Azad Maidan Maratha protest called off.
Jarange Patil says government accepted six demands.
Patil also ends fast-unto-death.
Slogans of ‘Jai Shivaji’, ‘Jai Maratha’ thundered across Azad Maidan in Mumbai on Tuesday as thousands of protesters from the Maratha Kunbi community demanded reservation in educational institutions and government jobs. Since Friday, the protesters had made makeshift tents, vans and the city streets their temporary homes. But the southern suburbs, the bustling arteries of government offices, corporate headquarters and residential neighborhoods ground to a halt. Commuters were left stranded, shopkeepers shuttered and local businesses counting losses.
The agitation for reservation, led by activist Manoj Jarange Patil, had a dramatic rise. Patil launched a hunger strike at Azad Maidan on Friday for a 10 per cent quota for the Maratha community within the Other Backward Classes or OBC category. On Monday, he intensified his protest by giving up water too, signalling the deep frustration of a community whose demands have remained unresolved despite repeated government assurances.
Now, the Bombay High Court has ordered the protesters to vacate Azad Maidan, which had Jarange and his supporters to relocate to Navi Mumbai after mobilising around 1,800 vehicles from across the state. The transfer was peaceful as of Tuesday evening.
Outlook visited the site of the protest, finding the protesters reflecting on their hardships while camping in the heart of Mumbai since Friday. They had limited access to basic amenities, including clean drinking water, mobile toilets, and food, It was particularly difficult for women. Volunteers and protesters alike described these challenges as attempts [of the state government] to “break morale” rather than address their grievances.
Near the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation office and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, a UNESCO heritage site, many protesters on foot and in vehicles wondered where they would go now that they had to move. The police had started to clear the area after the High Court order which they said they would obey.
“We respect the Bombay HC’s decision and will obey it. We are demanding our rights and protesting peacefully,” said Shivam, a protester who had a simple van. Mangar, a college student from Thane district, said that he needed time to leave as he was yet to decide where to go.
The city, in the meantime, bore the brunt of the protest. From Marine Drive to CST and Colaba, traffic crawled as arterial roads were blocked by the protesting Marathas arriving in the city. Visitors hardly came to shops in Crawford Market, Zaveri Bazaar and Fashion Street. Businesses have been speaking of losses of between Rs 75 crore and Rs 100 crore over four days, though there has been no official estimate. Public transport services were disrupted, commuters missed work and medical appointments, and cargo movement faced delays.
Core Issues
In Maharashtra, the Kunbi community — traditionally an agrarian caste, also found in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Gujarat — is classified under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. This classification makes Kunbi members (excluding those falling under the “creamy layer”) eligible for reservation benefits in government educational institutions and jobs, as well as political representation through reserved constituencies, provided they possess valid caste certificates.
In the traditional caste hierarchy, the Kunbis were primarily small and middle-level farmers, positioned socially above Dalits but below the dominant Marathas and upper castes. In Maharashtra, they were included in the state’s Other Backward Classes (OBC) list much earlier, in the 1960s, but their backward class status was reinforced nationally after the Mandal Commission recommendations were implemented in the 1990s, which extended affirmative action benefits across India.
The Marathas, on the other hand, are Maharashtra’s largest caste group with dominant presence in both politics and agriculture. The Marathas and Kunbis share close social and occupational ties, as both are traditionally agrarian. Many historians and anthropologists argue that Kunbis and Marathas are not entirely distinct but part of a larger agrarian continuum, with overlapping genealogies and frequent intermarriages. While Kunbis are officially recognized as OBCs, Marathas are classified separately, though socially the two communities often blur into one another.
This argument gained prominence after archival land and revenue records revealed instances of Marathas being recorded as Kunbis in colonial-era documents. Patil and other leaders use this evidence to demand that the Marathas who do not have ‘Kunbi certificates’ should also be recognised as ‘Kunbi OBCs’, thus gaining access to the OBC quota.
Their demand has intensified now because of growing economic distress in rural Maharashtra. Farming communities, including the Marathas, face rising indebtedness, declining agricultural returns and growing unemployment.
Earlier attempts to secure a separate Maratha quota under the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) category were struck down by the Supreme Court in May 2021, which held that the law granting Marathas reservation in education and jobs breached the 50% ceiling on reservations laid down in the Indra Sawhney (1992) judgment.
As a result, the community’s strategy shifted to seeking inclusion within the OBC fold through the Kunbi identity route. This has created tensions within existing OBC groups, who fear dilution of their representation, making the issue both socially sensitive and politically volatile.
Amid the chaos, one question lingered in the minds of protesters: where does their movement go from here, and how long will it linger until a solution is found?
