Indian convenor of the 'Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti', Hardik Patel, who led recent protests in the state of Gujarat demanding preferential treatment regarding jobs and university places for the Patidar caste, looks on during a press conference in New Delhi on August 30, 2015.SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP / Getty Images
Hardik Patel, as depicted by India's editorial cartoonists, is quite the figure to behold: A courageous, barrel-chested hulk of a man who rallies the poor masses and makes his enemies quiver with fright.
In one strip, he strides confidently forward with a revolver strapped to his thigh as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cowers behind the well-known president of his Bharatiya Janata Party. "When people say he's gunning for me, I don't know if they mean it figuratively or literally," Mr. Modi says.
In another cartoon, Mr. Patel is depicted as a cricket bowler hurling a "bouncer," an aggressive, intimidating type of delivery that bounces short and soars high toward a batsman's chest. In this case, the batter is a hapless Mr. Modi – and the ball is on fire.
In reality, Mr. Patel is a thin, 22-year-old political neophyte with a side part and a thin mustache, from Mr. Modi's home state of Gujarat, of whom no one had heard until recently. But he is perhaps even more dangerous in real life than he is in ink.
Last week, he led a 500,000-strong protest in Gujarat that gathered the state's Patel, or Patidar, caste together to oppose India's long-standing affirmative-action policies for lower-caste Hindus. A police crackdown in the gathering's dying hours set off mob violence across the western state of 63 million. Chaos ensued and the army was called in. State government ministers' houses were targeted, and one was burned. Police were caught on camera beating unarmed civilians. About 10 people died, including one police officer. Mr. Modi was forced to go on TV and plead for an end to the violence.
The events, to some, recalled the 2002 riots in Gujarat, when Hindu-Muslim violence flared across Ahmedabad and other Gujarati towns and villages without significant interventions from the authorities or security forces – events that tarnished Mr. Modi's reputation outside Gujarat but kicked off his decade-long reign in the relatively affluent Indian state.
Now, Mr. Patel – who is depicted in the two cartoons wearing a shirt that says "Patel Power" – is leading other Patels in a state-wide movement against the caste reservation system, which keeps a quota of government jobs and university spots for disadvantaged caste groups – known as scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) or other backward classes (OBCs).
The Patels have traditionally been a decently well-off group of land-owners and business people in Gujarat. Some work in the diamond-cutting and polishing industry that has flourished in the Gujarati city of Surat. So many Patels have emigrated to the United States to work in the motel industry that a term has popped up to describe the rather unusual phenomenon: Potels.
The Patels, consequently, are a so-called forward caste that gets no special treatment. The reservation system is constantly in flux, but the Patels have never received any quota set-asides since independence in 1947. Their demands now make a mockery of the entire system, which many higher-caste Hindus and Hindu nationalists want abolished entirely – and that is perhaps Mr. Patel's point. If the Patels are included, everyone should probably be included. A separate cartoon shows Mr. Patel as a "pie" piper, holding a trumpet and bearing a pie chart featuring the names of other castes as he marches in front of a surging crowd. India, this line of thinking goes, might as well tear down this whole system of affirmative action and create the world's largest meritocracy.
Indian politicians – like politicians everywhere – in search of definable vote banks, frequently indulge in caste politics and attempt to woo various castes. The OBC groups often petition for higher quotas for their own caste. In May, the Gujjar caste in Rajasthan blocked trains on railway tracks in an attempt to gain more reservations at the expense of other OBCs.
The mobilization of the Patels, however, aside from copy-cat demands they may prompt among other castes, poses an even bigger risk to Mr. Modi than that of other castes.
The Patels were the bedrock of Mr. Modi's political support in Gujarat. And their actions now threaten to unravel the Prime Minister's narrative of inclusive economic growth in Gujarat – a story that was barely believable at the best of times, but which formed the cornerstone of his remarkable rise to the top of the world's largest democracy.
Mr. Patel says his sister did not get a scholarship because of affirmative action. But the hundreds of thousands – mainly young men – who now follow Mr. Patel and chant his name probably would not have joined up if they were gainfully and happily employed.
The mere presence of their protests pokes holes in Mr. Modi's so-called "Gujarat model" of economic development, which he promised to all of India during the general election of 2014 – and is now struggling to deliver. New factories have not sprung up fast enough, and the courageous economic reforms have instead trickled out in incremental tweaks.
Mr. Patel has traveled to Delhi and met with representatives of other castes. He has spoken publicly at rallies in 12 other states – including Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh – and of blocking highways in co-operation with other castes. He called the movement "not a 100-metre race but a marathon," and vowed to keep fighting and broadening the movement.
"We are simply fighting for our rights, which should be given to us," Mr. Patel told the Indian Express. "People say our community is prosperous, but only 5 or 10 per cent of the community is well off."
The Patels may be self-interested, and some may be poor or have legitimate grievances – since not all Patels are Potel-owners, industrialists or comfortable diamond industry folk. But the question they are posing, in some ways, is a good one – even if it is an awkward one for the ruling party.
If Mr. Modi has not yet delivered for the comparatively well-off in his home state of Gujarat, for whom exactly has he delivered? And how long will others wait before they, too, begin voicing their dissatisfaction?