Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022: A brief history of the Patidar agitation

The Patidar community has been agitating since 2015 for reservation under the OBC

Counting of votes is under way in the BJP stronghold of Gujarat, with early trends indicating a landslide victory for the saffron party, which has enlisted Patidar leader Hardik Patel as one of its stars in the state, where the Patidars hold considerable sway.

The community has been agitating on and off since 2015 for reservation under the Other Backward Classes category.

Here's a brief history of the agitation:

2015 was an important year in Gujarat politics, and not just because the state's longest-serving Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, was completing his first year as Prime Minister of India. That year, inspired by the Gujjar agitation of Rajasthan, the Patidar community of Gujarat began their agitation in the month of July, demanding OBC status and effectively, reservation in government jobs and education.

The stir was spearheaded by the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, of which Hardik Patel was the leader. Patel began his quota as his sister had lost a college scholarship even though her friend had acquired it under the OBC quota. He saw similar issues with the Patels in jobs and other fields, as the community was considered too well off to be included under India's reservation system.

His popularity at the time, despite being just 22 years old, was so great that crowds of lakhs of Patels assembled to hear him speak about the injustice metted out to the Patidars. The early days of the Patidar agitation were marked by severe violence, with mobs involved in damaging public property, burning buses and targeting Gujarat's ministers - allegedly in response to police brutality on unarmed civilians.

Over the coming months, the Patidar agitation quickly spread through social media and the internet, with demonstrations held in various parts of the state. One such demonstration in August reportedly saw the participation of over 5 lakh people, with Hardik Patel at the helm. Patel was arrested for not having permission for the rally, but was later released.

The situation in the month had devolved to such violence that schools had to be shut and internet services seeing a partial block for several days at a stretch at several times.

The agitation went on in September and October, with arrests and detainmnent numbering in the hundreds happening across the state along with protests and sporadic violence. Hardik, in particular, was arrested multiple times for holding rallies without permission, and for threatening to hold a protest ahead of the India vs South Africa ODI in October.

The agitation continued into 2016, with Hardik once again at the centre of the protests. The agitation had intensifed in April after Haryana accepted the Jat community's demand for reservation. The Rapid Action Force was deployed by the Centre to help control rioting, and ultimately the Gujarat government bowed to the Patidar demand and announced 10 per cent reservation for the community, and withdrawal of a large number of cases against protesters.

However, the reservation was soon quashed by the Gujarat High Court, which called it unconstitutional and in violation of the Supreme Court's 50 per cent ceiling as declared in the 1992 Indra Sawhney case.

The protests continued on between 2017 and 2020, with the BJP once again winning the state Assembly polls but with a poorer performance than 2012. In 2019, the Parliament passed an amendment to the Constitution, allowing for 10 per cent reservation to the Economically Weaker Sections.

Hardik, who had joined the Congress during his protests 2019, quit earlier this year saying Congress was "not a serious party" and its leaders "enjoy travelling abroad when the country is facing challenges back home." He eventually joined the BJP, and said he would work as a "soldier" of PM Modi and start a "new chapter."

The Patidar agitation was considered a herald for multiple similar agitations held across India, and sparked multiple debates on reservation, vote bank politics and the caste system in general.