Sunday saw members of the Maratha community taking to the streets of New York carrying saffron flags and placards that read, "Ek Maratha Lakh Maratha".
Participants, most of them young people from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, clarified they were not there to support either of the two presidential candidates in the US - Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump - but were in fact showing their solidarity for the Maratha community in Maharashtra that had organised several peaceful marches across the state to press their demands.
The New York rally team later mailed a memorandum to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and handed a copy to New York senator Chuck Schumer and to India's permanent representative at the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin. The Maratha community plans to organise similar marches in other US states including California, Florida, Colorado, Wisconsin and Washington.
