Monday Musings: How caste shapes politics and governance in Maharashtra

Last week when Supreme Court accepted the Banthia Commission report, it paved way for up to 27 per cent reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local bodies in Maharashtra.

The commission report ascertained the percentage in local bodies based on the population of the OBCs which means districts where the population of OBCs is lower, their representation will also be limited at least through a quota system.

The report has extensively shared the break of the percentage of the OBCs in each of the local bodies in rural and urban parts of the state. While reservation to scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in local bodies is as per their population, the Maharashtra government had set up a 27 per cent quota in local bodies for OBCs in 1994. The 27 per cent reservation was applicable to all urban (municipal corporations, councils and nagar panchayat) and rural bodies (zilla parishad, panchayat samiti and gram panchayat) across the state.

After Supreme Court accepted the panel report, it has become clear that the three district councils – Gadchiroli, Palghar and Nandurbar – will have no reservation for the OBCs because of the high percentage of SCs and STs population.

As reported in Hindustan times last week, Dhule and Nashik will have only 4.1% and 3.9% reservations for OBCs based on their population. Seven other districts have less than 20% reservation while only 12 rural districts will have a full 27% reservation for the class of people.

In as many as 27 municipal corporations, the OBCs will have 672 seats reserved for them from a total of 2,736 seats with the overall percentage standing at 24.56%. The lowest reservation is in Thane at 10.4% followed by 17.9% in Parbhani in central Maharashtra, 18.4% in Mira-Bhayander and 20.5% in Navi Mumbai. Nine municipal corporations have less than 27% reservation.

The sex-member commission derived OBCs representation based on empirical data collected through different reports prepared by other institutes, voters’ lists in as many as 28,000 villages, cities and towns and other means. The panel was also told to arrive at a quantum of reservation for the OBCs in the local self-government bodies.

There has already been a demand from various political parties in Maharashtra and elsewhere for a caste-based census. The centre 2011 had already conducted Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) though its findings were never published by the government.

Caste anywhere in our country is not just another form of identity. The caste has a pervasive quality, and it does possess the potential to grip our politics in ways paralleled only by religion. In fact, it is caste—much more than religion—that has proved to be the identity around which our politics has organised itself.

Many believe that accepting the demand for a fresh caste census and releasing its result can further entrench this or in some cases, it may either expose inflated claims of community leaders about population numbers.

Or it has the potential to deepen the nexus between caste, electoral politics, and the pursuit of legislative favours.

Already, some prominent leaders representing OBCs in Maharashtra claim that the community accounts for 54 per cent of the overall population in the state. On the other hand, Maratha community representatives have projected the population of their community between 30 to 35 per cent. If both claims are to be taken at face value, the SC, STs and NTs along with those in the open category may get bracketed into the remaining 20 per cent which is an unrealistic projection. The existing SC, ST and OBC categories as per Maharashtra government records, are around 4.28 lakh.

The caste-based census may offer an exact picture of the percentage of each of these communities. But it can open another Pandora’s box.