A peepal tree and banyan tree grow closely interlocked, along to the banks of Varuna river near Rajghat. The spot marks the place where ashes of Achyut Patwardhan were placed on his death on 5th August 1992. The trees are stately and striking, but you will know the spot only if it is pointed out to you. The place is unmarked, perhaps how he would have wanted it to be. A school nearby set up nearly sixty years ago carries his name — Achyut Patwardhan School. Children of 6 to 14 years, from the neighbouring villages of Sarai Mohana, Kotwa, Kapildhara and Rajapur come to this school. This is a school where children learn about themselves and the world around them, from nature as well as from each other and from life, apart from what the academic curriculum mandates.
Influences in the early years
Achyut Patwardhan was born on 5th February 1905 in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, the second of six sons of a wealthy legal practitioner. He was adopted at the age of four and upon the death of his adoptive father was bequeathed considerable property. His own and adoptive parents were Theosophists, which is probably why after completion of school, he was sent to Central Hindu College in Benaras, set up by Annie Besant. He studied Bachelors and Masters in Economics, and soon after joined the faculty in the same college to teach economics.
He was close to Krishnamurti (who people called Krishnaji with respect) from his young years, and it is said that he made a promise to his uncle, when the latter was on his deathbed, that he would never desert Krishnamurti, nor get married (his uncle was influenced by Malthus’ population theory), nor work for a living.
In 1929 Krishnaji withdrew from the Theosophical Society. Years later, Achyutji recalled a conversation he had with Krishnaji during that time, as recorded in P.Krishna’s book ‘A jewel on a silver platter: Remembering Jiddu Krishnamurti’ — “I went up to him and said “Sir, you have written this book ‘Life in Freedom’ and you say there is no authority but I feel a little confused.” He said, “Where is the confusion?” I said “Sir, when you utter the word ‘freedom’ it has the connotation of open skies and I am not quite able to grasp what is beyond the words.” He advised me to do what I wanted fearlessly and that is how I left and found myself in the vortex of a political movement.”” This decision marked a turning point in his life. He travelled abroad several times during this period to expand his understanding of society and politics.
A journey in politics
Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and drawn by the Civil Disobedience movement in 1930, Achyutji plunged into politics alongside his brother Purushottam, widely known as Rao Sahib. He was arrested several times over the next decade. The rise of socialism in European Countries and Russia influenced many young people in politics. Bonding over common ideologies, and wanting a more radical and egalitarian Congress, Achyutji, along with Jai Prakash Narain, Asoka Mehta, Acharya Narendra Dev, Ram Manohar Lohia, Yusuf Meherally (who coined the slogans ‘Quit India’ and ‘Simon go back’) Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Aruna Asaf Ali, Sampurnanand and others founded the Congress Socialist Party in 1934. Many of them had spent time together in Nasik jail where they discussed their views in length. They hoped to influence the older traditional leadership of India to veer towards socialist ideals, including strengthening organisations of peasants and workers, nationalisation of industries, abolition of zamindari and consolidation of land holdings, food and free education for those who could not afford, minimum wages and fixed working hours, maternity benefits for women, support to the old, etc. Achyutji espoused Gandhian Socialism, or democratic socialism, with decentralisation and non-violent revolution as cornerstones. This was contrasted with others who followed Marxist Socialism. Over the years, from 1935 to 1941 Achyutji and his friends organised Shibirs (education camps for the youth), to teach socialism and to prepare them for social activities.
Gandhi proclaimed ‘Do or die’ launching the Quit India Movement in 1942. Most senior leaders were arrested, and the Congress Socialist Party took on the leadership, setting up a Central Directorate in Bombay and a parallel guerrilla organization known as Azad Dasta, with branches all across India. Between 1945–46 Achyutji went underground, and supported the functioning of a parallel government led by Krantisinha Nana Patil across twenty parts of Satara District (present Satara and Sangali districts). Similar parallel governments were attempted in Balia in UP and Midnapore in West Bengal. Nearly 500 villages were declared “free” from the British Empire, and government machinery was completely broken down. The parallel government or “Prati-Sarkar” lasted for almost forty-four months. It was called ‘Patri Sarkar’ by some people, ‘patri’ being punishments meted out to dacoits, traitors and people who dared to obstruct the parallel government.
Justice courts were organised to address cases of loans, aggression and rapes, giving justice to poor farmers, farm labours and women of all castes. It gained the support of the people for the strong punishments meted out to offenders, for attempts of rape, charging excessive interest rates, excessive use of power by zamindars over poor farmers, etc. It also set up village libraries, enforced prohibition and conducted ‘Gandhi marriages’ to which the scheduled castes were invited.
Achyutji is said to have served the activists in this movement by washing their clothes and cooking their food. Together with Ram Manohar Lohia, Minoo Masani and others Achyutji ran the underground Azad Hind radio which regularly broadcast news from Bombay and could be heard as far as Chennai, and also published an underground journal Ninth August. He evaded arrest by taking refuge in a hospital, disguising himself as a miserable clerk, growing a beard, and wearing a fez. During this time Achyutji earned the sobriquet of “Lion of Satara”. After May 1946, when activists of the parallel government became visible before the public, he took part in public meetings with them.
Distancing from active politics
From 1934, annual Sessions of the Congress Socialist Party had been held, but Achyutji and his co-workers were not able to make much headway to promote socialism from within the Congress. With Independence, cracks began to emerge in the united front that fought the British, and there was open display of seeking power and position, giving stimulus to the formation of groups within the Congress.
As Pupul Jayakar writes in her book ‘Krishnamurti — a biography’ “Achyut was not emotional; in him the mind dominated action. He was a leader of men, a fighter; and for long periods of his life ends determined means. But his incapacity to wear masks or to disguise his emotions inhibited him. He had a violent temper and could seldom brook being thwarted.”
Disillusioned, in 1947 Achyutji and his comrades formed the Socialist Party of India, independent of the Congress. With the developments within the country and outside, he was already feeling a distance from active politics. The bombing of Hiroshima Nagasaki and the bloodshed following partition shook him, and made him realise how politics may not be the vehicle to solve problems of humankind.
Jayakar writes — “Achyut expressed his conflicts, and Krishnamurti took Achyut for a walk. Pointing to a tree, he turned to Achyut and said, “Look at that tree — the leaf that was tender green has turned yellow. The leaf has nothing to do with it. It is born, dries and falls. Any decision to stay in politics or to leave, any decision taken by choice is wrong. Things happen in their own course. Stop fretting.””
In early 1949 Achyutji returned to Delhi to edit a Socialist weekly, but deep changes were taking place within him, which were to lead to his final break with the Socialist Party and politics. In 1950, Achyutji retired from politics and worked again as Professor in the Central Hindu College till 1966.
During this period, he also devoted himself to setting up the Rajghat Rural Centre in Varanasi. In the early 60s the Achyut Patwardhan School was set up in the erstwhile Agricultural College. This perhaps is the only place where he voluntarily allowed his name to be etched with an institution.
Jayakar observes “Reared in an atmosphere that threw up vast challenges and demanded equally vast responses, Rao Sahib and Achyut never admitted to any personal sorrow, frustration, or despair. To them the personal was narrow and trivial. The canvas of their concern had to include great abstractions — man, the masses, the poor. Their sorrow had meaning only when related to the immense sorrow of man. Many years later Achyut was to tell me, “That was the great illusion”.” Prof. P.Krishna notes in his book ‘A jewel on a silver platter — Remembering Jiddu Krishnamurti’ from his interactions with Achyutji, “In his later years he argued that socialism cannot be concerned merely with man’s economic needs but must create an equality of spirit”.
Achyutji wrote prolifically, over one hundred books and pamphlets on socialism and philosophy. The book ‘Ideologies and the perspective of social change in India’ written in 1971 is widely read even today. He chose to live outside public life, in close association with Krishnaji and the work of the Foundation. Achyutji was also involved in social work with marginalised tribal communities in Maharashtra and the setting up a new education institution, Sahyadri School, near Pune under the aegis of the Krishnamurti Foundation of India. He says about the schools set up by the Krishnamurti Foundation to Prof.P.Krishna “It is possible that a historical process, that is a regeneration of India may be furthered — not by a chauvinistic effort to put in new workers, this, that and the other; but you are putting into motion a certain way of life and it is possible with boys, and even more than boys the girls, may be able to get hold of it. And he said that the peasant who sows the seed in the soil must not pull it out to see if it is sprouting. So beware of this heresy. The teacher should never want to see the fruits of what he is doing. So what one does for man is an act of faith and this act of faith is faith not in this person, but faith in man.”
That he continued to be alive to contemporary issues and had clear views on them comes through in a letter he wrote in 1988 to his nephew Anand Patwardhan, a renowned film maker, about the Sardar Sarovar Dam across the Narmada river:
“The misery created to thousands of peaceful small agriculturists and landless people by these dams is a forgotten tale of woe.
However, at Sardar Sarovar now there are tens of thousand adivasis who run from pillar to post to find the land allotted to them by Govt. on fictitious plots. The plots just do not exist anywhere! They are to be absorbed like waste-water in the flood of new immigrants to already over-crowded towns — adivasis are most ill-equipped to achieve the adjustments necessary for survival and more. The damage to forests and wild life and ecological diversity is incalculable.”
He died during a visit to Varanasi on August 5, 1992. His ashes were placed along the Varuna river, where now a peepal and banyan tree grow together.
