Contribution of veer bhai kotwal in raigad, matheran ?? leader of matheran and his life.....
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Vithal Laxman Kotwal (alias Bhai) वीर भाई कोतवाल was a social reformer and revolutionary from Neral, Maharashtra, India. He laid down his life in the freedom struggle of the country. He was killed in an encounter with the British police officer DSP R. Hall while he was underground with his team in the jungle of Sidhagadh on 2 January 1943.
As soon as Vithal Kotwal returned to Matheran he got into socio political activities defying his father’s wish to carry on their family tradition. He began helping people when cyclone hit entire western Mumbai shore and fisherman community got displaced. Later in coordination with the local congress leader Rajaram alias Bhausaheb Raut, he got involved in politics and social work. He helped creating and enrolling common people in the voters’ list in the Matheran area. When he came across to see that landlords cheat peasants due to their ignorance he stated voluntary school for the children of these farmers. He altogether started 42 such schools in the area. Later, when landlords denied food grain to the farmers at the time of drought, Vithal Kotwal came up with the innovative idea of grain bank for the farmers. With the financial support of Mr. Raut, a few thousand kilos of grain were imported and distributed amongst the farmers. Whoever took a grain loan had to replace it with twenty-five percent extra; whereas the landlords used to charge them double the loan. Later when he became an advocate he served the poor peasants and downtrodden to fight for their right against the landlords who exploited them. In 1940 he organized a peasants and workers congregation in Karjat where prominent political activists of the time Achyutrao Patwardhan, S. M. Joshi, Lalji Pendse attended.
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Veer Bhai Kotwal
INTRODUCTION
Vithal Laxman Kotwal (Alias Bhai) was a social reformer and revolutionary from Neral, Maharashtra, India. He laid down his life in the freedom struggle of the country. He was killed in an encounter with the British police officer DSP R. Hall while he was underground with his team in the jungle of Sidhagadh on 2 January 1943.
EARLY LIFE
Vithal Kotwal was born on 1 December 1912 in Matheran, a hill station near Mumbai, in the district Raigad. Vitthal Laxman Bhai Kotwal, the son of Bhumiputra of Matheran, is one such revolutionary. He belonged to the poor barber family. He stayed there till the fourth grade when he studied in the local school and returned only after he graduated from Pune in 1936. He was the eldest and had three sisters.
EDUCATION
After studying till fourth grade in the local school, he shifted to Pune to her aunt Gaurutai Halde, where he stayed till he completed his graduation from Wadia college. He graduated in 1936. He stood first in the entire Pune district in his Vernacular Metric exam. After he returned to his native place, he studied law in Mumbai and passed in the bar examination and became advocate in 1941.
FAMILY
Vithal Kotwal was married to Indu Tirlapurkar from Pune in 1935. He had a boy named Bharat who died at the age of 22. His daughter Jagruti died within two months when Mr. Kotwal was underground in 1942. His wife Indu Kotwal died in 2012 at the age of 91.
SOCIAL WORK
He began helping people when cyclone hit entire western Mumbai shore and fisherman community got displaced.When he came across to see that landlords cheat peasants due to their ignorance he stated voluntary school for the children of these farmers. He altogether started 42 such schools in the area. Later, when landlords denied food grain to the farmers at the time of drought, Vithal Kotwal came up with the innovative idea of grain bank for the farmers, the brothers fought back. With the financial support of Mr. Raut, a few thousand kilos of grain were imported and distributed amongst the farmers.
POLITICAL CARRER
He started his revolutionary work in Raigad area. Vithal Kotwal successfully fought the election for Matheran city council and Later, along with Bhausaheb Raut, he jumped from socialism to politics and won the Matheran Municipal Council election. In 1941, he became the Vice President of Matheran Municipal Council. With the advent of the Quit India Movement, he got fully involved. Hence he was called "Bhai" as an Indian synonym for comrade.
FREEDOM STRUGGLE
Though motivated for the freedom struggle from his college days in Pune, Vithal became influenced by socio communist movement in the country. Even after that, the revolt against the British did not subside, but became even more violent. He got fully involved and went underground when Mahatma Gandhi on 9 August 1942 asked British to "quit India". Mahatma Gandhi announced his final departure, and the counter-government became more aggressive. After the arrest of all the major leaders in India, an arrest warrant was also issued in the name of Bhai Kotwal. He went underground the same day, vowing to either "live in my free country or in the heaven". He did not stop working. He was vice chairman of Matheran then. Bhai and his associates were considered as gods by the people of Neral, Matheran and Siddhagad areas.
KOTWAL DASTA
While underground he formed group of underground mercenaries called "Kotwal Dasta", a parallel government in the Karjat taluka of Raigad district. They were about 50 in numbers including farmers and voluntary school teachers and his cousin brothers Pentanna and Dattoba Halde. Bhai and his comrades Hiraji Patil, Bhaskar Tambat, Bhagat Master, Yashwant Kshirsagar, Bandopant Kshirsagar, Chandoba Deherkar broke the transmission and power supply wires and started tearing down the towers on the mountain carrying the British to carry the communication system to Kollam.
FINAL ENCOUNTER
Eventually Fituri ambushed him. On January 1, 1943, on a tip-off, Superintendent of Police Hall himself came to Siddhagad with 100 armed policemen of the caste and laid siege to the fort. Hall and the soldiers reached the fort, chasing the cowherd who was going to give milk to the revolutionaries hiding in the fort, and they started firing indiscriminately. On 2 January 1943 early morning when the Azad Dasta was preparing to shift to another safe place and was waiting for the help to come, R. Hall and Stafford attacked the Dasta members. Everyone started running as fast as they could. Bhai and Hiraji Patil were hiding under a big rock and resisting till the end. After an encounter of one and a half to two hours, First to fall was the young Hiraji Patil, son of deputy leader of Azad Dasta Gomaji Patil. Hiraji died on the spot. Hiraji and his brother were martyred. The injured Bhagat Master was martyred on the third day. Bhai Kotwal got injured in the thigh and could not move. Hall killed him point blank.
