Agrarian distress, sluggish job market: Five charts to understand the roots of the Maratha agitation

Education has led to high mobility, especially in the poorer Marathwada region, but opportunities remain few alongside dwindling incomes, shows a data analysis.

Jan 11, 2024 - 10:30

Agrarian distress, sluggish job market: Five charts to understand the roots of the Maratha agitation

Since September, Maharashtra has seen a resurgence in massive protests by the Maratha community demanding reservations in government jobs and educational institutions.

The protests escalated after the police baton-charged a group holding a hunger strike in a village in Jalna district in the state’s Marathwada region on September 1. The Marathas are seeking recognition as an Other Backward Classes community, reiterating their demand during the previous wave of protests between 2016 and 2017.

But why has a landed, traditionally dominant agrarian community mobilised so strongly for what is effectively downward social mobility, which is a demand to be recognised as one of the large groups of service castes, from being a Kshatriya or “warrior” caste group?

Data shows that the answer lies in an agrarian crisis: a sluggish market for non-agricultural jobs in a stagnant rural economy. A regional disparity in the availability of non-agricultural jobs alongside significant educational mobility with the stagnation of economic returns has fueled the agitation.

The caste groups currently categorised as Other Backward Classes see the Maratha demand as a threat and have launched a counter mobilisation. This has become a major political challenge ahead of the Lok Sabha elections across the country followed by state assembly elections in Maharashtra this year.