"Quit India"

Then came the Quit India Movement of 1942. This is how Chavan explains his part in it: "After Gandhiji's arrest on August 8, 1942, I and some 300 workers from Satara who had gone to Bombay to attend the A.I.C.C. meeting, met together in a place in Bombay and decided that we should not go back the same way we had come. We, therefore, stayed there and saw with our own eyes the angry look of the first days of that politi­cal storm. It inspired us to action. Then there was Gandhiji's command of Do or Die '. Being mostly young we decided to defy the police and remain underground. We met in one of the rooms in Badrikashram in Girgaum and chalked out a plan of action which included organizing big morchas to every Taluka Kacheri the following month on the 9th. But it was to be a somewhat different movement, and all of us decided to parti­cipate in it. Thereafter we went back and arranged the morchas. The police hit back and resorted to severe firing especially at Vaduj where nine persons died. I remember the incident vividly, because one of the men who died had been with me the previous night. He died very bravely with the national flag in his hands. Then there was another firing—equally brutal. After that we decided this was wasting our man-power. We, therefore, resolved to resort to other methods; one of such methods was working underground. Being underground, however, did not mean hiding. We used to move about. The police could not trace us because people would not co-operate with them. Sometimes even police knew where we were but they would report that we were not traceable. Later we decided upon some effective sabotage work. For organizing it we divided ourselves in different groups."

Police Repression

Yeshwantrao himself did not do any actual sabotage work, but he was aware of its nature. As he recalls: “I remember one incident. One day I came to know that a derailment of goods-train was to be carried out. I wanted to see how it was done; hence I went with some people to the spot but nothing happened that night." Apart from that incident Yeshwantrao showed no interest in such work. In fact, he was arrested before the Patri Sarkar Movement took hold of his district—Satara. He, however, braved many dangers and took many risks. Finally, while he was on a secret visit at Phaltan to see his sick wife, Venutai, —a shy, gentle and self-effacing lady whom he had married only a couple of months before—he was discovered by the police and arrested. But before his own arrest his brother Ganpatrao and his newly wedded wife were put in prison to bring pressure on him. A prize of Rs. 1,000 was also announced for his capture, "dead or alive", by the police. His eldest brother Dnyanoba who was a government servant died of the shock. Similarly, to use Yeshwantrao's own words: "My wife received a very severe shock. She did not know any politics. Her father was in Gaikwar's service. Hence, as soon as she was put in prison she became seriously ill. She had, therefore, to be released. I learnt of her condition and when I was near about the place where she was, I decided to see her. I felt a little guilty about the whole thing. One early morning, therefore, I went to see her. But instead of leaving immediately I stayed a little longer with her because doctors had come and she looked bad. But despite all the care that I had taken my presence was betrayed by someone to the police who came and arrested me. That was the end of my underground life. It happened in 1943. Then I was prosecuted and convicted. For two years I remained in jail as a convict. Then by mistake I was released in 1944 ; but after a week I was re­arrested."