Chapekar brothers: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Indian revolutionaries responsible for the 1897 murder of British officials in Pune}}

[[File:Chaphekar Brother's.jpg|thumb|Statue of the Chapekar brothers at Chinchwad, Pune]]

[[File:Damodar Hari Chapekar 2018 stamp of India.jpg|thumb|Damodar Hari Chapekar on a 2018 stamp of India]]

 

The '''Chapekar Brothers''', '''Damodar Hari Chapekar''' (25 June 1869 – 18 April 1898), '''Balkrishna Hari Chapekar''' (1873 – 12 May 1899, also called Bapurao) and '''Vasudeo Hari Chapekar''' (1880 – 8 May 1899), also spelt Wasudeva or Wasudev, were Indian revolutionaries involved in assassinating W. C. Rand, the British Plague Commissioner of [[Pune]], after the public of Pune was frustrated with the vandalism from the officers and soldiers appointed by him, in late 19th century. Mahadev Vinayak Ranade was also an accomplice in the assassination.

 

The brothers initially belonged to Chapa, a small [[hamlet (place)|hamlet]] named [[Chinchwad]] in the city of [[Pune]], India. When the [[Third plague pandemic|bubonic plague]] hit India in 1896-97, the government had setup a Special Plague Committee for managing the pandemic, whose commissioner was [[Walter Charles Rand]], an [[Indian Civil Services]] officer. [[Troops]] were brought in to deal with the emergency. Despite orders from the government to pay heed to religious sentiments, Rand appointed over 800 officers and soldiers - the measures employed included entry into private houses, stripping and examination of occupants (including women) by British officers in public, evacuation to hospitals and segregation camps and preventing movement from the city. Some of these officers also vandalized properties and religious symbols. These measures were considered oppressive by the populace of Pune and complaints were ignored by Rand. Thus, to put an end to the injustice borne by the people of Pune, the Chapekar brothers shot Rand, and his military escort Lieutenant Ayerst, on 22 June 1897.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Chapekar Brothers Case - Rise of the Revolutionaries (UPSC Modern History)|url=https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/this-day-in-history-jun22/|access-date=2021-06-13|website=BYJUS|language=en-US}}</ref>

 

Pune, was a very important military base with a large [[cantonment]] during the British colonial rule. The cantonment had a significant European population of soldiers, officers, and their families. A number of public health initiatives were undertaken during this period ostensibly to protect the Indian population, but mainly to keep Europeans safe from the periodic epidemics of diseases like [[Cholera]], [[bubonic plague]], [[small pox]], etc. The action took form in vaccinating the population and better sanitary arrangements.<ref name="Pune">{{cite book|last1=Arnold|first1=David|title=Science, technology and medicine in Colonial India|date=2002|publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press|location=Cambridge [u.a.]|isbn=9780521563192|pages=142–146|edition=Repr.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7bAxnPwOMd8C&q=Science,+Technology+and+Medicine+in+Colonial+India+By+David+Arnold&pg=PR6}}</ref> Given the vast cultural differences, and at times the arrogance of colonial officers, these health  measures often led to public anger. However, the heavy handedness particularly bad in 1897, during the bubonic plague epidemic in the city. By the end of February 1897, the epidemic was raging with a mortality rate twice the norm (657 deaths or 0.6% of the city population), and half the city's population had fled. A Special Plague Committee was formed under the chairmanship of W.C. Rand, an [[Indian Civil Services]] officer. He brought European troops to deal with the emergency. The heavy handed measures he employed included forcibly entering peoples' homes, at times in the middle of the night and removing infected people and digging up floors, where it was believed in those days, the plague [[Yersinia pestis|bacillus bacteria]] resided. It was also required of the principal occupant of a house or a building to report all deaths and all illnesses suspected to be plague. Funerals were declared unlawful until the deaths were registered. The Committee had the right to mark special grounds for giving funeral to corpses suspected to have succumbed from plague, and prohibit use of any other place for the purpose. Disobedience of the orders would subject the offender to criminal prosecution. The work of the committee began on 13 March and ended on 19 May. The total estimated plague mortality was 2091.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Arnold|first1=edited by David|title=Imperial medicine and indigenous societies|date=1988|publisher=Manchester University Press|location=Manchester|isbn=978-0719024955|page=153|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Xi7AAAAIAAJ&q=poona+%22indigenous+civil+society+colonial+&pg=PR6}}</ref> These measures were deeply unpopular.Nationalist leader [[Bal Gangadhar Tilak]] fulminated against the measures in his newspapers, [[Kesari (newspaper)|Kesari]] and Maratha.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ramanna|first1=Mridula|title=Health care in Bombay Presidency, 1896–1930|date=2012|publisher=Primus Books|location=Delhi|isbn=9789380607245|pages=19–21|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mm14U_6JVwoC&q=mridula+ramanna&pg=PR7}}</ref> The resentment culminated in Rand and his military escort being shot dead by the Chapekar brothers on 22 June 1897.The assassination led to a re-evaluation of public health policies.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Harrison|first1=Mark|title=Public health in British India: Anglo-Indian preventive medicine 1859–1914|date=1994|publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press|location=Cambridge [u.a.]|isbn=978-0521441278|page=148|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PShpbwti_3EC&q=poona+sanitation+colonial+british&pg=PR8}}</ref> This led even Tilak to support the vaccination efforts later in 1906.

[[File:Mahadev Vinayak Ranade.jpg|thumb|Mahadev Vinayak Ranade]] On 22 June 1897, the Diamond Jubilee of the coronation of [[Queen Victoria]] was celebrated in Pune. In his autobiography Damodar Hari writes that he believed the jubilee celebrations would cause Europeans of all ranks to go to the Government House, and give them the opportunity to kill Rand. The brothers Damodar Hari and Balkrishna Hari selected a spot of Ganeshkhind road, by side of a yellow bungalow to shoot at Rand. Each armed with a sword and a pistol. Balkrishna in addition carried a hatchet. They reached Ganeshkhind, they saw what looked like Rand's carriage pass by, but they let it go, not being sure, deciding to attack him on his way back. They reached Government House at 7.00 – 7.30 in the evening, the sun had set and darkness began to set in. A large number of people had gathered to witness the spectacle at the Government House. There were bonfires on the hills. The swords and the hatchets they carried made movement without raising suspicion difficult, so they cached them under a stone culvert near the bungalow. As planned, Damodar Hari waited at the gate of the Government House, and as Rand's carriage emerged, ran 10 – 15 paces behind it. As the carriage reached the yellow bungalow, Damodar made up the distance, and called out "Gondya ala re", a predetermined signal for Balkrishna to take action. Damodar Hari undid the flap of the carriage, raised it and fired from a distance of about a span. It was originally planned that both would shoot at Rand, so as to ensure that Rand would not live, however Balkrishna Hari lagged behind and Rand's carriage rolled on, Balkrishna Hari meanwhile on the suspicion that the occupants of the following carriage were whispering to each other, fired at the head of one of them from behind.<ref name = "Autobiography"/> Lieutenant Ayerst, Rand's military escort<ref name = "Plagueport"/> who was riding in the following carriage died on the spot, Rand was taken to Sassoon Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries 3 July 1897.