The New Maratha Wars

It’s not just about the repeal of the Atrocities Act. The Marathas have more to carp about than the ‘Dalit’ atrocity that has rallied them.

- Kiran Tare

It has been more than two months since the rape and murder of a 14-year-old in the village of Kopardi in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra. Three Dalit men were accused of the crime —the violence of which was shocking, reminiscent of the Nirbhaya incident in Delhi in December 2012—and not only are the statewide, caste-based reverberations still being felt but are also building in intensity.

Earlier this month, around 300 Marathas, Maharashtra’s dominant community and the one to which the teenage girl belonged, gathered in Ahmednagar to plan a march in the city on September 23. They raised Rs 1 crore in two hours to fund it, as much an example of the community’s anger as its financial clout. On the same day, in the same city, the Dalit community too will organise a some what retaliatory march. Maratha Dalit ties have hit a nadir, the lowest ebb since 1991, when a movement arose to rename the Marathwada University after Dr B.R. Ambedkar.

The Kopardi rape and murder has lit the touch paper for a variety of festering resentments. The Marathas have been turning out in street pro­ tests in their hundreds of thousands. There have been several marches so far, attended by as many as 300,000 people, including in Aurangabad, Osmanabad, Jalgaon, Beed and Parbhani. Their demands include stopping the ‘misuse’ of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, widely referred to as the Atrocities Act, and reservations for Marathas in jobs and education.