Person · armed revolutionary
Vasudev Balwant Phadke
Also known as Phadke
Vasudev Balwant Phadke (4 November 1845 - 17 February 1883), called the 'Father of Armed Revolution in India', who led the 1879 Western Maharashtra peasant uprising against the British East India Company. Born at Shirdhon village in Raigad district, Phadke was a Pune government clerk until his mother's death from Company-era famine conditions radicalised him. He raised an army of 300 Ramoshis, Dhangars and Kolis in 1879 and attacked Company treasuries across Pune district. Captured through betrayal in July 1879, he was sentenced to life transportation at Aden; he died in Aden Jail on 17 February 1883. His 1879 campaign is widely considered the earliest post-1857 armed anti-colonial campaign in India.
- Date
- 1845–1883
- Function
- Social reform & movement
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (2)
- CampaignPune/ Poona
Vasudev Balwant Phadke's 1879 Western Maharashtra peasant uprising against the British East India Company was launched from Pune city — the political centre of former Peshwa rule and the base of Phadke's early career as a government clerk. His 1879 Ramoshi-Koli recruitment campaign across Pune district made him the pioneer of post-1857 Deccan armed anti-colonial resistance.
- AnalogueUmaji Naik
Umaji Naik's 1826-1832 Ramoshi uprising and Vasudev Balwant Phadke's 1879 Deccan uprising together frame the two major post-1818 Deccan armed anti-colonial campaigns against the British East India Company. Both were based in the Pune Sahyadri hills, both drew on Ramoshi-Dhangar-Katkari tribal communities, and both leaders were publicly executed at Pune (Umaji Naik hanged at Khadki in 1832; Phadke died at Aden Jail imprisonment in 1883).
Sources
Standard biography; regional historiography.
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