Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil announces statewide 'Rasta Roko' on 3rd March to demand implementation of 'Sage Soyare' ordinance notification. ‘Sage-soyare’ is a Marathi term for ‘relatives from the family tree’. According to the government notification, the term includes “relatives of an applicant’s father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and in earlier generations forming out of marriages within the same caste.” In other words, affinal relations — relations through marriage —formed after a marriage within the same caste in generations prior to the applicant’s will also be considered sage-soyare. For instance, if your uncle marries within the same caste, all his affinal kin will fall within the definition of sage-soyare.
The inclusion of the term is to do with difficulty faced by Maratha families in Marathawada (south-eastern Maharashtra, adjacent to present-day Telangana) in obtaining Kunbi certificates. Till now, the caste of a child was decided solely through the paternal line. This meant that regardless of the mother’s caste, the child would carry the caste of his father.Now, the process of finding historical Kunbi records is much easier in parts of Maharashtra which were ruled by the British. Consequently, a large number of Maratha families in Vidarbha (eastern Maharashtra), western Maharashtra and north Maharashtra have already taken Kunbi certificates.In the last two weeks, ever since the notification was issued, the government has received more than 1.5 million objections and suggestions in response. Over 250 employees and officers have been deputed in the last three days to scrutinise the responses, and the social justice department has been asked to submit a report on these. Based on the latter, the state will make changes in the notification to ensure that the OBC community is not upset. OBC outfits and their leaders like Chhagan Bhujbal, Prakash Shendage, Vijay Wadettiwar and Shabbir Ansari had raised strong objections to the draft notification issued by the government on January 26.
The OBCs have objected to the definition of ‘sage-soyare’, claiming that it does not establish caste or class and is inappropriate in a caste reservation issue. They also claim that since marriages even within the same caste have a very vast ambit, these could be used to obtain Kunbi certificates; additionally, they have accused the government of attempting to change the definition of patriarchal and matriarchal lineage. The community’s contention is that the draft notification has been issued only to favour Marathas, and the objections have even questioned the state government’s right to draft such a notification. Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil, who has been on a hunger strike for the last ten days, said that his further course of action would be decided based on what the government offered in the February 21 session. “Separate reservation will benefit just a few rich Marathas, but most of the community members are in favour of their inclusion in the OBC category,” he said. “For this, the government should start issuing Kunbi certificates.”