �od̪aːʋəɾiː is India's second longest river after the Ganga river and drains into the third largest basin in India, covering about 10% of India's total geographical area. Its source is in Trimbakeshw ...

during agitations at the village of Kaygaon Toka in the Gangapur

taluka A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

of Aurangabad District. The protesters blamed the district administration for not deploying boats and lifeguards despite being forewarned about the agitations. On 24 July 2018, protests turned violent; protesters attacked police officers and torched buses, police vehicles, and private cars. 25 July 2018 –

, Panvel,

, Kalyan,

Palghar Palghar () is a town in the Konkan division of Maharashtra state, India and a municipal council. It is in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and since 2014 it has been the administrative capital of the Palghar district. Palghar lies on the Weste ...

, Raigad * Self-immolation : 5 protesters * Non-fatal injuries : 2 police officers * Property damage : 160 private cars in Navi Mumbai, 37 public transport buses in Mumbai, 2 fire brigade vehicles in Aurangabad, 16 vehicles torched, 80 vehicles vandalized in Chakan, Pune, 16 buses burned in Solapur

August 2018

Maratha groups announced a shutdown across Maharashtra on August Kranti Day 2018 to intensify agitation for reservations. August Kranti Day is celebrated annually on 9 August. The Marathas launched a

non-cooperation movement The Non-cooperation movement was a political campaign launched on 4 September 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of persuading them to grant self-governance.

against the

Government of Maharashtra The Government of Maharashtra is the state governing authority for the state of Maharashtra, India. It is a democratically elected government with 288 MLAs elected to the Vidhan Sabha for a five-year term. Maharashtra has a Maharashtra Legisla ...

and the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

. The non-cooperation movement covers non-payment of taxes to government and local bodies until reservations are implemented.

Impact

After continuously growing protests in each city and millions of people's participation in each Maratha Kranti Morcha, on 13 October 2016 the

took the decisions to: and * Increase the upper limit of the Economically Backward Class (EBC) to Rs.6,00,000, and announced the extension of monetary benefits under this category to students from all castes
Marathi
. Students from the EBC category studying in all professional courses would be eligible for benefits such as fee reimbursement under the Rajshri Shahu Maharaj Scheme
Marathi

MarathiMarathi

Marathi

Marathi
, which was named after the Maratha king Rajshri Shahu of Kolhapur, who introduced the first reservation policy in the kingdom of

Kolhapur State Kolhapur State or Kolhapur Kingdom (1710–1949) was a Maratha princely State of India, under the Deccan Division of the Bombay Presidency, and later the Deccan States Agency. It was considered the most important of the Maratha principalities wi ...

. * Create provisions for children of small landholding farmers under the

Panjabrao Deshmukh Panjabrao Shamrao Deshmukh (27 December 1898 – 10 April 1965), also known as Bhausaheb Deshmukh was a social activist and a leader to farmers in India. He was the Minister of Agriculture in the first cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952. Early ...

Scheme
Marathi

Marathi

Marathi
, named after first State Agriculture Minister of India and Freedom fighter. As the Bombay high court had stayed the 16% reservation granted to Marathas in government jobs and educational positions on the grounds that the data used by the government was faulty, the

on 5 December 2016 filed a 2,800-page affidavit to justify the reservations for

s as legal and show that it did not violate constitutional provisions. The affidavit contained documents substantiating the claim that the community is socially and educationally backward.

References

External links

Constitution of India : Part III Fundamental Rights : Article 15 : Clause 5Swaminathan Report: National Commission on Farmers
{{Portal bar, Society Social movement organizations Protest marches 2016 protests 2017 protests Protests in India 2016 in India 2017 in India Far-right politics in India 2016 in Indian politics 2017 in Indian politics Politics of Maharashtra History of Maharashtra (1947–present) Reservation in India Indian caste movements