Members of the Maratha community at a protest in Thane on October 16, 2016

Hoardings with crammed mug shots of supporters alongside their political big bosses (customarily smiling kurta/sari-clad appa, dada, anna, bhau, tai, vahini) have long served as tools of showing mass support. But the "politics of banners" is labelled as a curse in ideologue Dr A H Salunkhe's slim guidebook (65 pages, R50, Lokayat Prakashan) titled Maratha Samaj: Itihas, Vartaman Ani Bhavishya (Maratha Society: Past, Present and Future). Dr Salunkhe questions the vacuous sense of self-importance the Maratha chieftains derive from their life-size cut outs.