The “Marwari” issue in Telangana is not about community or ethnicity, but about exploitation and oppression, resource usurpation, and cultural destruction.
Published Aug 21, 2025 | 4:00 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 21, 2025 | 4:00 PM
Busy traffic in Hyderabad. (iStock)
Synopsis: Recently, Telangana has been witnessing an agitation against “Marwaris”. What triggered the anger is the fact that, over time, these business communities did not remain confined only to economic and trade activities in Telangana, but began to extend into social, cultural and political spheres as well.
For the past fifteen days, Telangana has been in turmoil with the slogan ‘Marwari Go Back.’ Here, the word “Marwari” does not merely mean those who came from the Marwar region of Rajasthan. It also refers to people from other parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat and broadly from North India, who migrated to Telangana and established themselves mainly in the sphere of trade and business. In that sense, “Marwari” has become a pronoun.
What triggered the recent anger is the fact that, over time, these business communities did not remain confined only to economic and trade activities in Telangana, but began to extend into social, cultural and political spheres as well.
What began as a protest within local Telangana traders — who felt their economic interests were being undermined by these groups — gradually spread into wider sections of society as resentment grew over their social, cultural and political encroachments.
Particularly, many groups that had participated in the Telangana statehood struggle are now playing a prominent role in this wave of anger. Even the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), which has long spoken about North Indian domination and Dravidian self-respect, has joined this agitation.
Slowly, the movement is expanding.
This slogan has also exposed political divisions within Telangana. Some Telanganites themselves, especially those aligned with Sangh Parivar ideology, including RSS and BJP leaders, have begun opposing the slogan and taking up advocacy on behalf of the “Marwaris.”
Senior members of Marwari associations have also entered the field, making derogatory remarks that Telangana people lack the spirit of hard work, that even if they earn one or two thousand rupees, they simply spend it on drink and sleep, and so on. Some have gone further, hurling abuses at leaders of the “Marwari Go Back” movement.
A Marwari businessman, in the strange guise of something called the Telangana Gauputra Sangham, not only indulged in vulgar abuse but also arrogantly declared, “We are the ones who fund everyone.”
Others are attempting to dilute the issue by asking, Are Marwaris the only exploiters? Don’t you see the plunder of multinational corporations? Some point to the Constitution, which grants every Indian citizen the right to live anywhere in the country, questioning whether divisive slogans like these can be raised in such a context.
A few ask whether it is fair to blame an entire community for the mistakes of one or two individuals, and whether Telangana society should be provoked against an entire community.
Ironically, even some people who were active in the separate Telangana agitation — where the slogan “Andhra Go Back” was raised despite a shared language— are now denouncing the “Marwari Go Back” slogan.
Altogether, this confusing issue is turning into a storm. Often, when a social development suddenly reaches a certain point, people assume it came out of the blue. However, in nature and society, nothing happens suddenly.
Processes unfold quietly, invisibly, over a long time until, at some point, a spark ignites an explosion. In philosophical terms, this is the transformation of quantitative change into qualitative change, marked by a critical point. If observed closely, that single point looks no different from the others, yet it appears as if everything exploded only there.
For example, when heating water, the temperature rises degree by degree. The change from 98°C to 99°C seems no different. The shift from 99°C to 100°C is only a one-degree rise, just like the earlier increments. Yet, this single degree transforms water from liquid to vapour.
Exactly so, the incidents at Monda Market, the developments at Amangal and the attacks on Telangana folk singers became the sparks that transformed long-accumulated resentment against “Marwaris” into a mass movement.
In Monda Market, what would otherwise be a routine occurrence — someone politely or impatiently asking a motorist blocking traffic to move their car — turned into something else. But when Marwari and Jain traders assaulted those who made such a simple request, punching them and abusing them as “low caste fellows,” it openly exposed the hostility between Telangana Dalits, Bahujans and the Marwaris.
Around the same time, as in many small towns across the state, a clash erupted in Amangal between “Marwari” traders and local traders. The “Marwari” traders began with one or two individuals and spread to many.
The grievances raised by local traders included: Poor-quality goods being sold cheaply and ruining local business, bringing in only their own people for shop work and thereby depriving locals of employment, and more.
These are not isolated issues — they exist in towns and cities across the state. The Amangal traders even called for a bandh on 18 August, but police and Sangh Parivar leaders pressured them to postpone it.
This movement also expressed itself through art, particularly on social media, in the form of songs. As a result, singers Goreti Ramesh and Telangana Shyam faced attacks from both Marwari businessmen and the police.
Against this broad and complex backdrop, there are many deeper aspects to consider about the “Marwari” issue. Because the slogan could be misunderstood as demanding that all Marwaris leave, clarification is needed.
Due to the misconception that this issue is only about local traders, some may doubt the movement, asking what Telangana as a whole gains from siding with them. Hence, it is necessary to explain how this problem extends far beyond economics and trade, reaching into the social, cultural and political life of Telangana, into the very question of Telangana identity.
The “Marwari” issue involves the plunder of Telangana’s resources, the imposition of North Indian communal culture and practices that erase Telangana’s distinct identity, the grabbing of opportunities meant for Telangana people, and ultimately an attempt to wipe away the assertion of political self-respect won through decades of struggle.
The first point to note: This is not an agitation against poor or middle-class Marwaris. Many such families, unable to survive in their desert lands, migrated to Telangana decades ago in search of a livelihood. They settled in small towns, district headquarters and cities, opening chat bandis, sweet shops, kirana stores, cloth and jewellery shops, pawnshops and more.
True, their arrival hurt local traders and artisans, but they eventually became a part of Telangana’s social life and culture. There is a clear difference between these thousands of families and those who have arrived in the last three decades, especially after 2014.
The latter group does not consist only of people from Marwar. They also include others from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Sindh, and so on. They have entrenched themselves in the wholesale trade of every commodity. Bringing in their own kin and investing large sums, they began dominating retail trade by supplying goods on credit.
Since most producers, too, are “Marwaris,” they filled every link in the supply chain with their own. The immense wealth accumulated through this expansion was then shifted into real estate. They acquired vast properties in Telangana, especially in Hyderabad.
Earlier, like all traders, they donated to every political party. However, after 2014, their inherent Sangh Parivar ideology came into full bloom. Migration from North India also increased.
They began celebrating North Indian religious and communal festivals with pomp, spending crores annually on at least six or seven massive public events to expand their influence. They also entered the Telangana cultural festivals.
Through these festivals and other means, Marwari, North Indian and Sangh Parivar culture began encroaching upon and swallowing Telangana’s culture. New rituals, practices, superstitions, ostentation, and customs alien to Telangana have entered.
Having already penetrated economic, social and cultural spheres, this “Marwari” dominance is only one or two steps away from political entry. Already donating to all parties and local cultural associations, these Marwaris are steadily growing into a force that could soon take political power itself.
Today’s “anti-Marwari” movement is directed against this infiltration and aggression, not against those who came for livelihood and who live respectfully without interfering in Telangana’s unique social, cultural and political identity.
But why, one may ask, use the word “Marwari” at all? True, the term is somewhat vague. Ideally, one would specify Marwari, Gujarati, Sindhi, North Indian, and Sangh Parivar exploiters and aggressors. But for brevity, the word “Marwari” is used. Just as in earlier times, political and social vocabulary included words like Kabuliwala, white man, Andhra, and so on, this too has become a symbolic usage.
Not every person from Kabul was a moneylender, nor was every moneylender a Kabuliwala, but the word became a symbol of usury. Not every white man came to exploit India and many in Britain supported Indians.
Our exploitation was carried out by a small group that called itself the East India Company, later by the British government. Yet we used broad terms like British or white man, which also included the uninvolved. Similarly, the word Andhra was used not for every person of that region, but to denote those who exploited Telangana’s waters, funds, jobs, resources, history and language.
This explanation is necessary because history stands before our eyes with examples of ethnic massacres and animosities, like Nellie in Assam and Manipur.
Against that backdrop, it is crucial to understand clearly: The “Marwari” issue is not an issue of community or ethnicity. It is an issue of exploitation and oppression, of resource usurpation and cultural destruction.
(The writer is the editor of an independent, small Telugu monthly journal of society and political economy, running for the past 23 years. Views are personal. Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
