Maharashtra’s shame

For many years, activists and scribes in Maharashtra have been fighting and writing to expose the woes of women sugarcane-cutters in Marathwada, who are pushed into removing their wombs so that they are not put out of work due to their menstrual periods. However, this has been a lonely fight for them. There has been no socio-political movement around such taboo-based exploitation in the State.

This is also a State that has not been outraged by the murders of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, who opposed all forms of prejudice and exploitation based on superstition. Pansare also introduced Chhatrapati Shivaji as a ruler with an inclusive, liberal perspective. His Shivaji never became popular in his lifetime; his murder didn’t trigger any huge protest.

Yet, Maharashtra has seen massive marches in recent times. Almost every caste including Brahmins, Marathas, Muslims, OBCs and Dalits have come to the roads to display their strength. They either demanded reservations or more rights for their own castes — nothing per se wrong with that, except that they do not locate their demands in a larger vision of emancipation. Honour killings, abortion of female foetuses, virginity tests of brides, and caste atrocities are not uncommon in this “progressive” State which has seen no mass protest against such practices.

Mahatma Jyotirao Phule dreamt of a world where members of a family can profess different faiths and religions and still stay together. But in Phule’s own lifetime his Satyashodhak Samaj never received popular support. Babasaheb Ambedkar put all efforts to bring ‘We the People’ under one umbrella, but the father of the Indian Constitution was imprisoned to his own caste by his opponents and his followers. Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, a Maratha king, introduced reservation for the backward class in his erstwhile kingdom of Kolhapur, but his legacy did not last.

Maharashtra has not be able to convert the efforts of social reformers into reform movements. It stands divided on gender, caste and class lines like any other State.

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