Nana Patil was born on 3 August 1900 at Yedemachindra in Sangli (then South Satara) district. He was popularly known as Krantisinh which means ‘revolutionary lion’.
Nana Patil was a great freedom fighter. He was the founding member of the Hindustan Republican Association. During his activities against the colonial regime, he went underground for three years i.e. from 1929-1932. During the period from 1932-1942, he was imprisoned about eight to nine times. According to the British, he was an explosive orator. During the Quit India Movement in 1942, he went underground for nearly 44 months. He was one of the foremost leaders of the underground movement. In the year 1943, a reward was declared by the British Government to arrest him. He had established a parallel government in the Satara district. This government was also known as ‘Patri Sarkar’ in the local language.
Apart from this, he started his social work in 1919 with Prarthana Samaj to develop backward/depressed class people, creating awareness against blind faith and harmful traditions. After working with Prarthana Samaj for almost 10 years, he connected with Satyashodhak Samaj founded by Jyotiba Phule. He taught people to avoid expenses incurred in traditional marriage ceremonies and forced them to adopt ‘samaj vivah’ i.e. low budget marriage. Throughout his life, he fought for the right of the poor and farmers, advising them to avoid taking loans and also emphasizing the importance of education for social upliftment.
After independence, he became a Member of Parliament for the Communist Party of India. He died on 6 December 1976
Source: Swatantrya Sanik Charitrakosh (Marathi). Western Region. Part-3. 1980. Gazetteers Department. Government of Maharashtra.
Directorate of Archives, Maharashtra.