Manoj Jarange Patil Wiki, Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography & More

Manoj Jarange Patil is an Indian activist who is known for contributing to many protests for the rights of Marathas. Since 2011, he has participated in 35 protests.

Wiki/Biography

Manoj Jarange Patil was born in 1982 (age 41 years; as of 2023) in Matori Village, Beed District, Maharashtra. He later shifted to Ankushnagar, Jalna, Maharashtra. He studied till class 12. He used to work in a hotel in Jalna.

He lives in a house which is built on a two-acre farm.

There are only 3 pieces of furniture in his house including a three-seater couch and two armchairs. He has kept the statues and photographs of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and framed posters and newspaper articles of himself on the furniture. Some of th articles claiming him to be a Maratha Yoddha are hung on the wall.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 9″

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Parents & Siblings

There is not much information about his parents.

He has four brothers.

Wife & Children

Patil is married to Soumitra Jarange.

He has four children. His son’s name is Shivraj Jarange, who is pursuing B.Tech, and his daughter’s name is Pallavi Jarange, who studies in class 8.

Religion

He follows Hinduism.

Career

Politics

In 2004, he became the district youth president for Congress. He did not run the election because he left the party after some time. According to a leader from the Maratha group Sambhaji Brigade, Patil was unhappy with how the Congress party handled protests about a controversial book from 2003 named “Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India” by James Laine. The book incited disagreement among Marathas by posing questions regarding Shivaji’s parents. As a result, significant records at the Bhandarkar Oriental Study Institute that were helpful to the book’s study were destroyed. This incident resulted in numerous arrests. In an interview, his associate said,

He got very disturbed and did not approve of the stand that the government took at that time and hence he decided to leave politics and instead dedicated himself to social work.”

Activist

To plan demonstrations in support of the Maratha reservation, he founded the Shivba Sanghatana group. In 2009, he joined the movement to secure reservations for the Maratha minority in employment and education. He gained support from six of his close aides in Jalna district including Pandurang Tarakh, the village sarpanch, Ramesh Tarakh, a doctor from Antarwali Sarati, Pradeep Solunke, a teacher from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly called Aurangabad), and three farmers, Shreeram Kurankar, Sanjay Katare and Dhananjay Duphake who are his oldest associates. They play an important part in the rallies taken out by Patil. They helped him draw a rough plan for his travels, where he should deliver speeches and make arrangements for accommodation and food. In 2013, he started his first protest—a 13-day hunger strike in Shahgad to advocate Maratha reservation. He then embarked on a second hunger strike in front of the Jalna police chief’s office, lasting eight or nine days.

Marathas protested in 2016 after a Maratha girl in Kopardi was raped and killed by a gang. Patil also played a prominent role in these demonstrations. Patil organised Marathas from the Marathwada area and brought them to the state’s capital for the Maratha Kranti Morcha protests in Mumbai in 2016–17. Patil took out rallies across the country in 2021 following the Supreme Court’s decision to abolish the Maratha reservation. This included a three-month demonstration in the Jalna district’s Sasht-Pimpalgaon, where a huge crowd came out to support him. In August 2023, the Maratha protesters came to the notice of people during a hunger strike. Chief Minister Shinde persuaded him to end the demonstration by pledging to form a committee to investigate the possibility of awarding Maratha certificates belonging to the Kunbi caste. Police attempted to forcibly remove him from the protest on the fourth day. This resulted in a fight between Patil’s followers and the police. He took out another demonstration in September 2023 which he ended after 16 days by drinking fruit juice from Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

He was asked by a group of top ministers and retired judges from the government to wait until 24 December 2023. He accepted their offer but also warned them saying if they did not meet the demand by the decided date, he would take out a strike again. On 26 December 2023, he announced his rally to Mumbai and a hunger strike until death at Azad Maidan. Patil spoke at the protest and declared he would begin an indefinite hunger strike at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan on 20 January 2024. In a statement, he said,

It is difficult to suppress the Marathas. We will not return without getting reservation for the community. I will leave my village in Antarwali in Jalna district on foot and reach Mumbai and I will be joined by members from our community.”

On 27 January 2024, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in a proposal said that he would provide Kunbi certificates to 57 lakh Marathas with Kunbi backgrounds. He also said that the certificates would be provided to the family members of Marathas with Kunbi backgrounds by showing the affidavits from relatives with Kunbi records. On 27 January 2024, when called off his march to Mumbai, he stated that the case would be looked after by the judges. He and his group later stated that they wanted some changes in the proposal. They also claimed that if their petitions were denied, they would stop Prime Minister Narendra Modi from addressing campaign rallies in the state for the upcoming national elections. He started another hunger strike on 10 February 2024. His condition deteriorated on the sixth day of the strike, and he was given medication via an IV. In an interview, he talked about the hunger strike and said,

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and DCM Ajit Pawar asked for a month-long period to complete the report on Maratha reservation, therefore, I decided I will call off the strike for a month. I have made it clear to the state government that whether its report is positive or negative, it will have to start issuing Kunbi caste certificates to the Maratha community. If the state government fails to give the reservations to the Maratha community, then after a month, I will again resume this hunger strike,” Patil said at a gathering, warning the government that if they went against their word, he would “not allow any ministers of the incumbent government to roam freely in the state.”

Facts/Trivia

• To afford his daily expenses, he sold 2.5 acres of his 4-acre property.