Oral history transcript 62

Sharma : Who were the others with you?

Chavan :  Well, K. D. Patil, Chandru Patil and Shantaram Inamdar were with me. So according to our plan. we stayed for one day more. Normally, from Bombay to poon we used to go by train and from Poona to Karad by bus. But this time, I made it reverse. I went by bus I get down at an earlier station before Karad and walked down to the village. I stayed there with a friend of mine for a day and asked him to get workers. I started working. I told them that this time we were not going to jail. We would have to be careful and plan some action. And this was how the whole thing started. We started meeting in different groups and an organisation developed.

Sharma : Were you incogni to during this Period?

Chavan :  Well, I do not think in the early stages I was incognito, but I was not going openly on the roads of villages and town. But not that I had changed my dress or anything. I was keeping my movements rather secret, but at the same time was calling meetings of workers. There was a little freedom for the first fifteen days. The people were more enthusiastic and the police was not that alert. So we started working on an organisation and decided our next step. Kisan Veer was one of our very important leaders. I wanted to get in touch with him, So I went to his village which was about fifity miles away from my hometown.  I just sent word that we should have a meeting. So our people in the village gathered, about our new programme. I gave my impressions of the A.I.C.C. session and the purpose of the new movement. "Do or die" was our slogan. We were not going to court arrest. We just talked on those lines. Then with the cooperation of spirited volunteers, we started the publication of bulletins. The third important thing that we decided was to organise morchas of people and take them to tahsil cutcherrys.  The idea was to demonstrate and capture the citadels of power. Then with some of the taluka leaders, we organised these morchas. This was the first organised attempt of people's resistance.

यशवंतराव चव्हाण सेंटर

जन.जगन्नाथराव भोसले मार्ग,
नरिमन पॉईंट, मुंबई – ४०००२१

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