Members of the Patel community raise their arms as they shout slogans during a protest rally in Ahmedabad, August 25, 2015. REUTERS/Amit Dave
Gujarat, the richest and the most developed state in India, was suddenly engulfed in violent protests last week. Sixty days after a simmering but largely peaceful agitation, violence broke out causing several deaths and a massive destruction of private and public property, requiring deployment of paramilitary troops.
Gujarati-Americans are trying to come to grips with the disquieting turn of events precipitated by a seemingly well-off community seeking to be designated as backward caste to qualify for reserved jobs in the government sector and admission into colleges.
Interviews with several community members revealed a generational divide as well as an insider-outsider view of the causes behind the unfolding events. The older generation of Gujaratis explained that a historic sense of deprivation was behind the rage of the Indian Patidars, while the younger lot were unconcerned and disconnected, and non-Patels did not understand where the angst driving the movement led by 22-year old Hardik Patel, leader of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, came from. For everyone, however, the agitation called into question the whole system of caste-based job quotas.
Anachronous Quotas
Renowned for migrating to all parts of the world in search of business opportunities, the Patels form a large community in the U.S. with deep family, emotional and economic ties with their native Gujarat. Families of those Indian-American Patels News India Times spoke to, came from small villages and they said they bore witness to the downward slide of Patidars in India over the last few decades from a prosperous community to one in need of support.
However, they were hard put to understand why the diaspora tradition of independence and self-reliance of Patels and the general dislike for government handouts was not mirrored in India. Outside of India, the Patels have a storied history of rising from small beginnings to becoming immensely successful in all walks of life by dint of hard work, and support of family networks often consisting extended family structures.
As such, to demand quotas appears anachronous to some Patidars. On principle, most say they are against the caste system in India and did not favor caste-based quotes. Even as they condemned the violence unleashed by agitators, they claim that the Patels’ sense of grievance is justified.
Caste Out
Not all Patels are rich they argue, and those who are, send their children abroad to study when admissions in India are closed to them because of the quota system, some of them said. That has been the complaint of a number of other classes and castes in India evident in periodic eruption of protests against quotas.
Several gave instances of nephews, nieces, and other children in their extended families denied admission or a government job because the quotas had “unjustly” driven them out of the competition. They called for an overhaul of the reservation system in India to one based on economic need and not caste. Something akin to affirmative action in U.S. universities based on giving opportunities to certain historically discriminated communities, but that too using merit as a guideline, was acceptable they said.
“No Patel in America supports quota for itself, but only for economic reasons,” says Ramesh Patel, a community elder and co-founder of the 35-year old Federation of Indian Associations. He ridiculed the Indian quota system. “Lots of Patels are poor, just as lot of Jains or others are poor. Everyone wants anamat (quotas). The whole of India seems to be anamat!” he said.
Right Moment
Patidars in the U.S. are mostly well-off, says Jayesh Patel, immediate past president of the Overseas Friends of the Bharatiya Janata Party, currently in charge of the northeast zone of the OFBJP. But there are many poor Patels in India, who were large landowners in the past, he said. If the quota system had been flexible enough over the decades to allow for expanding and including other groups, he argued, “the Patels say ‘Why not us?'”
According to Jayesh Patel, “The Patels in India are drastically falling behind. Their demand is right. The moment is right for them to agitate, but the method is wrong.”
“I am a Patidar. My family is doing well. I don’t want anyone to apply for anamat,” says Ramesh Patel about his extended family India. He recounts cases in which Patel students securing 85 or 90 percent marks could not get into medical school, “And those with 45 percent get in from quota,” he says. Nevertheless, he urged Patidars to find a solution on their own to help members of the community, a tradition Patels have followed over generations in countries abroad.
Taken Aback
Mahesh Mehta, who is not a Patidar, but hails from Gujarat, is taken aback by the ferocity of the agitation in India. “I am really trying to understand the roots and motivation of this movement. In what way have they (Patels) been disadvantaged in Gujarat?” questioned Mehta, who is a social worker and activist from Boston, Massachusetts.
The agitation, he contends harms the democratic fabric of India by further dividing castes and religions against each other, something like the British did he said. He wants the government to sit at the table with the protestors and thrash it out.
Patels are ruling Gujarat today, he noted. The Chief MinisterAnanidiben Patel is from the community as are many ministers, he pointed out. “I cannot understand. There is something deeper behind this agitation. I am caught by surprise. Where has this come from?” a perplexed Mehta said.
Hijacked
Dr. Kiran Patel, a businessman and philanthropist in Tampa, Florida, has part of the answer. He is not surprised and like several others News India Times spoke to, says the frustration arises from a flawed caste-based quota system. Meant to help many, the quota system has been hijacked by a few elites within the so-called backward or socially disadvantaged groups for two to three generations since India’s independence, he said.
“So now a small minority in those groups have become the elite and are exploiting the rule,” he concluded. Economic criteria to build educational opportunity based on merit should be the backbone of the quota system, he said.
His solution is to support children of families in which no one has gone to school because of financial constraints.
However, no politician has the backbone to change the system, he claimed.”The Patels are asking for inclusion because they know the system will not change,” he added.
The Disconnect
Twenty-four-year old Hersh Patel, a graduate student in New Jersey, born and raised in the U.S., said he detected a disconnect among young Indian-American Gujaratis.
“I contacted some young Patels and they don’t feel a connection. It hasn’t hit home over here yet. You don’t see the news on TV here,” he told News India Times.
They have no family connections in India, he says explaining the disconnect. He, on the other hand, relates to India and listens to Indian news channels and reads Indian newspapers.
When he visited India in March, he saw positive developments in Ahmedabad, he says. “I didn’t think this was possible just 6 months later. It’s very odd.” He added, “It’s like three steps forward and two steps backward.”
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