Marathas, Kunbis not separate castes: Maharashtra Backward Class panel

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The Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission in its report has said that Marathas and Kunbis are one and the same community.

As the Kunbis are already included in the Other Backward Class (OBC), the Marathas too should have been categorised as a Backward Class long ago, it said.

The nine-member commission headed by retired Justice M G Gaikwad had submitted its report on November 2018.

On the basis of it, the state legislature on November 30, 2018, passed a bill giving 16 per cent quota in government jobs and education to the Marathas, declared as a "socially and educationally backward class".

The report was on Tuesday given to the petitioners who have moved the Bombay High Court challenging the decision to grant the reservation.

In April 1942, a government resolution (GR) was issued by the then government of Bombay with a list of Backward Classes which included the Maratha community, the report said.

"The GR included the Maratha caste as intermediate class for the purpose of education only. Thus the reservation for Maratha caste was for the first time given in the year 1942 for education purposes only," it said.

However, in 1950, the central government prepared a list of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Communities.

"The caste, Maratha, which was appearing in the 1942 list disappeared from the list of Other Backward Communities prepared by the Government of India," the report said, adding that in 1966, the state government prepared a modified list by which the Kunbi caste was included in the OBC.

"The commission is of the considered and firm opinion that the Maratha and the Kunbi are not separate castes, but they are one and same caste that is Kunbi," it said.

The Kunbis and Marathas being one and the same, the Maratha community should have been and should be included in the list of Other Backward Classes, it said.

Citing information procured from the state Directorate of Archives, the report said, "The Maratha is not a caste in itself but consists of Marathi-speaking people. The caste of such people is Kunbi, who were agriculturists."