Chapter Iv the Chapekars

CHAPTER IV THE CHAPEKARS 185 C H A P T E R I V THS CHAP2KARS Between the early revolutionaries and the emergence of Savarkar’s Abhinav Sharat organisation it was the Chapekar brothers and their associates who contributed to the revolutionary thinking in Maharashtra both by their deeds and words. The martyrdom of the Chapekar brothers and their colleague Mahadev Vlnayak Ranade in the cause of the national revolution, moreover, helped the revolutionary spirit develop in Maharashtra. The distinct feature of Chapekars' activities lies in the fact that they introduced a terrorist strategy in the revolutionary movement and spoke for the religion-oriented nationalism in exclusive terms. The autobiography of Damodar Hari Chapekar, eldest of the Chapekar brothers fairly confirms the ideological beliefs of the Chapekar Club and thus provides several clues to understand their political thinking. The Chapekars, however, were no political thinkers in any sense of the term. Nor did they have any insight into the social dynamics as most of their English-educated counterparts did. 3y and large they reflected a typical traditional Hindu 3rahminical mind 186 in their responses to the British rule in I n d i a . However that itself was a crucial factor in determining their political outlook and ideas which in turn contributed to the philosophy of revolutionary nationalism in India. It is with this respect that it is interesting to explore and examine the political ideas of the Chapekar brothers. At the outset it must be made clear that our attempt to understand the political views of Chapekar and his club is confined mainly to the exploration of the political ideas of Damodar Hari Chapekar - the eldest of Chapekar brothers. This is so because among all the members of Chapskar Club it was mainly Damodar who directed the revolutionary activities and provided some sort of ideological justification to the political deeds vdiich he undertook as part of his revolutionary programme. Through his informal but spirited conversations with his friends and colleagues and through the songs and poems which he composed at the Shivaji festival, Damodar inceassantly reminded the youngsters of the past glories of the Maratha empire and enthused them with the spirit of Swarajya or political independence. Hence it could be safely stated that Damodar was probably the only working brain in the Chapekar club in planning the revolutionary activities with ideological justification and the other members of the club including his younger brothers 3alkrishna a n d Wasudev Chapekar acted on the same line of thinking as 187 adopted and advocated by Damodar. As a result there is virtually no difference between tha political ideas of Damodar Chapekar and his brothers. It is therefore sufficient for us to confine ourselves to the political thinking of Damodar Chapekar in order to understand the political line of Chapekar brothers and their club as a whole. One of the major difficulties, however, in exploring the political ideas of Chapekar is that there is hardly any written document of his own explaining his political thinking except his autobiography. 3 e i n g a poat himself Chapekar used to compose several patriotic songs at the time of Shivaji festivals in Poona and they reflect his political views to some extent. A few of these songs have bean published by his biographer, Shri '/.S.Joshi in the book titled "Kanthasnan ani Balidan" and others have been reprodiced at the end of the Marathi version of his autobiography ouolished by the Maharashtra Sahitya Samskriti Mandal, 3ombay. In addition to this there are few letters of his own, written to his parents which throw sone light on his mental set up as a revolutionary but Deyond this we do not find any literature by Chapekar telling us anything about his revolutionary ideas and thinking. 188 However, some exceptionally informative works on Chapekar's life have been published in recent times mainly by tte Maharashtrian scholars. A^ong these works Shri V.S.Joshi's biography of Chapekar brothers occupies an important place in the literature on the revolutionaries. The work titled as 'Kanthasnan ani 3alidan' a mention of which has already oeen made earlier, acquaints us fairly well not only with the lives of Chapekar brothers out also with the activities of some of their colleagues who carried out the revolutionary activities as members of Chapekar club. Shri V.S.Joshi's article on Chapekar and Wahadev Vinayak Ranade is also quite informative in this respect.^ Similarly Dr,Y.D.Phadke has also thrown new light on seme of the hitherto unknown aspects of 2 Chapekar club. The autobiography of Shankar Ramachandra Rajwade alias Ahitagni Rajwade also provides son^ significant information regarding the life and.activities of Chapekar brothers which throws light on the political thinking of Chapekar.^ Similarly the autoDiography and biography of Damodar 3alwant *^hicfe alias ‘3hide Guruji is important in this respect as Damodar Bhide was one of the active revolutionaries of 4 his time. The first volume of Tiiak's biography written •f by N.C.Kelkar as well as the biography of Vasukaka Joshi written by T,R,Devgirikar furnish significant information aoout the life and times of Chapekar.^ From all these 189 sources it Is possible for us to construct the political thought of Chapekar. As a matter of fact the Chapekar club enjoyed an enviable position among the nineteenth century revolutionaries in Maharashtra. This is quite evident from the way it commanded the respect of the Shivaji club - another revolutionary society from Kolhapur on the one hand and inspired no less a person than Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the cause of revolution on the other. A typical product of THak's early nationalist politics, Damodar Hari Chapekar revitalised the revolutionary movement in Maharashtra and pioneered a new strategy of terrorist violence long before the Bengal revolutionaries had embarked upon the terrorist violence in the early twentieth century# in their cause to liberate the motherland. Thus taking these facts into consideration the need for a careful exploration of Chapekar's political ideas is much more felt. Far away from being a product of English education Damodar Hari Chapekar could perceive the evils of the British rule in I n d i a and could feel the sufferings of the common people at the hands of the ruthless British administrators, ^le was far away from being acquainted with the sophisticated academic jargon such as colonialism# economic drain etc. and yet he was sensitive enough to 190 realise the illconceived policies of the British government, particularly at the time of famine, epidemics and Gominunal riots. Chapekar did not possess the vision like Savarkar who anticipated ti-^e danger of prcselytization of the Indians at the hands of the Muslims and Christian missionaries but was aware enough to understand his religious duty as ordained in the 3hagwad-Geeta which acinonished that any faith other than that of one's own is harmful and hence it must be neglected. (Paradharmo bhayavah) Therefore Chapekar was hostile to those who had undergone religious conversion. This also led him to view the British as the 'Dharma Shatru* of the people. His understanding of the British as the Dharma Shatru seems to have determined his earlier responses towards the British rule in India and consequently dictated his political priorities. To liberate the motherland from the British was his ultimate aim and to secure it through revolutionary conspiracy was his mission. Thus his understanding of the British rule in India led him to think and act politically, out of which emerged his own political thinking. The present chapter intends to discuss the nature of Chapekar‘s political thinking and thereby examine his political views in general. 191 Development of Chapeka r ’ s Political Outlook It is the political outlook that shapes one's political ideas. In order to understand the political ideas o£ Chapakar it is rather imperative to see the general development of his political outlook. There seem to be two major factors that helped determine the political outlook of Chapekar. The first one is the early socialization of the Chapekar brothers and the second is the nationalist politics in Poona in the nineties of the last century. These two factors need some explanation so as to understand the develoF*nent of Chapekar's political views. It is evident from the autobiography of Damodar Chapekar that his father# Haribhau, had played an important role in instructing and thereby socializing him. Haribhau was a Hardas (one who performs Kirtan) by profession and though he had difficult time in his early career he seemed to have overcome all the difficulties and emerged as a reputed and successful Hardas in his later life. Shri V.S.Joshi, Chapekar's biographer tells us that by 1885 Haribhau had moved from Chinchwad to settle down in Poona. 3y this time he had also acquired fame as well as money to the extent that he was planning to purchase a residential place in Poona. He oroved to be quite fortunate in securing the patronage of many a notable 192 figures from the different parts of the region. Bhau Maharaj from Poona, Shrimant 3al Wagle, Janardan Wanamali and Madhavji Jaysing from 3ombay and Dadasaheb Khaparde from Amaravati were but the few among these notables who patronised Haribhau's Kirtana and established his reputation as a learned Hardas.^ Haribhau's contacts with these people speak for his success in the profession he had chosen and also for his popularity as a Hardas, The young Chapekars thus, had enjoyed considerable reputation as the heirs of a learned and reputed Hardas. They also got several opportunities to travel the breadth and length of the region while accompanying Haribhau at the time of kirtana.

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