Search e-Library

Khaserao, Rao Bahadur K. B. Jadhav : Khāserao Bhagawantrao Jādhav (1864-1924), the second of three brothers – younger than Anandarao & older than Madhavrao who were distant relatives of Sayājirao who sent Khāserao to England in 1884 to earn a degree agriculture. On return he was appointed a district collector. Sayājirao also built for him the mansion in Dandia Bazar which is now a centre of Sri Aurobindo Society. Sri Aurobindo had few intimate friends in Baroda: Deshpande, Lt. Madhavrao Jādhav, who had already become a close friend & Khāserao, whom Madhavrao introduced to him around 1895-96. For a time in 1902 Subā (District Collector) of Baroda, Khāserao served as Sar Subā of Navasāri (c.22km south of Surat & HQ of Navasāri district). “Ghose Aravinda,” says Prof Bhattacharya, “began his career in India as Vice-Principal of Baroda College. There he soon began to take a lively interest in Indian politics by publishing by a series of articles in Indu Prakāsh. His very first article published on 7 August, 1893, showed that he stood for a fundamental change in the attitude of Indians to politics…by holding up before the nation…the need for purification by blood & fire…. In 1902, he sent an agent from Baroda to Bengal to organise secret societies for terroristic activities. He also soon afterwards personally came to Bengal to propagate his ideas through journals like the Bandemataram (sic) & the Karamyogi (sic)…all this propaganda led to several terroristic outrages in Bengal resulting in the prosecution of Aravinda, along with many young Bengalis, in the celebrated Alipore Bomb case.” [S. Bhattacharya: 388] The pathetic Bombs In Bengal spurred British Majesty into action: arresting & ruthlessly punishing every known, suspected or imagined nationalist. To egg it on, Minto’s motorcade in Ahmedabad in November 1909 was ‘attacked’ by a ridiculous coconut ‘bomb-like’ something that led to extensive intensive search & destroy missions. In 1911, one of the scores of targets for Minto’s successor Hardinge was provided by Baroda’s Residency. “The Resident’s principal bogey man, Aurobindo Ghose was,” revealed Sayājirao’s grandson in 1989, “from February 1910, not even an active nationalist. After the historic trial of the Bengal terrorists in which Ghose was one of the accused..., he had fled to Pondicherry & announced that he had given up politics. In the absence of Ghose, the Resident kept pestering the English Dewan to take some sort of punitive action against two men in Baroda service who were known to have been friendly with Ghose while he was there, four years earlier, Khāserao Jādhav & K.G. Deshpande.... Both men held appointments as subās or District Commissioners, Deshpande at Mehsāna & Jādhav at Navasāri. The substance of the allegations against them was that they had not been sufficiently zealous in curbing anti-British activities within their districts.... It had all started two years earlier, when copies of a Gujarati language translation of Aurobindo’s [

] Bengali book, Mukti Kone Pathe, Which Way to Freedom, were discovered in Bombay. In Khāserao’s case the Bombay police accused him of being responsible for hiding in a well in Navasāri, his district, five to six hundred copies of the book which were ‘discovered’ by Bombay police. Worse, when its arrogant inspector burst into Khāserao’s office & informed him of his ‘discovery’, Khāserao had bluntly demanded to see his authority for carrying out such raid in Baroda territory. Hardinge’s office & the British Dewan of Baroda exchanged telegrams on this subject for it was clearly illegal for British police to investigate in Baroda. Finally, though the Bombay Govt. did grudgingly tender an oral apology, Sayājirao transferred Khāserao to a less prestigious post, reduced his pay & administered a written warning. [Fatehsingh Rao, Sayājirao…, 1989] In 1916, Khāserao met Sri Aurobindo at Pondicherry.