Forty-three-year-old Manoj Jarange has emerged as the most prominent face of the Maratha reservation agitation, a movement that has gripped Maharashtra in recent years. Hailing from a humble farming family in Matori village of Beed district, Jarange’s journey has been anything but ordinary.

Before rising to prominence as a community leader, Jarange worked in a hotel and later in a sugar factory in Shahgad in Ambad tehsil of Jalna district. His simple rural upbringing and struggles for livelihood resonate with thousands of Marathas, many of whom now see him as the community’s strongest voice.

Jarange shot to the spotlight with his series of indefinite fasts demanding a quota for Marathas. His current protest, which began last Friday, marks the seventh hunger strike since 2023, and is being described by supporters as the community’s “final fight” for the reservation. The movement has drawn massive crowds, with large gatherings at Azad Maidan in South Mumbai, where protesters rallied to show solidarity with the activist.