Prati Sarkar

Prati Sarkar (literally 'parallel government') refers to the underground administration established in the Satara district of Maharashtra during the Quit India Movement, formally organised from August 1943 under the leadership of Krantisinha Nana Patil. Unlike the shorter-lived National Government declared at Ballia in Uttar Pradesh by Chittu Pandey in August 1942, which was suppressed within days, the Satara Prati Sarkar proved remarkably durable, surviving until May 1946, nearly the end of British rule. The Prati Sarkar drew on a dedicated volunteer cadre known as the Toofan Sena ('storm army') to administer villages across the region. It ran its own informal courts (nyayadan mandals) to settle local disputes without recourse to British administration, organised village-level governance, and is even described as issuing a currency of sorts, functioning as a genuine, if extra-legal, alternative government in the areas it controlled. The Prati Sarkar is significant as evidence that the Quit India Movement's underground phase was not merely disorganised resistance but, in at least one region, sustained institution-building capable of running parallel administration for years, a distinctive counterpoint to the movement's rapid suppression elsewhere.

• 1 Established in Satara district, Maharashtra, formally from August 1943
• 2 Led by Krantisinha Nana Patil
• 3 Volunteer cadre: Toofan Sena ('storm army')
• 4 Ran informal courts (nyayadan mandals) and local administration
• 5 Survived until May 1946, unusually durable compared to other Quit India uprisings
• 6 Contrasts with Chittu Pandey's Ballia National Government (August 1942), suppressed within days

Nana Patil's Prati Sarkar is often cited alongside the Patna Secretariat firing and Aruna Asaf Ali's flag-hoisting as evidence of the Quit India Movement's genuinely decentralised character after August 1942.