Starting in July 2015, the people of India's Patidar community, seeking Other Backward Class (OBC) status, held public demonstrations across the Indian state of Gujarat.
The largest demonstration was held in Ahmedabad on 25 August 2015, and was attended by thousands. Later, there were incidents of violence and arson across the state, resulting in the imposition of curfew in several cities and towns. Properties and vehicles worth crores (tens of millions) of rupees were damaged and destroyed. The state returned to normalcy by 28 August. Despite talks with the government, the agitation resumed and turned violent again on 19 September. The government announced the offers of scholarships and subsidies to general category students on 24 September 2015 and a 10% seats reserved for the economically backward classes in April 2016. The 10% reservation was quashed by the Gujarat High Court in August 2016. The agitation lingered on for two more years. In January 2019, the Parliament of India amended the constitution granting maximum 10% reservation to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) of the society. The amendment was challenged in the Supreme Court where its validity was upheld in November 2022.
Background
In India, the Other Backward Class (OBC) status invokes affirmative action which provides reserved quotas in education and government jobs. In Gujarat, 27% of the seats in government and education are reserved for OBC, 7.5% for Scheduled Castes and 15% for Scheduled Tribes for a total of 49.5% of all seats.
The Supreme Court capped the reservation at 50% in their 1992 judgement in the Indra Sawhney and Others v. Union of India.
In 1981, the Government of Gujarat, headed by Indian National Congress (INC) chief minister Madhav Singh Solanki, introduced the reservation for socially and economically backward castes (SEBC), chiefly Koli caste, based on recommendations of the Bakshi Commission. It resulted in anti-reservation agitation across the state, which spilled over in riots that resulted in more than one hundred deaths. Solanki resigned in 1985 but later returned to power, winning 149 out of 182 assembly seats. He was supported by Kshatriya, Dalit, Adivasi and Muslims, collectively called KHAM. This caused other communities, including Patidars, to lose the political influence which later alienated the INC. Patidars represents 12.3% of the population of Gujarat. The SEBC (later the OBC) list initially comprised 81 communities, which by 2014 had expanded to 146 communities. In the 1980s the proportion of reserved seats was 10%; by 2014 it had increased to 27%.
The Patidar community is facing class-differentiation within the community. There was a growing discontent among Patidar youth due to shrinking economic opportunities and among older generation due to their downward social mobility.
The agitation took inspiration from the Gurjar agitation in Rajasthan, which ended in May 2015.
Agitation in 2015
July
In July 2015 Patidar youth, many of whom are surnamed Patel, started public demonstrations across Gujarat, demanding OBC status for their community, which would entitle the Patidars to a reserved quota of places in government jobs and education.
They were supported by Sardar Patel Sevadal, an organisation for community service, and they formed the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) for this purpose, headed by Hardik Patel. The organisation described itself as apolitical.
Four major Patidar organisations denied any involvement in the agitation, though later the Khodaldham Trust offered to mediate between the youth and the government.
The agitation started in Mehsana on 6 July 2015, and a demonstration was held in Mansa on 22 July.
The demonstration in Visnagar on 23 July turned violent when some agitators torched some vehicles and vandalised the office of Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Rushikesh Patel.Demonstrations were held in Vijapur and Mehsana on 28 July.
The police booked 152 persons for violating prohibitory orders by holding the demonstration.
On 30 July there were demonstrations in Lunavada.
August
Social media helped to spread the protest quickly across the state. Demonstrations were held in Devbhumi Dwarka district on 1 August; in Gandhinagar, Navsari, Jam Jodhpur in Jamnagar district, Himatnagar and Bagasara in Amreli district on 3 August; in Rajkot on 5 August; in Amreli on 10 August; in Junagadh on 12 August; and in Petlad on 17 August. The demonstration in Surat on 17 August drew crowds estimated at 100,000 to 450,000 people. The diamond and textile markets of the city remained closed, as did several schools and colleges. Demonstrations were held in Surendranagar, Bharuch, Ankleshwar and Vadodara on 21 August. PAAS itself organised 37 rallies by 25 August. In 55 days, 149 rallies were organised by various organisations across the state.
25–31 August
The major demonstration, dubbed Kranti Rally (Revolution Rally) and held in Ahmedabad on 25 August at the GMDC grounds, was attended by over 500,000. The members of community formed a procession and presented the memorandum of their demands to the District Collector. Hardik Patel, who led the rally, declared he would go on a hunger strike with others, demanding the Chief Minister personally be present there to receive the memorandum. He was arrested as he did not have permission to stay on the grounds after the rally, and later released. Those present on the grounds were dispersed by the police using force. An inquiry was ordered to investigate the reason behind the police's use of force. Anandiben Patel and Rajnikant Patel, state leaders, both denied ordering or authorising the police charge on the crowd.
Incidents of violence and clashes were reported in Ahmedabad and other parts of the state. The police vehicles and local transport buses of AMTS and BRTS were set on fire. At least fifteen cases of clashes and arson were reported. The mob vandalised shops in the CTM area and the police fired eight teargas shells to disperse the mob. There were clashes between members of the Rabari caste and Patels in Ghatlodiya, where at least ten persons were injured. A large mob tried to damage railway tracks near Ranip. Many vehicles were damaged. Attacks on police and media personnel were reported. A curfew was imposed in the city under Section 144. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation suffered damage worth ₹ 12 crore including torching of 33 buses of local transport. At least seven ward offices and civic centres were vandalised. Five companies of the Indian Army were deployed in the city to control the situation.
In Surat, the curfew was imposed from 25 to 27 August in the city as the mob torched buses, two ATMs, van, Fire Station and damaged some properties. Over 120 people were arrested or detained. Violence was also reported in Vadodara. Ahmedabad–Vadodara Expressway was blocked by agitators for hours. A total of 1554 bus trips were cancelled by the Vadodara division of GSRTC when six buses were damaged.
In Rajkot, Rajkot BRTS bus stations were torched and stones thrown; damage to public and private property was estimated at ₹ 1.47 crore. The mob ransacked two offices of Union Minister of State for Agriculture and local MP Mohan Kundariya; police fired 10 rounds in the air and lobbed 57 shells of teargas to disperse mobs. Twelve policemen were injured. The police filed 18 FIRs related to incidents. A curfew was imposed for 48 hours on 26 August.
Curfew was also imposed in parts of Mehsana district including Mehsana, Visnagar and Unjha after a mob stoned and torched the house of minister Rajni Patel, Home minister Nitinbhai Patel, and BJP MLA Jayshreeben Patel. The district police lodged 25 FIRs and 13 cases over various instances of violence and rioting, and 36 persons were identified. At least 22 people were arrested in the cases; three of them were released on bail. Vandalism was also reported from Morbi and Amreli. A curfew was also imposed in Patan for two days.
3500 paramilitary force personnel and 93 companies of the state reserve police were deployed. Ten people died in the violence: five in Ahmedabad, a police constable in Surat, three in Banaskantha district, and one in Patan district. A youth died in police custody in Bapunagar, Ahmedabad. Across the state, 295 FIRs were filed and 650 people arrested. Schools and colleges across the state were kept closed from 26 to 30 August. Internet service on mobile phones and certain broadband newspapers, like WhatsApp and Facebook, were blocked across the state for six days, 26–31 August. The internet block was continued in Ahmedabad and Surat. According to Western Railways, the tracks were damaged at eight places by mobs, resulting in cancellation of 51 trains. The operation of 26 trains were affected, while 15 trains were diverted out of the state. About 340 police cases were registered across the state including 40 cases registered in Ahmedabad; 230 of these were registered on behalf of the government. The Police department suffered damage of ₹ 200 crore.
On 26 August, agitators called for a one-day statewide shutdown. The state returned to normalcy by 28 August. Hardik Patel declared the intention of expanding the agitation to the other states of India. As he received support from various Jat, Kurmi and Gurjar community organisations, he declared campaign for petitions to be sent to the Prime Minister. Rallies were organised in Karamsad and in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, on 31 August but did not attract great support.
According to PAAS, a total of 457 FIRs were filed against 1482 Patidars across Gujarat in the three days after 25 August rally.
September
The internet block was lifted in Ahmedabad and Surat on 1 September. PAAS announced that they will organise a march on the reverse route, from Dandi to Ahmedabad, of Mahatma Gandhi's historic Salt March in 1930. The heads of 33 village nearby Dandi opposed the march. The collector for Navsari district denied permission for the march. The march was rescheduled to 13 September but the government denied permission, and PAAS called the march off.
Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti spokesperson Nikhil Savani
On 9 September, Hardik Patel announced a new organisation, Patel Navnirman Sena (PNS), for nationwide extension of the agitation. Patel met former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel prior to a meeting with government members on 14 September. 20 Patidar representatives led by Hardik Patel and Lalji Patel the meeting, which was chaired by the Chief Minister and attended by cabinet ministers. The issues discussed included the police action on 25 August, scholarship schemes for general category students, compensation to people died in violence, and release of arrested people. In a symbolic boycott, Patidars withdrew large amounts of cash from Kherol and Vadrad branches of Sabarkantha District Central Cooperative Bank of Sabarkantha district.
Hardik Patel announced that they would organise rallies in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar in October 2015, a month before the 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election .
On 19 September police detained Hardik Patel and 35 of his supporters from the Varachha area of Surat for trying to hold the Ekta Yatra (Unity March) rally without receiving prior permission from authorities. They were booked under section 188 of the IPC for defying police notification, and two FIRs were filed against them. They were released on bail later. There were some incidents of protests, arson, property damage and road blocks in several cities and towns, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Morbi, Navsari, Botad, Visnagar, Mehsana and Jamnagar. A Patidar mob clashed with a Rabari community in the Rabari Colony area of Ahmedabad. In Surat and Morbi, two GSRTC buses were damaged. In several places police used teargas and caning to disperse mobs. The internet on mobile phones, social media and SMS service was blocked again for 24 hours in several parts of the state, including Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot. Twelve companies each of the BSF and RAF were deployed to control the violence.
On 19 September, police in Mehsana arrested 35 protesters and lodged a complaint against them. On 22 September at least 20 Patidar leaders were arrested and FIR filed against them when they held a meeting without police permission in Tenpur village of Bayad Taluka, Aravalli district. Hardik Patel briefly disappeared from the meeting and appeared the next day. The Gujarat High Court termed the disappearance as a 'publicity stunt' and warned about contempt of court. On 23 September PAAS leader Nilesh Advadiya was booked under sedition charges.