The Maratha conundrum: Quota stir by agrarian community has many facets

The agitating Maratha youth is demanding reservations in general; on the anvil is a recruitment drive for 72,000 government jobs

Long ago, in 1978, the political supremacy of the Maratha community in Maharashtra was disturbed by Sharad Pawar. A Maratha by caste but non-conformist, Pawar, then 38-year-old and the youngest chief minister of the state, drew the ire of the Maratha élite.

Two decades later, the first Brahmin chief minister of the state, Manohar Joshi, had to step down a few months before a fresh Assembly election owing to multiple reasons, caste being one of them, to make way for Narayan Rane, a Maratha leader from coastal Konkan.

Come 2018, with Maharashtra’s second Brahmin CM, Devendra Fadnavis, at the helm,