Chapekar brothers

The Chapekar brothers also spelt Caphekar or Chaphekar (Devnagari), Damodar Hari, Balkrishna Hari also called Bapurao and Vasudeo Hari (also spelt Wasudeva or Wasudev) belonged to Chinchwad, then a village, near the former Peshwa capital Pune, in the state of Maharashtra, India.
In late 1896, Pune was hit by bubonic plague, by the end of February 1897, the epidemic was raging, the mortality twice the normal, with half the city population having left it.
A Special Plague Committee was formed, under the chairmanship of W. C. Rand, an Indian Civil Services officer and troops brought in to deal with the emergency. By the end of May the epidemic was under control.
On 22 June 1897, the Diamond Jubilee of the coronation of Queen Victoria, Rand, the Special Plague Committee chairman and his military escort Lt. Ayerst were shot at, while returning from the celebrations at Government House. Both died, Ayerst on the spot and Rand of his wounds on 3 July, 1897. The Chapekar brothers and two accomplices were charged with this murder in various roles, and also the shooting of two informants and an attempt to shoot a police officer. All the three brothers were found guilty and hanged, an accomplice was dealt with similarly, another a school boy was sentenced to ten years rigourous imprisonment.
This action of the Chapekars has been considered as the worst violence against political authority seen anywhere in the world during the third plague pandemic.[1]

Family history

Damodar Hari, Balkrishna Hari and Vasudeo Hari belonged to Chinchwad[2], then a village[3] near the former Peshwa capital Pune, in the state of Maharashtra, India. Damodar Hari the eldest, was born in the year 1868 CE[nb 1] The name of their grandfather was Vinayak and their mother and father was Dwarka and Hari, respectively. The brothers’ grandfather was at the head of the family which consisted of about twenty members, including the brother’s parents, six uncles, two aunts, and two grandmothers. The family was rich at the time of Damodar Hari’s birth, earlier, even having had a turnover of lakhs of rupees. With passage of time, mainly on account of Vinayak Chapekar’s independent spirit and ways which made him incapable of submitting himself to government service, and his many unsuccessful business ventures, the family gradually sunk into poverty. At one time when Damodar Hari was a young boy, the family consisting of a party of twenty five travellers went on a pilgrimage to Kashi, with two servants and three carts. Damodar Hari remembers the death of his elder sister at Gwalior. Damodar Hari recalls that there was an opinion that the poverty of the family was a result of this pilgrimage, he refutes it, and is thankful to his grandfather for the opportunity he had of drinking the waters of the Ganga, bathing in it, giving alms and touching the feet of Kashivishveshwara.[3]
The brothers’ father Hari Vinayak, was sent to Poona High School up to 6th standard, after which a Shastri was deputed to teach him Sanskrit at home so as to prepare him in the profession of a kirtankar, Hari Vinayak’s brothers were taught to play musical instruments so that they could accompany him during his performance. The taking up of the profession of a kirtankar by Hari Vinayak was not liked by his caste men and the friends of the family considering the status and antiquity of the family. Vinayak Hari’s brothers too looked down on the profession and left it , leaving the house, going their own ways. Even Vinayak Chapekar left the house for the then Maratha capitals of Indore and Dhar, he worked there as a writer, he had an excellent Balbodh and Modi hand. He subsequently stopped speaking any language but Sanskrit, became careless in dress, stopped intercourse with others as far as possible, and started to beg on the streets. Other members of the family faced poverty too, and were forced to feed themselves at charity kitchens. Vinayak Chapekar died and was cremated on the banks of Kshipra, sixteen miles from Indore. Hari Vinayak and his family was at Nagpur then but could not attend the funeral, as they were too poor to pay for the journey. Vinayak Chapekar’s wife too was alone when she died, Hari Vinayak’s poverty prevented him form being with his parents when they died. Hari Vinayak’s brothers too went their own ways, only one brother staying back in their ancestral home.[3]

Growing up with their kirtankar father

Vinayak Hari was left to fend for his family on his own, he did not have the means to hire professional musicians to accompany him during his kirtan, so he trained his children to do so. The father and children became proficient in their art and were admired for their work. The Chapekar brothers received little formal education, but the “company of good people, hearing of kirtans, travelling, witnessing darbars of great princes and seeing assemblies of eminent scholars” was a source of knowledge far more enriching than a few examinations passed in school, writes Damodar Hari in his autobiography.[3] Hari Vinayak, father of the Chapekar brothers is credited to have authored Satyanarayanakatha, of the Skandapurana, a Sanskrit text with translations. [4]

The Plague in Pune

Plague struck Pune in late 1896, and by January 1897, it reached epidemic proportions. Colonial government sources report that, when the Governor of the presidency inspected the city on 8th February 1897, he was told that the people would rather have plague than go to a government hospital. In 26 days of February, 657 deaths (0.6 % of the city’s population) were attributed to plague, and half of the population had deserted the city. In order to suppress the epidemic and prevent its spread, it was decided to take drastic action, accordingly a Special Plague Committee, with jurisdiction over Pune city, its suburbs and Pune cantonment was appointed under the Chairmanship of W. C. Rand, I. C. S, by way of a government order dated 8 March 1897. The governor’s direction included that no Muslim and high caste Hindu women be examined and no quarters entered except by a woman, that the people should be impressed upon that the measures taken were for their own good. Orders included respect of caste and religious practices of the people. On 12 March 1897, 893 officers and men both British and native, under command of a Major Paget of the Durham Light Infantry were placed on plague duty. The measures employed included forced entry into private houses, examination of occupants, evacuation to hospitals and segregation camps, removing and destroying personal possessions, and preventing plague cases from entering or leaving the city. It was 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 given 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 March 13 and ended on May 19. The total estimated plague mortality was 2091. In his report on the administration of the Poona plague, Rand wrote, “It is a matter of great satisfaction to the members of the Plague Committee that no credible complaint that the modesty of a woman had been intentionally insulted was made either to themselves or to the officers under whom the troops worked”. He also writes that closest watch was kept on the troops employed on plague duty and utmost consideration was shown for the customs and traditions of the people.[5][6] A missionary, Rev. Robert P. Wilder is quoted by The New York Times in an article published coincidentally on 22 June 1897, that the cause of plague is native practices like going bare-foot, the distrust of the natives about the government segregation camps, they have shut up houses with corpses inside, search parties have been going around to unearth them. It reports to rumours that the plague has been caused by grain hoarded for twenty years by the banias or grocers, being sold in the market, others feel that it is Queen Victoria’s curse for the daubing of her statue with tar.[7] A Maharashtra government agency published school textbook describes the Pune plague as follows, In 1897, there was an epidemic of plague in Poona. In order to control the epidemic, an officer named Mr. Rand was appointed. He used tyrannical methods and harassed the people.[8] An account based on local Indian sources writes that the appointment of military officers introduced an element of severity and coercion in the house searches, the highhandedness of the government provoked the people of Poona and some soldiers were beaten in Rasta Peth locality. It quotes Kelkar[nb 2] on the conduct of British soldiers, “Either, through ignorance or impudence, they would mock, indulge in monkey tricks, talk foolishly, intimidate, touch innocent people, shove them, enter any place without justification, pocket valuable items, etc..”[10] Tilak wrote “Her Majesty the Queen, the Secretary of State and his Council, should not have issued the orders for practising tyranny upon the people of India without any special advantage to be gained. …[T]he government should not have entrusted the exeution of this order to a suspicious, sullen and tyrannical officer like Rand.[1] Gokhale alleged while on a visit to Britain, that British soldiers “let loose on the town” of Pune were ignorant of Indians’ language, customs, and sentiments and his informants reliably reported the rape of two women, one of whom committed suicide rather than live with shame. When he was unable to document his allegations he chose to retract them and offered an unconditional apology.[1]

The shooting of Rand

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 deposited them under a stone culvert near the bungalow, so as to retrieve it in case of need. 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”, 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 occupant’s of the following carriage were whispering to each other, fired at the head of one of them from behind.[3] Lieutenant Ayerst, Rand’s military escort[1] who was riding in the following carriage died on the spot, Rand was taken to Sassoon Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries 3 June, 1897.
Damoder Hari was arrested in connection with the above, on the basis of information given by the Dravid brothers. In his statement, recorded on 8 October 1897, Damodar Hari, said that atrocities like the pollution of sacred places and the breaking of idols were committed by European soldiers at the time of house searches in Pune, during the plague. Chapekar tells that they wanted to take revenge of this. His statement was treated as a confession and he was charged under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, tried and hanged, on 18 April 1898. Balkrishna Hari absconded, and could be found only in January 1899, betrayed by a friend. Police informants: the Dravid brothers, were eliminated by Vasudeo Hari, Mahadev Vinayak Ranade and Khando Vishnu Sathe, who were arrested in their attempt to shoot police chief constable Rama Pandu later the same evening, of 9 February 1899. All were subsequently apprehended and tried. There the Chaphekar brothers Balkrishna Hari, Vasudeo Hari, and Ranade were sentenced to death and executed by hanging, Vasudev Hari: 8 May 1899, Mahadeva Vinayak Ranade: 10 May 1899, Balkrishna Hari :12 May 1899. Sathe though a juvenile was sentenced to 10 years Rigourous Imprisonment.[11]