Madhavrao Jadhav

(Sri Aurobindo in third person:) “The most intimate friend at Baroda was Khaserao’s brother, Lieutenant Madhavrao Jadhav who was associated with him in his political ideas and projects and helped him whenever possible in his political work. He lived with M. in his house most of the time he was at Baroda. … Sri Aurobindo took no interest in philosophy at all at that time; he was interested in the sayings and life of Ramakrishna and the utterances and writings of Vivekananda, but that was almost all with regard to spiritual life; he had inner experiences, from the time he stepped on to the shores of India, but did not associate them at that time with Yoga about which he knew nothing. Afterwards when he learned or heard something about it from Deshpande and others, he refused to take it up because it seemed to him a retreat from life. There was never any talk about the reconstruction of India, only about her liberation.”

(Peter Heehs:) “Madhavrao Jadhav is said to have been sent to Japan for military training in 1903. If he did go (and there is no indubitable evidence that he did) he stayed a very short time and learned nothing significant. Still, the hope that a foreign power would share its military knowhow with India did not die out. Towards the beginning of 1905 Tilak made contact with the Russian consul in Bombay, asking him whether an Indian candidate could be admitted to a Russian military academy. The consul was instructed by his superiours in St. Petersburg to say that this could only be done through official channels. This was of course impossible. Undaunted Tilak, Aurobindo and others raised some money and sent Madhavrao to England in July 1905. After a brief stay in London with Tilak's friend Shyamji Krishnavarma, the radical editor of The Indian Sociologist, Madhavrao got himself enrolled (apparently with Russian help) in the Swiss military academy in Bern. He passed the officers' examination at the end of 1906 and then spent a year studying the organization and observing the manoeuvres of the Swiss army.”

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See also

• Khaserao Jadhav