Saurashtra, Patidar & ‘Zamindar’— what’s fuelling Rajput fury against BJP’s Rupala in ‘Gujarat Garh’

Saurashtra, Patidar & ‘Zamindar’— what’s fuelling Rajput fury against BJP’s Rupala in ‘Gujarat Garh’

New Delhi: Around 15 kilometres from Gujarat’s Rajkot, in Ratanpar, over 1 lakh members of the Kshatriya community gathered Sunday for a ‘mahasammelan’. This was the second such gathering in the state, and the reason for it, was Union Minister Parshottam Rupala, the BJP’s nominee for the Rajkot Lok Sabha constituency.

Issuing a deadline of 19 April, leaders of the Rajput community reiterated the demand to cancel Rupala’s candidature as BJP’s Rajkot pick.

For over two weeks, the Saurashtra region of Gujarat has been the epicentre of Rajput anger. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has faced protests from the state’s sizeable Rajput population. Rupala’s contentious comments about Kshatriyas triggered massive outrage among members of the community, which analysts say has been simmering in anger for some time now, amid allegations that it was being sidelined within the BJP.

Despite Rupala’s repeated apologies, the anger shows no signs of abating.

During a speech on 22 March, Rupala, a Patidar, claimed that “maharajas (rulers of erstwhile princely states) broke bread with the British and also married off their daughters to them” — a remark that led to backlash from numerous Kshatriya groups and the Rajputs, who claim to be the descendants of former regal and noble lineages in Saurashtra.

“Ek mutthi bajre ke liye, Dilli ki sultanat khona samajhdari nahi hogi (sacrificing a kingdom for a handful of millet is not wise),” Mahipal Singh Makrana, national convenor of the Karni Sena, an outfit that claims to represent the Kshatriya or Rajput community, told ThePrint.

Makrana, who threatened wider protests against the ruling party across all states, was speaking on the day the group’s national president Raj Shekhawat was detained by the police outside the Ahmedabad airport, hours before he planned to gherao the BJP’s Gujarat HQ in Gandhinagar in protest against its refusal to remove Rupala as its Rajkot candidate.

Rupala has tendered multiple apologies since 22 March, once even with folded hands, but the protests have brought back simmering discontent among Kshatriyas and put the spotlight back on the age-old Rajput-Patidar rivalry in Saurashtra.

Numerous meetings have been organised between the BJP leadership in Gujarat and Kshatriya leaders, but in vain. The community is unwilling to settle for anything less than the withdrawal of Rupala’s candidature.

“Rupala’s apologies are full of ego, he apologised only for political gains. We won’t take a step back until his exit. His statement is an insult to women,” said Karansinh Chavda, spokesperson of Gujarat Kshatriya Sankalan Samiti — a federation of 90 organisations across the state that is among those spearheading the protests against Rupala.

“The agitation will spread like wildfire, not just in Gujarat, but across all the states of India, and will engulf the BJP,” he told ThePrint.

But the BJP appears to have decided to brave this storm. “Be it Rajkot, or any other seat, people of India are with PM Modi,” asserted Gujarat BJP spokesperson Yamal Vyas, adding that only the party’s central election committee can decide on candidates.

Spanning 66,000 sq km across 11 districts, Saurashtra constitutes about one-third of the state of Gujarat and sends 48 MLAs to the state legislative assembly. Patidars make up 1.5 crore of the total population of Gujarat (6.9 crore), while according to the 2011 caste census, Rajputs make up 5-6 percent.

With election campaigning gaining momentum, and the state set to vote in a single phase on 7 May, these protests pose a new challenge for the BJP in a region seen as its ‘garh’ stronghold, besides giving its political opponents fresh ammunition.

“This is the arrogance of BJP and its leaders. Rupala’s comment is an insult not only to Rajputs but also to Brahmins, Kshatriyas and others. It’s an insult to women,” Shaktisinh Gohil, president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee, told ThePrint.

The Congress has fielded Paresh Dhanani, a Leuva Patel, against Rupala, a Kadva Patel.

Rupala — a Patidar strongman 

Rupala, who was the BJP’s Amreli district president between 1988 and 1991, fought his first assembly election in 1991 and was elected an MLA from the district.

He retained his turf for the party for two consecutive terms, until the blow in 2002. Rupala, who was agriculture minister in then chief minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, was defeated by Congress’ 26-year-old Paresh Dhanani. It was the first time in over 16 years that the BJP lost Amreli.

Rupala then went on to become the Gujarat BJP president, followed by Rajya Sabha member from 2008 to 2014, and in June 2016, he was elected to the Upper House again — this time unopposed as Congress did not field any candidate.

In July 2016, he was appointed as the Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj, and in 2019, made the Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.

He was even at the center of negotiations between the central government and protesting farmers during the agitation against the now-withdrawn farm laws in late 2020-early 2021.

The 69-year-old, who is now the Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying, is making his Lok Sabha poll debut this year from the heart of Saurashtra region, Rajkot — the fourth largest city in Gujarat, which has been held by Patidar leaders for decades, across party lines.

Saurashtra, Patidar & ‘Zamindar’

Over six months after India’s Independence, rulers of around 200 princely states of Kathiawar — many of whom were Rajputs, along with some Muslims, Brahmins and others— after much convincing, agreed on the formation of the Union state of Kathiawar, which was inaugurated by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in February 1948.

Nine months later, it was renamed as ‘Saurashtra state’, with Rajkot as its capital.

“What is happening today, is a hangover of the past,” said author and political sociologist Ghanshyam Shah, adding that “the Rajput vs Patidar rivalry started when the economic development of Saurashtra began, in the early 1950s”.

U.N. Dhebar, who later took over as president of the Indian National Congress, became the chief minister of Saurashtra from 1948 to 1954. In 1951, the Dhebar-led government, to get rid of the ‘Zamindari system’ rolled out the ‘Saurashtra Land Reforms Act’ and ‘Saurashtra Estate Acquisition Act 1952’. These aimed at giving occupancy rights to the tillers of the land, a majority of whom were from the Kanbi/Patidar community.

“From tillers of the land, the Patidar community became the owners. Saurashtra’s economic development started in the early 1950s and the Rajput community felt left out,” explained Ghanshyam Shah.

In 1956, Saurashtra was integrated into the erstwhile Bombay and then became a part of Gujarat in 1960.

With the increasing social and economic advancement of Patidars over the years, along with their mobilisation, the community’s clout in politics also increased.

Amit Dholakia, Professor of Political Science at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, pointed out that, “there has been a long-standing dissatisfaction among Rajputs that they have not been given important positions in social, economic or political organisations”.

The Patidar-Rajput rivalry runs deep through Saurashtra’s veins. Bhavnagar’s Mangadh village became the epicentre of this caste rivalry in the early 1980s.

The killing of three Rajputs in 1982 and the subsequent acquittal of 20 Patidar members in the case, only deepened this divide.

Two years later, 10 people, all from the Patidar community, were killed, in what was seen as revenge by the Rajput community, according to media reports.

It was around the same time, Madhav Singh Solanki was stitching the “KHAM” (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim) formula in Gujarat to counter the Swatantra Party. His strategy gave a fillip to the Congress, ensuring the party’s landslide win securing 149 of 185 seats in the 1985 assembly polls — a record that was broken only in 2022.

But, the change in reservation policy by his government was met with violent protests across the state, which also marked the beginning of the alienation of Patidars as well as upper castes from the Congress.

“The party (Congress) was seen as pro-Kshatriya, but it has not been able to capitalise on it. There is no Rajput leadership even in Congress in the state, not even right now,” highlighted professor Dholakia.

Meanwhile, the Rajput-Patidar rivalry kept resurfacing in the region in the form of murders and clashes.

On 15 August 1988, Congress’ Gondal MLA Popatlal Sorathiya, a Patidar, was shot dead in public view by Anirudhdhsinh Jadeja, a Rajput.

Rajput representation & BJP

According to the protesting Kshatriya groups, their fight is not against the Patidar community, but against Rupala’s comment and the “systemic exclusion of Rajputs in the BJP and the government”.

“We were with the BJP, we made the party’s foundation strong. But they reduced our representation, not just in Gujarat but across India. Our fight will continue,” said Makrana of Karni Sena.

Balvantsinh Rajput is the only Kshatriya minister in the cabinet of Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.

In Saurashtra, the BJP suffered losses in the 2017 assembly elections owing to the Patidar reservation stir but has since reclaimed its influence by fielding Patidar candidates in over 85 percent of the seats there and winning 39 of those seats in the 2022 polls.

With the party facing anger from the Kshatriya community, its political opponents are looking to bank on this anger to dent the BJP. “Our strategy is in place, Gujarat will give a befitting reply to the BJP”, declared Gujarat Congress chief Shaktisinh Gohil.

Meanwhile, reports of MLAs from the ruling party not being allowed in at least four villages have surfaced over the last few days. To add to that, talks between Kshatriya community leaders and the BJP and apologies by Rupala as well as Gujarat BJP chief C.R. Paatil are yet to yield any result — making the contest only tougher for the BJP in Saurashtra.

(Edited by Richa Mishra)