About Chitpavan

Very little is known of the Chitpavan before 1707 A.D Sometime around this time, an individual of the Chitpavan community, Balaji Vishwanth Bhat arrived from Ratnagari to the Pune-Satara area. He was brought there on the basis of his reputation of being an efficient administrator. He quickly gained the attention of Chhatrapati Shahu and his work so pleased the Chhatrapati that he was appointed the Peshwa or Chief Minister in 1713. He ran a well organized administration and by the time of his death in 1720, he had laid the groundwork for the expansion of the Maratha Empire. Since this time until the fall of the Maratha Empire, the seat of the Peshwa would be held by the members of the Chitpavan family. As Peshwa became ecclesiastical head of the state, this was not consequent upon the Peshwa's social position as a Brahman, for the chitpavan sect, to which the Peshwas belonged, was not accounted of much importance by other Brahmanic sects and by some, indeed, was considered ineligible for inclusion in the Brahmanic category. Starting around this time, Chitpavan migrants began arriving en masse from the Konkan to Pune where the Peshwa offered all important offices to the Chitpavan caste.The Chitpavan kin were rewarded with tax relief and grants of land. Historians cite nepotism and corruption as causes of the fall of the Maratha Empire in 1818. According to the author Anand Teltumbde, the Chitpavan Peshwa rule was infamous for its casteist character under which the oppression of the Dalits reached legendary heights.By late 18th century Chitpavans had established complete political and economic dominance in the region. Richard Maxwell Eaton states that this rise of the Chitpavan is a classic example of social rank rising with political fortune.This usurpation of power by the Chitpvan Brahmins caused conflicts with other communities which manifested itself as late as in 1948 in the form of anti-Brahminism after the killing of Mahatama Gandhi by Nathuram Godse, a Chitpavan.

Role in the Indian politics

After the fall of the Maratha Empire in 1818, the Chitpavan lost their political dominance to the British. The British would not subsidize the Chitpavans on the same scale that their caste-fellow, the Peshwas had done in the past. Pay and power was now significantly reduced. Poorer Chitpavan students adapted and started learning English because of better opportunities in the British administration.[16] The Chitapavan Brahmins such as Vasudev Balwant Phadke, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Bal Gangadhar Tilak played an important role in the Indian independence movement.
Some of the prominent figures in the Hindu reform movements of the 19th and 20th centuries came from the Chitapavan Brahmin community. These included Dhondo Keshav Karve, Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Gopal Ganesh Agarkar and Vinoba Bhave. These reforms preached against the Hindu caste system. Yet, some of the strongest resistance to change also came from the very same community. Jealously guarding their Brahmin stature, the orthodox among the Chitpavans were not eager to see the Shastras challenged, nor the conduct of the Brahmins becoming indistinguishable from that of the Sudras. The vanguard and the old guard clashed many times. Ranade and other reformers were forced to offer penance for breaking purity rules. D. K. Karve was ostracised. Even Tilak made a visit to Varanasi so that he may not be excommunicated.
The Chitpavan community produced two major politicians in the Gandhian tradition: Vinoba Bhave and Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Gandhi describes Bhave as the Jewel of his disciples, and recognized Gokhale as his political guru. However, strong opposition to Gandhi also came from within the Chitpavan community. V D Savarkar, the founder of the Hindu nationalist political ideology Hindutva, was a Chitpavan Brahmin. Several members of the Chitpavan community were among the first to embrace the Hindutva ideology, which they thought was a logical extension of the legacy of the Peshwas and caste-fellow TilakThese Chitpavans felt out of place with the Indian social reform movement of Mahatama Phule and the mass politics of Mahatama Gandhi. Large numbers of the community looked to Savarkar, the Hindu Mahasabha and finally the RSS for inspiration resulting in the likes of Narayan Apte and Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Gandhi on January 30, 1948. V D Savarkar's nephew Vikram Savarkar was the ideological guru of Godse, and Narayan Apte endorsed the murder of Gandhi by saying the samaj or community has realized the significance of Nathuram's act. Many members of the Pune's closely-knit Chitpavan community supported Gandhi's murder, prompting Rafiq Zakaria to compare them with the neo-Nazis in Europe.