Road To Freedom

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• For God and Country
• The Empire Builders
• Tribal Uprisings
• Sepoys on the Move
• British Authority Collapses
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Roll of Honour
• The Trial of the Last Emperor
• English Education
• The Blue Mutiny
• Perishing in Peace
• ‘Rani Ka Hookum’
• Barbarous Britannia
• Return to Swadeshi
• The Delhi Durbar
• Hunger Deaths
• The One-Man Army
• Mamool Raj
• The British Raj in Black and White
• Europeans Take To The Street!
• Pressing On !
• The Battle For A Free Press
• The Battle Lines are Drawn
• Women : Crossing the Threshold
• An Old Man's Dream
• Father of Indian Unrest
• The Monk Who Shook The Nation
• The Battle is Taken to the Legislature!
• Partition of Bengal
• The Great Divide
• The New Spirit of India
• Swadeshi Enterprise
• From Swadeshi to Swaraj
• Gandhi in South Africa
• Heroes and Martyrs
• Revolutionaries Outside India
• Carrot and Stick
• Gandhi in Champaran
• The Gentle Satyagrahi
• Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh
• Jallianwala — The Aftermath
• A People Reject Their Rulers
• The Himalayan Blunder
• Gandhiji Withdraws from Political Activities
• Bardoli
• Saga of Indian Revolutionaries
• A Pinch of Salt!
• Gandhi and Ambedkar
• Leave India to God… or to Anarchy
• Quit India
• The Last War of Independence
• Apostle of Peace
• India Wins Freedom
• The Light Has Gone Out
• Under One Flag

The One-Man Army

The One-Man Army

The post-1857 period of our struggle for freedom was marked by an absence of large-scale organised armed revolts which were so frequent upto 1857. Where had the brave Marathas, the invincible Rajputs, the fearless Sikhs and the hot-headed Pathans gone? R.C. Majumdar observes that "the ruthless suppression of the Mutiny caused terror, and generated a belief in the invincibility of the British power. The conviction that armed resistance against it was futile... explains the gradual subsidence of armed resistance against authority." It is in this background that one should assess the life of Vasudev Balwant Phadke who waged war against the Queen almost single-handedly and ushered in 'militant nationalism' in India. Phadke had enough knowledge of English to become a clerk in the Military Accounts department in Pune where he served for over 15 years. He used to attend lectures by Govind Ranade who was against the economic policies pursued by the government, claiming that they had impoverished the people. The devastation caused in western India by the famines of 1876-77 made a deep impression on Phadke who was convinced that foreign rule was to blame for India's agony. "Thinking of thousands of things like this," writes Phadke in his diary, "my mind turned against the English, and I wished to ruin them. From morning to night, bathing, eating, sleeping, I was brooding over this...until I was as one mad." Phadke learnt to shoot, to ride and to fence. He started collecting arms —guns, swords, pattas or long swords and spears. He found to his dismay that educated young men were eager to talk about liberty and equality but unwilling to fight for their ideals. He got a more positive response to his call for action from uneducated peasants and from backward communities like the Ramoshis. He wanted to build an army but lacked the funds. Deciding that the end justified the means, he and his men broke into a number of shops in the village of Dhamari and collected about four hundred rupees. The police branded him a dacoit and began a relentless hunt for him. Phadke fled from village to village and was sheltered by sympathisers and well-wishers from both the landed class and the peasantry.

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At the village of Nanagaum, Phadke told a gathering of villagers: "...we are small, and in the same way as parents take care of their children when cough, fever or sickness come, if you will take care of us, the English having been destroyed by our hands, you will have comfort but if you will not rear and take care of us out of fear of the Englishmen, one day they will even dig up your children."
The villagers were impressed with the quiet determination of the man and said: "Come here whenever you will, you may remain in these forests without fear."
Phadke, however, was soon disenchanted with the men he had gathered round him. They were interested only in the loot and did not share his patriotic zeal. Disgusted with their conduct, Phadke left them and headed for the Shri Shaila Mallikarjun shrine in the south. Overcome by a sense of failure Phadke even thought of ending his life. In his diary he wrote: "I have only seven days to live, so I think. Therefore I bow before the feet of all you my brethren, inhabitants of India, and give up my life for you and will remain pleading for you in the just court of God...I pray to God that he may take my life as a sacrifice for your welfare, and of you all I take farewell."
However, a priest at the shrine nursed him back to health. With a new- found vigour Phadke set out to raise an army and recruited 900 men including 500 Rohillas. But before he could put his plans into action, Major Daniel was on to his trail and Phadke had to flee. He was pursued day and night by Major Daniel and Abdul Haque, Police Commissioner to the Nizam of Hyderabad. At last they found him exhausted and asleep in a temple in a village. Phadke was charged under sections 121A, 122 and 124A for waging war against the Queen and for exciting feelings of disaffection against the Government. He was sentenced to transportation for life. He was fettered and placed in solitary confinement in Aden jail. He managed to escape one night by pulling a door off its hinges and taking off his fetters with a hinge. However, he was recaptured the next day.
What surprised the government was the overwhelming sympathy people had for Phadke. On his arrest Deccan Star wrote: "In the eyes of his countrymen, Vasudev Balwant Phadke did not commit any wrong."
The saga of Phadke was sung in distant Bengal years later. His life and his sufferings fired the imagination of the young revolutionaries there and they took up where he left off.