One would be surprised to imagine an effective Patri Sarkar (also known as Prati Sarkar or a parallel government) being run in 150 villages of present-day Satara-Sangli region of Maharashtra for nearly four and half years during the Quit India
movement, effective from August 1943 to May 1946. Of course, during the British rule at many places such parallel government experiments worked but the one under the leadership of “Krantisimha” Nana Patil ( 3 August 1900- 6 December 1976) was unique in nature which was supported by masses. Another important feature of this movement was it provided popular Congress, Socialist and Communist leaders in post-independence era who not only became the Members of the Indian Parliament and Maharashtra Assembly but also became the Chief Ministers and the Deputy Prime Minister and Union Ministers.
The Patri Sarkar movement was a guerrilla type struggle. “Patri” was the name given to the terrible and torturous punishments administered to the British government servants and people who dared to obstruct the parallel government. Of course, the Patri Sarkar did carry out some reformist programmes like prohibition, removal of untouchability, spreading literacy, preaching the importance of self-reliance and it propagated for land reforms and even land distribution, simple marriages involving smaller expenses, protecting the women especially the widows, etc. Due to the world war there was a problem of food grains, the underground activists at Walva lurked the barns full of grains owned by the rich men and distributed the food grains to the hungry poor. They also promised the owners of the barn that they will return the food grains in the time of good harvest, according to Natha Lad, an activist of the movement.
The Quit India movement under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi was not to assume militant character in Satara district but the Seva Dal, the youth wing of Indian National Congress, under the influence of leftist ideology in the region and the influence of “Karmaveer” Bhausaheb Patil and his Rayat Shikshan Sanstha attracted the Maharashtrian youth towards the revolutionary path, especially in Satara district. After the commencement of the world war in 1939 and the declaration of India’s involvement in it, the leftist insisted upon taking immediate steps by the Congress towards attainment of freedom. The leftists workers in Congress with their bent towards peasants and the laboring masses were causing a new awakening among them. An eight day study camp by Comrade S. A. Dange at Satara and Karad acquainting workers with the scientific concepts of communism boosted the moral of the youth to fight the British. The Congress Party was the umbrella for various ideological colours like socialism, Royist as well as Moscow-brand communism.
There were many groups active to carry out the underground activities of the Patri Sarkar, largest being that of Nana Patil. Kundal was considered the capital of the parallel government. Kundal in Aundh State bordering Walva and Tasgaon talukas was always the base of the activities of Nana Patil group. The Patri Sarkar started functioning in 1943. Every group was assigned specific job or department. Nana Patil group was to collect arms and ammunitions from private individuals, by attacking police at railway stations and elsewhere and also by purchasing at Goa, the Portuguese territory. Nana, Dr. Uttamrao Patil and Mrs. Leela Patil stayed in the district and carried on propaganda campaign effectively where as Shankar Nika impressed the masses by his singing performances. The Central executive, Kundal gymnasium, Seva Dals, judicial tribunals, Tufan Sena, Bahirji Pathak etc. were the main organs of the Patri Sarkar.
According to V. S. Page, a freedom fighter who in later years became the Chairman of Maharashtra Legislative Council(1960-1978) while talking about the Patri Sarkar says, “Nana Patil, by his powerful oratory and by his persistent efforts of ten long years’ work to propagate Congress ideology among the rural masses became the symbol of freedom struggle in Quit India movement and even afterwards in Satara district. In many villages… people successfully led Morchas and hoisted national flags on village Chavadis.” The movement of the Patri Sarkar had the blessings of the Aundh State. The ruler and a Gandhian Prince, Appasaheb Pant, who was an Indian diplomat in post-independent India in various countries, extended support and guidance to the Patri Sarkar. Even when under pressure from the British some of the activists had to be arrested by him, they were treated well.
Achutrao Patawardhan, Y. B. Chavan, Tarktirth Laxman Shastri Joshi, Vasantdada Patil, Ganapatrao Deshmukh and even “Kranti Agrani” G. D. Bapu Lad and many others participated in the Patri Sarkar movement. Nana Patil was elected to the Indian Parliament twice as a candidate of the Communist Party of India(CPI), from Satara in 1957 and from Beed in 1967 respectively. He was also one of the leaders of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement. Achutrao Patwardhan was called the “Lion of Satara”. Basically a socialist, he was active in Congress before independence and was one of the founders of the Socialist Party of India in 1947 and preferred to retire from active politics in 1950 itself. As a Congress leader Y. B. Chavan became the Chief Minister of Bombay State after Morarji Desai joined the Union Cabinet headed by Jawaharlal Nehru. Chavan was the Defence Minister of India and at a later stage became the Deputy Prime Minister of India too. Vasantdada, also a Congress leader, became the Chief Minister of Maharashtra more than once and even the Governor of Rajasthan. The left party, Peasants and Workers Party(PWP)’s 90-year old leader, Ganpatrao Deshmukh, is elected as an MLA in Maharashtra for eleven times.
Barring being Minister twice, he has spent his political terms on the opposition benches. The Shiv Sena Chief, Uddhav Thackeray, has demanded “a befitting memorial be erected for the independence activist, Krantisimha Nana Patil”. On the birth anniversary of Nana Patil, Thackeray said: “When I accepted the invite to be part of the event, someone asked me Nana Patil was a communist and Shiv Sena is against communists. I told him, yes, we are against communists. But, this man (Patil) understood that the British will not leave the country only by Swaraj and peaceful means and they need to be given a jolt, which he did.” “I do not care if he was a communist. What is more important is that he was a freedom fighter. Today it is our government at the Centre and in the state. We also have hold over the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). We will construct a befitting memorial for Nanasaheb Patil in Mumbai that will make the whole country proud.”
Next Column: The Historic Letter of Shivraya to Jai Singh
(The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail: [email protected] )
