The Gazetteers Department

As THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ADVANCED, historical centre of gravity shifted from the doings of the royal house to the movements of those who had received the benefits of modern education. As in other parts of the country so in Satara the establishment of British rule, far from being looked upon as a curse, was welcomed by the people. Strict adherence to rules and regulations so characteristic of a bureaucratic yet constitutional Government as the British Government was, had influenced even the Chhatrapatis of Satara so much that we find Pratapsinh and his successor Shahu submitting petitions after petitions to the Court of Directors with a hope that their line might be restored. As has been said above, Rango Bapuji staked everything to plead the case of the Chhatrapatis in England but with no effect. The same policy of constitutional agitation was followed by the earlier generation of educated people to get their grievances redressed. There is a reference to the District Association submitting an application signed by hundreds of people concerned, on 18th December 1868, against a certain land legislation. ["Bhausaheb Soman ": by P. P. Gokhale, p. 9.] This was followed by another association established on 26th June 1870 at a meeting held in the public library at Satara [Ibid., p. 9.]. Amongst the leaders of those days, one finds a reference to Ganesh Vasudev Joshi who later became famous in Poona by the term " Sarvajanik Kaka', who took the lead in establishing an arbitration (Lavad) court at Satara in 1876 [Ibid., p. 10.]. Interesting as it might appear, two persons of Satara, G. G. Pandit and V. M. Gokhale took the lead in 1882, to start a textile mill at Ahmadabad for the manufacture of chintz [Jagrit Satara, by P. P. Gokhale, p. 21.] Enlightened public of Satara expressed its reaction to the deposition of Malharrav Gaikvad of Baroda in 1875 and later they also came out with a petition that the editor of the " Kesari" and the " Mahratta" should be excused from punishment for their journalistic activities in 1882. In the same year Raghunath Pandurang Karandikar, the famous pleader and leader of Satara in a speech at a public meeting extended a hearty welcome to the local self-government reform introduced by Lord Ripon. In 1885 was established the India National Congress and we find a reference to the people of Safari being actuated with a desire to establish its branches all over the district. It was felt that the grievances of the uneducated tax-paye, the peasant and the worker would thus be conveyed to the Indian National Congress which would present it to government officials in a crystallised and well defined form. Interesting as all these evens are, considerations of space prevent us from referring to each ore of these in greater details. A bare chronological presentation of important events bearing testimony to the public-spiritedness in the district will tell its own tale.

In 1892, the editor of " Pratoda" was sentenced to six month imprisonment for having criticised the then forest officer Mr. Fagane. [" Bhausaheb Soman" by P. P. Gokhale, p. 13.]

In 1893 the people of Wai resolved to present an address to Dadabhai Naoroji and accordingly the local leaders went to Bombay on 16th of December for the purpose [" Bhausaheb Soman " by P. P. Gokhale, p. 13.].

In 1895 Lokmanya Tilak was presented with an address at a public meeting held in Satara on 27th of August [Ibid, p. 14.].

In 1897, R. V. Kulkarni who was working as a Kulkarni was warned by Government not to participate in any public activity. Rather than submit to the order he resigned his post [Ibid, p. 15.].

In the same year Bhaushastri Lele of Wai, a great Sanskrit Scholar of nationalistic bent of mind was sentenced to nine months of imprisonment for his criticism against Government through the columns of Modavrtta.

In 1900, was held the Bombay provincial political conference at Satara on behalf of the 'Ratepayers Association' established in the previous year.

In 1903, R. C. Dutt, was presented with an address in reply to which he drew attention of the people to the greatness and glory of ancient Indian Culture [Jagrit Satara : by P. P. Gokhale, p. 47.].

The first phase of constitutional agitation in the form of submitting petitions to Government under the leadership of 'moderate' leaders having been chilled, due to the unresponsive attitude of the bureaucracy, people began to organise and agitate under the leadership of nationalists who were proverbially called the ' extremists'. The agitation took diverse forms such as organising Shivaji and Ganapati festivals, starting of national schools, independent of government control and inaugurating the Svadeshi movement by encouraging consumption of goods of local production. It also took the form of a field to field survey in rural areas, the object being, it must be said, more to rouse the people against foreign rule, rather than bringing about any systematic reconstruction or relief to the rayat. There was also a party of revolutionaries in Satara who were prosecuted in what is popularly called the 'Aundh Bomb Case' and the conspirators like Hinge and Dr. V. V. Athalye were sentenced to a rigorous imprisonment of eight to ten years in 1910. The political atmosphere of the period can be best described in a statement made by the then Governor General Lord Minto. Says he:

"We have a party small in numbers but of considerable influence and inspired by convictions strongly and even fanatically held, who are opposed to the circumstance of British rule. The party may be divided into two classes. The first consists of those who desire autonomy but seek to obtain it by passive resistance and the continual sapping of the foundations of loyalty by means of attacks in the press, on the platform and on more private occasions. They do not oridinarily resort to violence though many of them secretly sympathise with courage and assassination and all alike care to be unwilling to assist in the suppression of political crime.".

The second comprise those who advocate and practice methods of terrorism, directed against servants, European and Indian, "against all persons assisting justice with information, evidence etc. Youths are bounded together in societies (in 'Bengal. Bombay, C.P. etc.) with no central body to control ['Bhausaheb Soman' by: P. P. Gokhale. pp. 31-32.] ". The police sometimes showed their excessive enthusiasm, and tried to incriminate popular leaders, as it happened in Satara in 1909. in a case which was investigated and ultimately set aside with a confidential remark made in their report by the Satara C.I.D. that "a false bomb case was got up to injure pleader named Phansalkar [ Ibid p. 34.]. The political atmosphere that prevailed, in Satara was more or less influenced by the activities of the extremists, the moderates and to a certain extent the revolutionaries also, on the lines described above, with this peculiarity that the moderates and the extremists in Satara, with all their honest political differences often used to come together with a spirit of compromise on a common platform for social and other purposes. This is indicated by the holding of the provincial political conference in Satara in 1914 in which leaders of different shades of political opinion had participated.

Political development in Satara in post 1911 period followed closely along the lines developing elsewhere. With the rise of Mahatma Gandhi in 1920, Satara cheerfully responded to his leadership and it is pertinent to note that erstwhile revolutionaries like Dr. Athalye became strong adherents of the Gandhi School of thought and participated in the famous Civil Disobedience Movement known as 'Shiroda Satydgriha" where the people asserted right of collecting salt from the backwaters of the sea. A new leader of political thought, the late Mr. Shankarrao Javdekar, emerged at this time and revealed to the people the true significance of the Gandhi an movement. He hailed from Islampur and it may said without exaggeration that Maharashtra hardly produced in that age a man with a similar depth of political understanding.

Turning to the aspect of social awakening during this period the pride of place must be given to the Late Rav Bahadur, R. R. Kale, who was on the vanguard of such movements as the uplift of women and the abolition of caste system. He was a staunch supporter of the New English School started by the Deccan Education Society in 1899. It continued to make steady progress until at last in point of efficiency it soon rivalled and outshone the Government High School at Satara. It is on record that it was constantly hampered in its onward march by the systematic subdued opposition coming from Government officials of the Education department [Fergusson College Magazine, July 1919, pp. 17-29.]'. Later, Kale gave a substantial donation of more than a lakh of rupees and laid the foundation of the Gokhale School of Economics and Politics in the premises of the Servants of India Society's Home at Poena. He also donated a big house of his own to the Girls' High School at Satara which has been named after his wife Satyabhamabai and is now managed by Maharshi Kane's Hinge Mahilashram.

Satara has ever given the lead in making pioneering efforts to start a variety of industries. As early as in 1899, ink manufacture was attempted at Vite in Satara district and Menthol and Soap production was started at Satara in 1905 [ ' Jagrit Satara ' by: P. P. Gokhale. p. 50.]. Karad was known in the second decade of the 20th Century for having taken the lead in starting a match factor); besides these earlier efforts of an experimental character, which are only indicative of the sincerity and enthusiasm of their pioneers, the pride of place undoubtedly must go to the Western India Life Insurance Company started at Satara in 1913 by the late Annasaheb Chirmule. The company ever continued to make sound progress during the next half a century, until it was recently acquired by Government and amalgamated in the Life Insurance Corporation during the post-Independence period. Besides this, the Kirloskar Iron & Steel Manufacturing Company started in 1910 has been the most important pioneering industrial concern in southern Maharashtra. Its managers first began starting a small house-organ known as 'Kirloskar Khabar' which later developed into the most popular and most widely read magazine in Maharashtra known as simply ' Kirloskar' and was coupled with two other magazines known as Stree and Manohar. Ogale Brothers having acquired their early training at Taleganv Glass Works, started their own Glass Factory at Ogalevadi near Karad in 1916. They were soon able to manufacture hurricane lanterns which could successfully compete with similar foreign productions. Another industrial concern started in 1922 near Satara Railway Station is known as Cooper Engineering Ltd. It began by manufacturing iron ploughs in its initial stages and is now manufacturing diesel engines, which have a wide demand all over the country.

Vitality of Satara could be estimated from some of the educational institutions which have a peculiarity of their own. The most important of them is the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha started in 1919 by the late Bhaurav Patil, who, it may be said without exaggeration, brought about a revolution in the field of education which is only to be equalled by a similar one brought about fifty years ago by Vislinushastri Chiplunkar by starting the New English School at Poona. The genesis of the 'Patil movement' lies in taking education to the masses by making it simpler and cheaper and breaking the conventional bonds of caste and creed. Bhaurav's was a truly liberal spirit translating the philosophy of Agarkar and giving it a concrete form in the shape of educational institutions. Never since Chhatrapati Shahu of Kolhapur had initiated an equalitarian movement towards social and educational reform could there be foundanything that could match the activities of Bhaurav. He was education of the masses in carnate. The Rayat Shikshan Sanstha has now a net work of a number of boarding houses, high schools and colleges in a number of places in Satara district. Another peculiar institution started in 1920, at Wai is ' The Prajnya Patha Shala' by Narayan-shastri Marathe also known as Kevalanand. The institution concentrated upon the study of Sanskrit and Oriental Philosophy and aimed at systematising, if not codifying the labyrinth of conflicting religious commandments in the Hindu Dharma Shastras. Tarktirth Laxmanshastri Joshi is its guiding spirit at present. The institution has come out with a number of scholarly works, on matters religious. A similar spirit of oriental revival was also to be noticed at Satara where an Ayurvedic College known as Aryangla Mahavidyalaya was started, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Agashe. The revivalist made their contribution in the field of historical research as is indicated by the efforts of the late Shri D. B. Parasnis who made a rich collection of rare historic documents and pictures and conducted a journal known as Itihas Sangriha for a number of years. The spirit of general awakening was carried among the masses, thanks to the efforts of the followers of Satyshodhak Samaj which sometimes allowed its enthusiasm to outrun its discretion and developed a communal turn. With all its industries Satara is largely an agricultural district where the peasantry often showed litigious tendency which not many a time took a criminal form. In recent times the ' Quit India' movement of 1942 found a leader for it in Satara district in Nana Patil whose simple straight and rustic flow of language and arguments often created great enthusiasm among the masses.

There were two important States, Aundh and Phaltan included in Satara district. They have been recently amalgamated in the course of the merger movement and have now become corporate parts of Satara. The former ruler of Aundh, Balasaheb Pratinidhi was a cultured ruler who was wise enough to read the signs of time and liberally shared the political responsibility with popular leaders. He was instrumental in encouraging the Kirloskars in the initial stages of their development. Shri Malojirav Nimbalkar of Phaltan outdid himself by voluntary resignation and joined the Congress movement as an ordinary citizen. He rose to the rank of becoming a Minister of State and has shown by his example as to how one could cheerfully respond to the changing times.

Standing on the threshold of the mid-twentieth century, one car look back with pride on the achievements of Satara in all fields political, religious, educational and industrial. An average Satara middle class man wears a simple dress which conceals, in him, the fire of the coming age. He can be depended upon to be a worthy citizen of democratic India. The average farmer is looking upon agricultural litigation as a thing of the past and is responding to the co-operative movement through which he hopes to be emotionally integrated with the successive five year plans that plan to raise his standard of life.

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