led Agashe to consider retiring from law in the late 1920s. Upon attending a speech by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Agashe and his family began practicing the principles of the Swadeshi movement and started considering entrepreneurial ventures as a means to participate in the Indian independence movement in Maharashtra. Agashe supported several Indian freedom fighters, including Lokmanya Tilak and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, but never considered entering politics himself; his younger brother, Narayan Agashe III actively participated in politics surrounding the Indian independence movement, serving prison time for rioting against the British Raj in the early 1930s, before aiding his elder brother in his business venture. In 1932, Agashe was appointed as the Secretary of the Bhor State Council, and in under a year, he was elected to the post of the President of the Council, which he maintained till 1934. As president, he provided financial encouragement and legal counsel to small and new business owners in Maharashtra. During his presidency, Agashe used his legal acumen to seize back the family's lost estates in Mangdari from his paternal relations. The Brihan Maharashtra Sugar Syndicate Ltd.: 1934–1956 Earlier in 1933, the Governor of Bombay, The Lord Brabourne promoted the production of indigenous sugar, having had increased the import tax on the commodity shipping in from Mauritius. This enabled Agashe to found the Brihan Maharashtra Sugar Syndicate Ltd. on 21 September 1934, as a limited liability company after two years of crowd-funding campaigns, with funds collected from amongst the Maharashtrian middle classes. Prior to the syndicate's establishment, Agashe had aided Atmaram Raoji Bhat in the establishment of the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce in March 1934; and further guided the Chamber to pass legislation along with the Government of Mumbai for mandatory government aid for all Maharashtrian factory based businesses. Between 1934 and 1936, Agashe envisioned opening a factory branch of the Syndicate in his hometown of Bhor, and began cultivating 2,000 acres of land for the plantation of sugar cane. Plans for the factory were shot down after Agashe met with strong opposition from the local landed gentry. In 1935, he began employing tenanted farmers of the local gentry and independent farmers as producers or transportation workers of the sugar cane for the syndicate in the village of Bhorgaon. By 1936, he had licensed or purchased 12,000 acres of farm land to support the syndicate, being lauded for reviving the local economy and consequently