The first organization started at Kolhapur in imitation of Poona was a Shivaji club, with which were associated bands of gymnasts, Ganpati choirs, an anti-cow-killing society, &c., all on the lines of those founded by Tilak.  It was suppressed in 1900 as several of its members had been implicated in the disturbances at Bir, where a young “patriot” had proclaimed himself Rajah and collected a sufficient number of armed followers to require a military force to suppress the rebellion.  The disturbances at Bir were, in fact, the starting point of that new form of political propagandism which takes the shape of dacoities or armed robberies for the benefit of the “patriotic” war-chest.  After the suppression of the Kolhapur Shivaji Club, many of its leading members disappeared for a time, but only to carry on their operations in other parts of India, where they entered into relations with secret societies of a similar type.  Three years later the club had been practically revived under the new name of “Belapur Swami Club,” so called in honour of the late Swami of Belapur, to whose wooden slippers the members of the club were in the habit of doing worship, whilst his shrine was used as a sanctuary for sedition-mongers and a store-house for illicit weapons.  “Political” dacoities were soon in vogue again, and in 1905 there was an epidemic of house-breaking in and around Kolhapur, which enriched the club with several thousands of rupees and a few arms.  Seven members were finally arrested and some made full confessions.  All of these except one were Brahmans and mostly quite well connected.  But even those who were convicted got off with light sentences, and the campaign, which clearly had powerful aiders and abettors both inside Kolhapur and outside, was only temporarily checked.

Nor was it to stop at dacoities.  A regular semi-military organization was introduced, and bands of young men used to go out into the country to carry out mimic manoeuvres.  It is of no slight significance that photographs have been discovered of groups of these young men—­some of whom were subsequently convicted for serious offences—­with Tilak himself in their midst.  They were in constant communication with Poona, and when the Poona extremists began to specialize on bombs they were amongst the neophytes of the new cult.  A conspiracy was hatched of which the admitted purpose was to murder Colonel Ferris, the Political Agent, at the wedding of the Maharajah’s daughter on March 21, 1908, but, if it had been carried out successfully, the Maharajah himself and many of his other guests would almost inevitably have been killed at the same time.  For, as was disclosed in the subsequent trial, a bomb was prepared and despatched from Poona which was to have been hurled into the wedding pandal or enclosure railed off in the courtyard of the Palace for the Maharajah and his family and the principal guests, including Colonel Ferris.  Fortunately the bomb, which was subsequently discovered, did not