Achyut Patwardhan (5 February 1905 – 5 August 1992) was an Indian independence activist and political leader and founder of the Socialist Party of India.

When Achyut was a boy of four years, Sitaram Patwardhan, a retired Deputy Educational Inspector, adopted him.

He studied Communist and Socialist literature, resigned his Professorship and plunged in 1932 into Gandhiji's civil disobedience movement.

From 1935 to 1941 he organised Shibirs (education camps for young men), to teach them Socialism and to prepare them for socialistic activities.

The true and veteran leader of Prati Sarkar was Krantisinha Nana Patil, who was arrested and imprisoned 8 times from 1932 to 1942 by the British Government for his Satyagraha activities in Congress movement.

Nearly 500 villages were really "free" from British empire.The Parallel Government penetrated into the villages where the Government machinery broke down completely.Separate people's Justice courts were organised and so many cases of loans, aggression and rapes were solved by people's courts giving justice to poor farmers, farm labours and women of all castes at large.

Strong Punishments to attempts of rape, excessive interest rates by money lenders, and the execution of power of Zamindars over poor farmers lead to the popularity of Prati-Sarkar in the minds of ordinary people.