Anant Laxman Kanhere
Anant Kanhere, who sacrificed his life for the motherland at the age of 18!
A young man from Konkan goes to Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) for secondary education, takes part in revolutionary work there, gets a pistol sent by Mr. Savarkar from London and kills a treacherous and high-ranking Englishman, all of it is extraordinary and impossible! But the name of the young man who made this impossible act possible was Anant Laxman Kanhere!
Anantrao was born in 1891 in the village of Ayni-Mete in Ratnagiri district. He went to Aurangabad to study English with his maternal uncle. After a few years, he started living in a rented room with Gangaram Marwadi. Kashinath Tonpe of the freedom fighter secret society of Nashik gave Gangaram and Anantrao the oath of the secret society. After Madanlal Dhingra’s revenge against Curzon Wylie, Anantrao also became impatient with such an act. Then Gangaram tested Anantrao by placing hot iron tongs on his hands and asking him to hold the hot glass of a lit chimney with both hands. Despite lighting both lamps, Anantrao’s posture was unwavering!
Around this time, a cruel and hypocritical officer named Jackson was the District Collector of Nashik. He had imprisoned true lawyers, kirtan singer Tambe Shastri, Babarao Savarkar and other patriots. Jackson wrote his obituary for many such misdeeds. It was this fate that chose Anantrao. Anantrao practiced pistol shooting to kill Jackson. He went to the District Collector’s office and looked at Jackson carefully. If Jackson is killed and has to be hanged, at least his parents should have a photograph of him as a memento’; so he also took a photograph of himself.
On December 21, 1909, a rehearsal of the play ‘Sharda’ by the Kirloskar Natak Mandali was organized in the Vijayanand Theatre of Nashik in honor of Jackson. As Jackson was entering the theatre through the door, Anantrao, who had already arrived, fired a shot at Jackson. It went through his armpit. Anantrao, acting quickly, fired four shots at Jackson from the front. Jackson collapsed on the spot. Anantrao calmly surrendered to the guards.
Anantrao and his associates Anna Karve and Vinayak Deshpande were sentenced to death on the charge of murdering Jackson. On April 19, 1910, these three revolutionaries were hanged at 7 am in Thane jail with a courageous attitude. Despite the request of their relatives, the British government cremated the bodies of all three on the banks of the Thane creek and threw their ashes into the creek so that no one would get them.