It took Rajasthan’s Gurjjars two violent agitations, the deaths of 70 members of their community and two political regimes to emerge victorious in their battle for a piece of the reservation pie. Their moment came after Governor S K Singh assented to the Rajasthan Reservation Bill 2008 late on Thursday, after a year of deliberating on its constitutional and legal ramifications.

While the state witnessed numerous, yet failed, agitations over the last decade over water, electricity and irrigation, the Gurjjar community reservation stir became the first movement in the state to end in a successful parley with the state government. Unlike the other protests, which remained localised and inconsistent, the Gurjjar stir was spread across the state and later even spilled over into neighbouring states, was tenacious and, most importantly, directly affected Delhi.

The Gurjjar agitation, led by Col Kirori Singh Bainsla, focussed on a concerted blockade of New Delhi, cutting off access by road and rail during the agitations in 2007 and 2008. “We knew we had to affect New Delhi. Nothing works without affecting the capital. We had seen in Rajasthan that several protests and movements were mercilessly quashed by the state, without news of the same even getting out,” said a senior Gurjjar leader after the Governor ratified the Reservation Bill.

According to figures from the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), the 26-day-long Gurjjar agitation in May 2008 alone led to losses worth Rs 7,000 crore to the Railways and other industries dependent on road and rail traffic. CSDS state coordinator Sanjay Lodha said, “The agitations held the state to ransom. Since the entire community was involved in the stir, the disturbance to public life was far greater than seen before.”

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