News24Desk
Hyderabad is witnessing protests against the Marwadi trading community, settled in different parts of Telangana. On Friday a stir against the trading community intensified as Osmania University Joint Action Committee gave a call for a state-wide bandh to drum up support for their demand.
OU JAC chairman, K Tirupati was taken into custody on Friday, which sparked off demands from the students and teaching community from the University.
Demanding the immediate release of Tirupati and other students arrested since last night, the students tried to enforce the bandh call that they gave for today.
Police said that these arrests were preventive in nature to maintain law and order.
Incidentally, a small altercation over parking at a local vegetable market in central Hyderabad developed into an anti-Marwadi stir, after social media blew up the incident, in which a local was allegedly beaten up by a Marwadi shopowner. The incident took place some three weeks ago, but slowly picked up momentum over the past few days. Friday witnessed protests from activists from OU Joint Action Committee (OU JAC) and Adivasi Student Union near a shop owned by Marwadi. Shouting slogans and carrying placards reading “Go Back Marwadi”, the protesters tried to whip up these sentiments, over which the local population expressed their dismay.
Marwardis from Gujarat and Rajasthan have settled down in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and incidentally almost in all the states, for generations and speak fluent Telugu as well.
In a few places, protesters took out bike rallies and shouted slogans “Marwadi Hatao, Telangana Bachao” .
The Marwadi community appealed to the state governor to protect them from any violence directed at them. Drawing the attention of the governor to the issue, the community leader, Mahesh Agarwal said the anti-Marwadi sentiments were a “grave threat to the social fabric and economic stability of Telangana.”
In a letter to the governor, he said, that the Marwadi has been an inseparable part of Telangana’s history and culture for generations, even predating the formation of the state. “They are not outsiders; they are our neighbours, our friends, our business partners, and our fellow Telanganites,” he said added, “This so-called “movement” is based on a foundation of prejudice, misinformation, and xenophobia.
“We, the people of Rajasthan residing in Telangana, look to your leadership to protect the pluralistic ethos of our state. We cannot allow the voices of a fringe minority to drown out the harmony that defines us,” Agarwal said in his appeal to the governor.
