Deadly caste-based violence has erupted in the western state of Maharashtra continuing to a third day following several protests by the community of Marathas demanding quotas for government jobs, officials were quoted as saying.
It all started when a Maratha community activist jumped to death from a bridge leading to widespread protests growing across the western state since Monday.
Another protester who took part in the protests killed himself with poison on Tuesday, the same day a police officer died due to the clashes, reports said on Wednesday.
Over 30,000 police forces have been deployed across the whole region to contain the protests but the first trouble emerged on Wednesday in the city of Thane, near Mumbai.
“Two incidents of stone-pelting and arson were reported near Thane and we have prevented further incidents by deploying our teams,” Sukhada Narkar, a police spokesperson in Thane, told AFP.
The members from the Maratha community staged demonstrations across the city of Mumbai leading to the closure of many schools and colleges and delaying of trains officials added.
The community has been stressing on the need for increased reservation based jobs in the government sector and education sector for many years.
A rally comprising of hundreds of thousands of protesters paralyzed Mumbai last year.
Maharashtra state is one of the largest states with economy considerably dependent on agriculture and it has suffered disappointing rains and crop failures in recent years.
More than 2,500 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra in 2016, according to the official figures.
Aggressive campaigns by groups like the Marathas in Maharashtra and Patidars in Gujarat state to get support for their demands for more government job reservations have claimed many lives in recent years.
On Wednesday, a court in Gujarat sentenced a Patidar leader, Hardik Patel, to two years in prison over rioting and arson charges during unrest over the caste-based reservation in 2015.
“If it is a sin to fight for social justice and rights, then I am a sinner,” tweeted a defiant Patel, who was granted bail soon after the conviction.
The rioting by Patidar members in the year 2015 resulted in the death of 10 people in the worst violence to hit Gujarat for more than a decade.
There have been many such incidents in the country where caste-based politics play a major role to decide reservations in government jobs and education. The country needs to stand up and go against the very inhumane division based on caste to clear the whole system including government and education systems.
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