India, March 10 -- Don Quixote famously mistook them for enemies, and from a high vantage point the windmills that dot the fields in the villages of Patoda, Kej and Ashta in central Maharashtra do resemble giant sentries on guard. But if Quixote was tilting at imaginary enemies, windmill farms across the region of Beed have, in real life, turned into deadly battlegrounds.

Last week's resignation of Dhananjay Munde, the Maharashtra minister for food and civil supplies, after the arrest of his close aide Walmik Karad for the alleged torture and murder of a village sarpanch (chief) has laid bare a sordid tale of extortion, forced disappearances and murder, and exposed caste fault lines.

In the last year-and-half, Beed has emerged as the ep...