The upcoming Gujarat state elections have once again woken up demons of casteism, and political opportunism. Over the years, reservation in higher education and government jobs have proven to be completely false, misguided and ironically discriminatory. Like all Patels, I am audaciously proud of my history and heritage. The present debate is full of emotions and for the sake of clarity, requires a historical perspective of who Patels are, how they migrated to various parts of India, what challenges they faced and how they have reached present status in all walks of life.
Origin of the Patel community
Patels of Gujarat, normally termed Patidars emigrated originally from Punjab in about 1180 AD. There are extensively documented records tracing their origin and migration to other parts of India, especially Gujarat.
'Kurmi' were originally mentioned in the Rigveda and Atharvaveda. In the agricultural society of the bygone times, the leader of a family or 'kutumb' was called Kutumbin, who then became 'kumbi', then 'kunbi' and by the 17th century, 'kanbi'.
The migration of Patels saw them leave Punjab and travel to various areas across India like, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Nepal in one direction, southward towards Rajasthan, Gujarat, then some parts of Madhya Pradesh into Maharashtra and Karnataka as well. By 15th century, their expertise in agriculture and agro-related businesses gave the Patels a distinct identity and fame.
Patels of Gujarat
The earliest large settlement of Patidars in Gujarat has been recorded at Adalaj near Gandhinagar, prior to the establishment of Ahmedabad by Sultan Ahmed Shah in 1411 AD. During the reign of Rajputs or Sultans, or the Mughal period, Patels became to be well-known for being successful in farming, resulting in various other kings approaching and inviting them to settle in their kingdoms to develop their economies.
First Step Towards Ascension
A turning point came in 1703 AD. At that time, Patels were predominantly farming lands as lease holders. They had no rights to own land and claim any of their own. Sultans and the Mughal period had a system of revenue collection where a monopoly was granted in each geographical areas; could be a district or taluka. 'Ijardars' were appointed to collect revenue and then send it to the rulers.
Todarmal, the finance minister of Mughal Emperor Akbar, made major changes in this revenue collection which yielded positive results.
Patels, especially in central Gujarat soon became more prosperous and influential. Bahadur Shah, son of Aurangzeb, was Subah (Governor) of Gujarat. At the end of the 16th century, one Vasandas Patel was able to establish direct link with Bahadur Shah. A man with no formal education, he was very good at playing chess and had a knack for identifying and valuing diamonds and other precious stones.
In 1703 AD, Vasandas by this time called Vir Vasandas, organised a special gathering of thousands of Patels in a village called Pipalav (Kheda district) in the presence of Bahadur Shah who decreed that 'kanbis' will henceforth be called 'Patidars' (Pati- Land, Dar- Owner). There on, they were entitled to own land. This elevation and right enabled them to achieve rapid progress.
Fall Seven Times, Stand up Eight
Along with agriculture, people of the community became money lenders and were carting contractors, employing oxen carts. They also engaged in several other businesses in rural areas including producing indigo and other products.
Overseas migration of Patels
In the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, during British time, Patidars began large-scale migration to countries outside India, especially to Fiji, South Africa, East Africa, Aden, Southeast Asia, etc. By this time, Patels had settled in various parts of India and Burma (present-day Myanmar) already.
With the advent of independence, the Bombay State government introduced two Acts which were originally recommended by Mahatma Gandhi in the independence movement. One was called Tillers Act and the second, Money Lenders Act. Yesteryear's landless labourers (mainly Patels) had become landlords and very often, land was cultivated by other landless farmers who paid certain amount of produce as rent. The Tillers Act was aimed to make the system more fair and equitable. But it created massive problems for the Patel community. In rural Gujarat, a large number of Patel landlords lost their lands to tiller farmers.
Equally in some of the areas of Gujarat, in the rural areas, Patels and other moneylenders were forced to forfeit the amount especially if it was adjudged as excessive interest on the original amount of loan.
This was a challenging period for Patels who had worked hard for generations to reach a point of success at that time. They however accepted the legislation which was well-intended and focused their minds on diversifying into various other economic activities. Education, professions, industry, commerce, became the main attractions. Patels traditionally are known for focus and hard-work, and their perseverance enabled them to acquire greater success in larger number of economic fields.
Reservation and Quota
Mahatma Gandhi, during freedom struggle had noticed that Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, suffered untold discrimination and had to face unfair practices due to the casteism and particularly the practice of untouchability. It needs to be known that such age-old customs were never religious, and were in fact, only bad traditions. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar played a leading role in drafting Indian constitution. Sardar Patel, Pandit Nehru and others, were keen to promote the policy of positive discrimination to help persons of deprived communities and reach a better level of social and economic development.
If one looks at the debates in the Constitutional Assembly, Babasaheb Ambedkar who was well-versed in economics and law, was not in favour of such “social” engineering. Eventually, with a compromise, a policy of reservation in higher education and government jobs was introduced for ten years, beginning from January 1, on the first Republic Day.
But the facts are two-fold. Very few members of the communities which were to gain advantage, were able to avail benefits of the policy, for several reasons. Even those who were able to reach higher level of jobs in the civil service were always looked down upon by general population, assuming that they were not properly qualified and only got the job because of the policy of reservation.
I myself know of one capable and senior civil servant in Gujarat, an IAS cadre officer who changed his name to Patel. Curious, I asked him why and he replied, 'First of all, I was selected not because of my caste qualification, but because of my educational achievement. Even so, many assumed that I must have benefited primarily from the quota system.' I can see his point. Not only does the system deprive the children of Patels, Brahmins, Lohanas, Baniyas- so called “high castes”, but even those who were supposed to be helped, have not genuinely enjoyed benefits of the policy.
There is another informative article in this issue from Mr Hasmukh Vasava and I wish to avoid duplicating several points. Even without reservation or the quota system, Patels have succeeded to maintain their momentum on progress; both in India and abroad. Overseas Patels have touched greater heights in various sectors like hospitality, medicine, accountancy, industry, trading, and others. It is remarkable that a community that is relatively so small, has managed to prosper many times over its size.
Let us be very clear. How many Patels would be willing to be classed as members of OBC? It is illogical and unnecessary.
What is the Congress playing at?
Hardik Patel is not totally wrong to highlight the growing resentment of young generation Patels who have to join a queue for medicine, engineering, or any other specialist courses, and/or government jobs face discrimination. But as Mr Vasava points out, he is misguided.
Congress party lead by Rahul Gandhi, is fishing for any support in Gujarat without remembering the history or the validity of their pronouncements. Patidars are involved in almost all political parties and are present in various sects or sampradays of Hinduism. I do not believe that they will ever became a vote bank like other groups who have the misfortune of having been exploited by the Congress over the decades.
One more important point is about the KHAM policy. KHAM- short for Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, and Muslim was a selfish campaign propounded by Madhavsinh Solanki, the Congress chief minister in the 1980s, to create a vote bank for the party which was outright casteist and divisive. It failed miserably and due to the riots in 1985, Madhavsinh was forced to resign by Rajiv Gandhi. Now, Rahul Gandhi and his party is yet again bent upon making another casteist alliance with the Patidars, Thakores, Dalits, along with Muslims and Adivasis. How does he expect to convince the voters of Gujarat, especially Patels and other people of high castes?
Congress has not yet made concrete proposals of revised quota for all his alliances, in the future administration. Who is trying to hoodwink whom? Let's remember one more fact. Congress, especially after the departure of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, has become notorious for stabbing allies in the back in the pursuit of power. In Gujarat itself, it has happened several times.
Another example of just how unprepared Rahul Gandhi and his groupies is that 50 per cent is the maximum quota possible since the 1992 decision of the Supreme Court. With them catering to three diverse groups, each with its eye on the fruit, how does the Gandhi prodigy expect to divide the seats? Also, the tragedy of their chosen communities, the Thakores, Patels, and Dalits are not known to get along well and have contradictory claims within the reservation policy. I don't see the Congress getting any sort of advantage trying to appease to all three groups at the same time. Patels are well-aware of the past misdeeds of opportunistic and divisive policies and are a clever lot. They are least likely to entertain RaGa's games.
