1st April, 1889.
In Maharashtra this day is celebrated as ‘Gudi Padwa’ which literally means ‘flag hoisting’. The people hoist flags with the religious emblems on their houses on this occasion. The doors are decorated with festoons, buntings and leaves of religiously ordered sacred trees. Welcome arches are also erected as an expression of happiness and festive moods.
The day is considered very auspicious.
The festival is the celebration of victory of bravery against the evil forces. Such is the legend of ‘Gudi Padwa’. It is believed in sections of Maharashtra that Lord Rama had entered into Ayodhya after defeating and slaying the demon king Ravana on that day. It is the local legend. In rest of the country the people part more faith in Ramayana which records that Rama entered into his capital city, Ayodhya on Deepawali day which falls at the end quarter of the year. But in the regions the local legends prevail.
Another legend hangs by this festival. It is said that king Shalivahana had put life in clay horse mounted soldiers and defeated Shakas, the inhabitants of Shaka island, supposed to be non-Aryan aliens.
The birth
On this auspicious day, a child was born to Pandit Baliram Hedgewar, the resident of Nagpur district of Maharashtra. The mother of new born was Revatibai who was a tradition bound religious woman. The arrival of the child doubled the festive happiness of the Hedgewar family.
The new born was christened ‘Keshavarao’.
Pandit Baliram Pant Hedgewar was a religious scholar. His elder sons Mahadeva and Sitaram had studied Vedas. They did priestly duties for their traditional clients. That was the main source of the income of the family.
The eldest son Mahadeva was a religious scholar in his own right. He also was famous for being a man of physical power, a wrestler. He used to do regular exercise in akhara as all the native Pehalvans do. He would teach the tricks of the wrestlings to the boys of the neighbourhood. Mahadeva was very fanatical about Indian culture and philosophy.
Once he was standing on his second floor balcony watching the scenes below. He saw a homely woman going by. A group of hoodlum types was coming from the opposite direction. The hoodlums appeared to be passing on some remarks about the woman as they kept looking in her direction.
Suddenly to his horror Mahadeva saw that the goons had blocked her path and were about to molest her.
How could Mahadeva tolerate this outrage? Hindu culture ruled that all the women outside the family were to be treated as mothers or sisters.
In raging fury he jumped off the balcony and landed in front of the goons. He pounced on them and thrashed the culprits one by one soundly. Mahadeva kept cursing them all the while as his hands carried on punching and the pounding business. The goons saved their lives by fleeing the scene as soon as possible.
Thus, Mahadeva was a feared character in the neighbourhood and was looked upon as the local moral police. His swaggering daily march towards the akhara for routine exercise served as a warning to the aspiring evil doers.
Young Keshava was rightly proud of his brother and admired him. At that ground level being the junior sibling of Pehalwan Mahadeva was a status symbol that invoked respect.
Years went by and Keshava entered into his post-kid years. The elder brother Mahadeva loved his sibling. Now he was getting more fond of Keshava because he could take his brother along to akhara and put him to exercise routine. Keshava also liked the akhara scene and the wrestling regime of exercises which was a great fun for the beginner.
This close association helped Keshava know his brother better.
He had his own thinking brain which was shaping its own mindset and moral values. In intellect the brothers were at different levels. The elder wrestler brother was boorish and had more brawn than brain. Keshava was relatively more brainy.
Nevertheless Mahadeva did influence the younger brother in many ways. His discipline impressed Keshava who also learnt from him the habit to physically intervene to see the justice done.
There were several teenagers of Keshava’s age in the neighbourhood. Keshava treated them in a friendly manner. But he was severe on the bullying types. Like his brother he would get physical and thrash them mercilessly without any hesitation.
Although Keshava respected his brother greatly yet he never hesitated to oppose him when their principles clashed. It became frequent as Keshava kept growing physically and mentally clearly defining his own values, principles and the lines of thinking.
Once on the day of Holi, Mahadeva said to Keshava, “Kesho, I am expecting some priest friends. We must treat them to bhang to celebrate Holi. Go and prepare it.”
(Bhang is a traditional Indian intoxicant prepared by pounding hashish in stone pestle into fine paste and then mixing it into sweetened milk.)
Preparing bhang was against the principles of Keshavarao. He was against all kinds of intoxicants.
He defiantly said, “Excuse me brother. I won’t prepare the bhang.”
The refusal did not go well with the wrestler brother. For him it amounted to disobedience of a junior.
It angered him.
He severely reprimanded Keshava accusing him of indiscipline. Keshava remained defiant. He stood his ground and refused to prepare the bhang.
Now the angrier wrestler did what he was made for, the physical assault. He beat up Keshava. But the younger brother did not break down.
He still maintained that he would not prepare the bhang. Mahadeva ordered him to leave the house, better for the good.
Keshava did not oblige. He would not go. Mahadeva hit him with a burning piece of wood. Keshava endured it. Even the fire would not burn down his principled stand. He stood up to his brother’s strong arm tactics bravely.
The wrestler failed to down his adamant brother who was defending his principle.
