Named after a precious family pet, Kakakuwa Mansion in Pune moved from being a residence of the Datar family and the center of political advancements in the city to housing a wide variety of businesses.
It’s tough to observe the ‘1931’ engraved on an arch at the entryway to Pune’s Kakakuwa Mansion in the middle of a sea of intense tarpaulin sheets put up on poles over stalls in Tulshibaug where consumers check products and bargain with suppliers. But when the board captures your eye and your look journeys up-wards, it’s difficult to miss out on the strange Gothic-design windows, circular stone terraces with elaborate deal with the railings, and the rogue climber making its escape from the glass pane of a disregarded window.
The year 1931 marks the date of building of the estate, which brings history within its spaces. The big hall on the 2nd flooring of the estate when worked as the Socialist Party head office, where leaders like S M Joshi and Bhai Vaidya gathered.
The Datar family connection
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The Kakakuwa Mansion was integrated in 1931 by Aauji Bua Datar, a train specialist who built the Pune-Solapur train line.
“The Datar family had a pet Kakakuwa bird and the bird’s cage was placed at the entrance of the mansion. The Kakakuwa bird, cockatoo in English, and native of Australia and East Asia, symbolises prosperity so the mansion was named after the bird,” says vocalist Rajesh Datar, a descendant of the Datar family.
Rajesh says the product utilized in the estate’s building is the main reason this Grade-3 heritage structure has actually endured the test of time. “Excellent quality steel used in railway lines construction was used to provide support to the walls and the entire structure was made primarily of stone. I think it will stand strong for 100 more years,” he includes.
The Socialist Party workplace and a center of political concepts
Climbing the broad stairs lined with pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses – to save the walls from being stained with tobacco – the board to a Janata Party workplace shows up on the second-floor landing. This is the hall where the head office of the Congress Socialist Party (later on Socialist Party) was when positioned.
“During the Samyukta Maharashtra (Unified Maharashtra) movement, the Socialist Party office at Kakakuwa Mansion was a hotspot of political ideas and movements. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar also frequented the Socialist Party office at Kakakuwa,” thinks back social activist and trade unionist Baba Adhav.
Correspondence in between the leader of the Swaraj Party, M R Jaykar, and socialist leader and the leader of the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti, S M Joshi, points out Kakakuwa Mansion as the Samiti’s main head office. The goal of the Samiti was “a unilingual state of all Marathi speaking contiguous areas including Bombay City”. The letter speaks about a non-violent Satyagraha in assistance of the motion which experienced the assistance of 16,000 people throughout Maharashtra in 1956.
“The Congress Socialist Party was organised within the Indian National Congress in 1934. After independence, differences between the socialist group and the rightist or more moderate section became more clearly marked within the Congress. Later on the socialists left the parent organisation and formed a socialist party of their own. The socialist party later on merged itself with KMP (Kisan Mazdoor Party), a party that was set up by those Congressmen who did not approve of the official Congress policies. Later on the socialist party and the KMP merged and formed the Praja Socialist Party,” based on Trade Union Movement in India, a book by J S Mathur and A S Mathur.
“Pune was an important centre for the Socialist Party in the 1930s and the location of the Kakakuwa Mansion was key to the party as it was situated in the centre of the city. All our public rallies and protests used to start from that office, proceed towards Sonya Maruti Chowk near Kasba Peth and Pune railway station marked the final point,” Adhav remembered.
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“Almost all trade unions under the umbrella of the trade-union federation Hind Mazdoor Sabha were situated on the same floor in Kakakuwa Mansion – shopkeepers union, sugarcane workers union, state transport workers union etc. – and the hall was big enough to accommodate at least 2-3 people who decided to stay for the night. There was an office of the Janavahini magazine on the same floor, so it was a breeding ground for political ideas,” said Adhav.
“The Socialist Party played a key role during the Quit India movement in 1942. People like Achyut Rao Patwardhan and Ram Manohar Lohia led this movement in different parts of India after many Congress leaders were jailed,” says Devkumar Ahire, a historian based in Pune, while speaking about crucial contributions of the socialist leaders of India.
Today, while Kakakuwa Mansion houses a wide variety of businesses, its rusty iron boards function as the only markers of its abundant history.
First released on: 12-08-2023 at 12:10 IST
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