Among the numerous unsung heroes is the name of Senapati Bapat, who earned the moniker "Senapati" after the Mulshi Satyagrah, which in the words of Ghanshyam Shah is the “first recorded organized struggle against the forced displacement” of farmers. Senapati like many others made an immense contribution in arousing the ardent emotions of self-rule. Many literates comprehend Pandurang as a rare and sweet blend of Tilak, Gandhi, and Veer Savarkar. Pandurang Mahadev Bapat was born on 12 November 1880, in Parner, Maharashtra. Young Bapat received nourishment when the nation was revolutionized with burning desires for a free India. All over the country, there were secret hubs, constant plannings, bombings, and assaults.
SCHOOLING & EDUCATION
Bapat's schooling started late. He completed his matric from Ahmednagar in 1899. Bapat was a master in aptitude and applications. He won the second Jagannath Sanskrit Scholarship and graduated from the Deccan college in 1904. After receiving the Managladas Naathubhai scholarship, reluctant Bapat had to shift to England for studying engineering at Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh.
RADICAL BAPAT
The flames of radicalism were so high, that even in Britain Bapat associated himself with the India house, set up by Shyam Ji Krishna Verma. He developed links with the British Socialists and Russian Revolutionaries who introduced him to Bolshevism. Bapat was a provocative public speaker. On 14 January 1906, his speech on “British Rule in India” and his association with anti-colonial activists lost him his scholarship. It is then that he met the Savarkar brothers, Vinayak and Ganesh, who conspired to blow the Parliament House in London. They advised him to go to Paris and learn techniques for making explosives from some Russians.
RETURNED TO INDIA: THE REAL TUSSLE
Staunch Bapat returned to India in 1908. He shared his skills in bomb-making by circulating a "bomb manual" throughout the nation. In Kolkata, he met HimmendraDas who was preparing explosives for the assassination of the Mayor of Chandan Garh. Bapat was a man of ideals. Since “United we stand and divided we fall” so he wanted coordinated nationwide armed revolts but was against individual acts of terrorism. He rejected this offer and left Kolkata. After the Alipore Bombing, petrified Bapat went under Hiding in Banaras. The Ghats of Ganga acknowledged Bapat with the fact the nation’s men and locals were unaware of the oppression and harassment which the company rule had imposed. This shifted his focus from overthrowing the British empire to educating the countrymen.
But life had a diversion! In 1912 he was arrested for the Alipore conspiracy and imprisoned for 3 years. The court freed him as there were no evidences against him. This was the point where his ideology was transforming from rebellion to the Gandhian philosophy. As per Richard Cashman, Bapat had become a " seasoned revolutionary" by then. He clung to Bal Gangadhar Tilak for strengthening the locals of Puna, and orient people fanatically for independence. Meanwhile, he himself worked with Gandhi and brought his vision of "Swaraj".
In 1920, he led the strike for humanitarian behavior with the sweepers, by hanging pattis around their necks and chanting bhajans, which succeeded. In 1921, some farmers brought the matter of Mulshi Dam to his notice. Bapat had a view that the Construction of a dam is progress for the nation and of benefit to farmers as it will suffice their water needs, but realizing that this progress is at the cost of local peasants land he decided to rebel against it.
As per ecologist Madhav Gadgil and historian Ramachandra Guha, “ The ensuring opposition to the damn was led by a young congressman, Senapati Bapat. Bapat and his followers succeeded in halting the construction of the dam for a year. The Bombay government then promulgated an ordinance whereby the Tatas could acquire land on payment of compensation. Now the resistance to the dam was split into two factions. Whereas the Brahman landlords of Pune, who owned much of the land in the Mulshi valley, were eager to accept compensations, the tenants and their leader, Senapati Bapat, were totally opposed to the dam project”
Bapat could not save the lands but very soon he realized that swaraj won't come this way. It’s after this Mulshi movement that he was entitled "Senapati". Following this movement, he coined the term, "Shuddha Satyagrah" which implied, the use of violence only when the desired goal proves to be of supreme significance as compared with the value of non-violence in itself.
Senapati was imprisoned for 7 years for arousing disturbance in form of the Mulshi movement.
After his release, he was elected as the director of Maharashtra Congress on 28 June 1931. Within 5 months, he was captured again and confiscated for 6 more years. Another seizure by the police, when Senapati spoke at a public gathering held by Netaji.
Senapati Bapat was jailed frequently until India got Independence. On 15 August 1947, Bapat received the honor to let the tricolor flutter over Pune for the first time
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The real ode will be when we give them what they struggled for. Let’s not take this freedom for granted..!
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