Vasudev Balwant Phadke: Father of the Armed Revolutionary Movement

Vasudev Balwant Phadke was a government clerk in Pune. He could not get leave in time to see his dying mother.

That grief became a turning point. In 1879 he raised an armed band and took on British rule. He is called the Father of the Armed Revolutionary Movement.

1Who was Phadke?

He was born into a poor Brahmin family.

• He was born on 4 November 1845 in Shirdhon, then in Thane district.
• The village is now in Raigad district, Maharashtra.
• His family was Chitpavan Brahmin and of limited means.
• As a child he liked wrestling and riding more than books.
• He dropped out of high school.
• He later moved to Pune.
• He worked there for fifteen years as a clerk.
• The job was in the military accounts department.

2What did he do in Pune?

Pune shaped his ideas.

• Lahuji Raghoji Salve was his mentor.
• Salve was an expert wrestler who ran a training centre.
• He belonged to the Mang community and preached freedom from colonial rule.
• He taught Phadke to bring backward castes into the freedom cause.
• Phadke also attended lectures by Mahadev Govind Ranade.
• Ranade explained how colonial economic policy hurt India.
• In 1870 Phadke joined a public agitation in Pune.
• He founded the Aikya Vardhini Sabha to educate young people.
• In 1860 he co-founded the Poona Native Institution with Laxman Narhar Indapurkar and Waman Prabhakar Bhave.
• It was later renamed the Maharashtra Education Society.
• One day his leave was delayed, and he could not see his dying mother.
• That loss was the turning point of his life.

3How did the uprising begin?

Famine and anger pushed him to act.

• In 1875 the British removed the Gaekwad ruler of Baroda.
• Phadke then gave protest speeches against the government.
• A severe famine struck the Deccan at the same time.
• He toured the Deccan and urged people to strive for independence.
• He admired Chhatrapati Shivaji and believed in Swaraj.
• The educated classes did not back him.
• So he gathered a band from the Ramoshi caste.
• Kolis, Bhils and Dhangars joined later.
• He taught himself to shoot, ride and fence.
• He organised around 300 men into an insurgent group.
• Daulatrao Naik, a Ramoshi leader, was his chief supporter.

4What were the raids of 1879?

The band needed money, so it raided treasuries and rich homes.

• The first raid was at Dhamari, in Shirur taluka near Pune.
• They took about four hundred rupees from a local merchant.
• The British branded him a dacoit.
• Village people sheltered him and hid him in forests.
• The money was meant to help famine-hit farmers.
• On 10 and 11 May 1879 his group raided Palaspe and Chikhali.
• They looted about 1.5 lakh rupees.
• Major Daniell attacked Daulatrao Naik on the way back, and Naik was shot dead.
• That death was a heavy blow to the revolt.
• Phadke later recruited about 500 Rohillas.
• The government offered a reward for his capture.
• He answered by offering a reward for the capture of the Governor of Bombay.

5How did it end?

A betrayal ended the revolt.

• Phadke fled to Hyderabad State to recruit Rohillas and Arabs.
• Major Daniell and Abdul Haque, police chief of the Nizam, hunted him.
• Someone betrayed him for the reward.
• He was captured at Kaladgi on 20 July 1879.
• He was in a temple, on his way to Pandharpur.
• He was tried in Pune.
• Ganesh Vasudeo Joshi, known as Sarvajanik Kaka, defended him.
• His own diary was used as evidence.
• He was sentenced to transportation for life and sent to Aden.
• On 13 February 1883 he escaped by taking a door off its hinges.
• He was recaptured and went on a hunger strike.
• He died on 17 February 1883.
• A chowk in South Mumbai, near Metro Cinema, is named after him.
• A Marathi film, Vasudev Balwant Phadke, was released in December 2007.
• The Maharashtra Education Society he co-founded now runs over seventy institutions.

6What are the exam traps?

Exams often mix him up with other movements.

• His uprising was in 1879, not in the revolt of 1857.
• He was not a Congress leader.
• He is called the Father of the Armed Revolutionary Movement.
• He is also counted among the “Adi Kraantikaaris”, the first revolutionaries.
• His main recruits were the Ramoshi, Koli, Bhil and Dhangar communities.
• The raids raised funds for famine relief, among other aims.
• Aden is where he served his sentence and died.
• India Post issued a 50 paise stamp for him in 1984. See India Post.
• Compare his rising with Tilka Manjhi and Kittur Chennamma.
• Later armed groups include Surya Sen‘s and Bhagat Singh‘s.