From Nagpur to Lucknow to Jaipur and Visakhapatnam, anti-reservation protests are being reported from several cities even as a parallel campaign against caste-based quotas is gathering pace online. With several Assembly elections approaching, the growing chorus against reservation could reopen India’s most politically sensitive fault lines.
Remember the young man who, during a TV debate on the NEET paper leak, rose from his chair and passionately argued that caste-based reservation was driving student distress and even suicides? Harsh Dubey has since amassed thousands of followers on social media, reportedly given around two dozen interviews, and is now awaiting permission to stage a protest at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
Over the past few weeks, a series of seemingly unrelated incidents has hinted at the emergence of a broader sentiment.
Online, the anti-reservation campaign has found a growing rallying point. The Reservation Hatao Andolan (RHA) Instagram page, which began gaining traction as the CJP protests wound down, now has around 5.9 million followers, amplifying voices against caste-based quotas and calling for their rationalisation. The RHA also held its first on-ground protest in Maharashtra’s Nagpur last week.
Days later, an agitation by the members of the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, a group of the Rajputs, in Jaipur turned tense. They took to the streets and clashed with police over the now-stayed UGC’s caste equity regulations. One death has been alleged. Karni Sena leaders have sworn in the names of their revered deities not to vote for the BJP in the local body polls.
Put together, these developments suggest that anti-reservation voices are becoming louder and attracting supporters both online and offline. But the movement appears fragmented.
Harsh Dubey waits to enter Jantar Mantar and lead. The RHA is continuing to mobilise anti-quota voices on the internet. The Shri Rajput Karni Sena is waging its own battle on Jaipur’s streets.
But it’s clear that anti-reservation sentiment is growing stronger than ever, with prominent voices like academic-author Anand Ranganathan, journalist-creator Ajeet Bharti, and writer-director Anuradha Tiwari, joining in on the RHA platform that a student called Vedant started weeks ago.
A list of demands has also been floated by these voices.
Politicians, as always, are steering clear of the fast-boiling reservation debate. But on the ground, it is not just the Shri Rajput Karni Sena and Harsh Dubey who are trying to mobilise people against caste-based reservations in education, jobs and other domains.
Influencers, commentators and public intellectuals are split over reservations. Some favour the status quo, some want it scrapped entirely, while others support it only if they have a tighter eligibility criteria.
Online and offline, anti-reservation voices are steadily growing louder. The momentum threatens to widen one of India’s most politically explosive and divisive debates on caste-based reservation. The timing is delicate and could unsettle multiple stakeholders.
The anti-quota momentum comes weeks after the weeks-long CJP-led protests culminated in the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and India saw nationwide unrest over the UGC equity regulations, which the “upper-castes” said was “unjustified, unjust, undermined merit”, and would “deepen social divisions by enabling the unfair targetting of the savarna class”. The “upper-castes” in February called the norms “kaala-kanoon”.
These developments could also spell trouble for the government at the Centre, in the states, and the parties in power.
A packed election calendar lies ahead. Assembly elections are due in early 2027 in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, followed later by Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. In several of these states — especially Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest and politically most consequential state, through which the road to New Delhi is often said to pass — caste remains the most decisive electoral factor.
Electorally too, this is significant because, in the last election in Uttar Pradesh, when the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance outperformed the BJP, Rahul Gandhi’s “jitni abaadi, utna haq” (rights proportional to population) pitch and Akhilesh Yadav’s outreach to the Pichda, Dalit, Aadivasi (PDA) social coalition played key role in the campaigns. That was also reflected in the results.
ANTI-RESERVATION ANDOLAN’s DEBUT RALLY IN NAGPUR. SAVARNAS WANT UGC NORM’S ROLL-BACK
In the past few days, as the anti-reservation narrative has gathered momentum online, the movement has also spilled onto the streets. Protests and demonstrations have been reported in Maharashtra’s Nagpur, Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, Rajasthan’s Jaipur, and Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam.
The Times of India reported that the Reservation Hatao Movement (RHM) on July 30 made its on-ground debut in Nagpur with a rally. The organisers had told the newspaper that around 1,000-2,000 people were expected to participate in the march. They described the Nagpur rally as the beginning of a nationwide campaign seeking changes to India’s reservation system and drew parallels with how the CJP evolved from an online campaign into a street movement.
Days later, on August 3, members of Savarna Morcha and Swarn Samaj in Lucknow came out in the city’s Shahid Smarak and Hazratganj area, reported Amar Ujala. They demanded a complete rollback of UGC rules and an end to caste-based reservation, alleging that they “gained nothing from democracy so far”.
KARNI SENA PROTESTS IN JAIPUR, DEMANDS UGC NORMS ROLL-BACK
A day later, a rally of thousands of people belonging to the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, led by its chief Mahipal Singh Makrana, reached in Jaipur after what the outfit described as a 24-day, 800-km march demanding the rollback of the UGC’s 2026 Equity Regulations, according to Dainik Bhaskar newspaper.
While the Sena mainly demanded the UGC norms be rolled back, they also sought “the review of caste-based laws, reservation for the economically weaker sections category in panchayat and municipal elections, and simplification of EWS reservation rules at the central level, among other demands,” The Times of India reported.
Karni Sena’s members marched towards the Collectorate and later attempted to move towards the BJP office and the Chief Minister’s residence. The police used water cannons and carried out a lathi charge after clashes erupted and barricades were breached. Makrana alleged that women, children and women were hit, which led to the death of one of the protesters.
Following the police action, Makrana administered an oath asking supporters not to vote for the BJP in the upcoming urban local body and panchayat elections, reported Dainik Bhaskar. The Indian Express reported that Makrana warned that “if their demands weren’t met, they would also oppose the BJP in the upcoming urban local body polls and later, the panchayat polls to ensure the ruling party’s defeat”.
Karni Sena has issued a seven-day ultimatum, threatening a Jaipur gherao and Rajasthan bandh. Former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot accused the BJP government of a “dictatorial attitude”, but didn’t comment on the merits and demerits of the reservation.
Then, on August 3, NEET aspirants in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam, under the Jana Jagarana Samiti, held a silent protest in support of the RHA that we talked about. The young participants also wore black ribbons across their mouths and held placards, called for ending caste-based reservation, shifting to economic criteria, limiting quota benefits to a generation, minimum qualifying marks for all, incorporation of periodic reviews and sunset clauses, and ending election-time reservation promises, reported The Hindu.
While streets and roads across several states are witnessing demonstrations, the online space — where narratives are shaped, and mass mobilisation begins in the digital age — is seeing anti-reservation voices and demands grow even louder and more nuanced. Also, there is a caveat in the online mobilisation, which we’ll come to shortly.
ONLINE MOBILISATION AGAINST QUOTA IN FULL SWING
The RHA, floated by a student named Vedant, now headed by influencer Ajeet Bharti, has now floated five policy proposals to replace caste-based quotas with “income-based reservations”. The caveat is that while the RHA is concentrating on building a narrative online rather than rushing to the streets, Harsh Dubey [the face of the viral anti-reservation campaign] is still waiting for Delhi Police’s permission to protest at Jantar Mantar.
In fact, after Dubey suggested on social media that permission had been granted to share an acknowledgement, the DCP of New Delhi had to publicly clarify that no approval had been issued.
Initially, many of the passionate anti-reservation voices had called for the scrapping of the entire reservation system. But many of these proposals would be difficult to implement, both politically and constitutionally, and would certainly clash with political will and would face judicial scrutiny. Moreover, in a post on X, Vendant said that he “started the RHA page on Instagram with one objective — to begin a national discussion on a subject that many people were hesitant to even talk about”.
“One thing I also learnt is that many people expect immediate agitation, while my first goal was to encourage discussion. Lasting change begins when people are willing to talk, debate, and question. Agitation without dialogue rarely produces durable solutions,” Vedant said in a post on X, where he was clarifying that the RHA handle had not been “hijacked” by Bharti, as critics were suggesting.
According to the RHA’s proposal, the movement seeks to replace caste-based quotas with “income-based reservations.” It argued that “poverty has no caste”.
It also advocated “one family, one reservation, one time”, a minimum qualifying mark for all categories, and the transfer of unfilled reserved seats to the general category. It has also suggested periodic reviews to move economically advanced communities off of the reservation list.
The proposal further called for a “sunset clause” to gradually phase out reservations as educational inequality narrows, while banning political parties from promising new or higher reservation quotas during elections.
Apart from its five-point policy proposal, the RHA has been using social media to build a broader narrative around reservation reform. The posts frequently criticise the existing caste-based reservation system, arguing that it disadvantages economically weaker students from the general category while privileging caste over merit.
The RHA, in one of its posts, strongly opposed the UGC’s 2026 Equity Regulations, which saw fierce resistance from the “upper castes”.
It claimed the UGC norms would further entrench reservations and adversely affect educational standards. The RHA also regularly shares videos and graphics to mobilise supporters and expand its online reach.
The RHA has framed the debate on merit, equality and economic justice, not caste identity.
At least for now, the RHA seems more focused on mainstreaming the debate on reservation that it believes has been avoided. It appears to be in no mood to launch nationwide street protests like Harsh Dubey, even though its messaging found resonance at the recent demonstration in Visakhapatnam.
So, that brings up to the question of whether the government has at all tried to rationalise reservations in India?