Maratha stir: A look at major quota protests across India in last 4 years

Maratha stir: A look at major quota protests across India in last 4 years on Business Standard. The reservation system still stokes a fire among the Indian masses and is a polarising topic

Latest News Some men brandish swords, others pelt stones, a few others torch a tire and together they howl, all the while stomping together to railway tracks to bring either their state or, in some cases, the country to a standstill. These images have become familiar to Indians, who have these pictures roaring out of the front pages of their newspapers and on their TV screens on an uncomfortably frequent basis. Maratha stir The protesters gather in a show of strength not to impose their superiority but to convince the nation that they need reservation to be on an equal footing with the rest. The why of reservation: When India gained independence in 1947, the new constitution provided reservation to scheduled castes and tribes -- which were seen as the ones who had historically been discriminated against -- in educational institutions, government jobs and even seats in parliament and the state assemblies. The idea was to provide them with an "equal opportunity" in the new India.

Not everybody was enthused by the idea though, least of all the framer of the constitution, Dr. B R Ambedkar who argued that reservation alone wouldn't change the social status of Dalits. He agreed to reservation, but wanted it to be discontinued 10 years after the adoption of the Constitution. In 1989, based on the recommendations of the Mandal Commission, the VP Singh-led government extended the benefits to Other Backward Classes (OBCs). As years rolled by, more and more groups started demanding reservation and many took violent routes to get their voice heard. Below are the prominent quota stirs that took place in India since 2014: