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.
[4] This enabled Chandrashekhar Agashe to found the Brihan Maharashtra Sugar Syndicate Ltd. on 21 September 1934,[1][5] as a limited liability company after two years of crowd-funding campaigns,[6] with funds collected from amongst the Maharashtrian middle classes.
[8] 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.
[9] In July 1937, C. E. Aitken, the superintending engineer of the Deccan Irrigation Circle raised concerns about the syndicate's factory to Sir Geoffrey Thomas Hirst Bracken, reporting that the syndicate had sanctions, although they had the machinery, and were practicing the open pan system of sugar cultivation and were growing from their own seeds.
[12] In November 1937, Agashe ordered sugar cane processing machinery from Škoda Works in Czechoslovakia before the outbreak of World War II.
[14] In 1943, Agashe's donation to the Deccan Education Society led to the establishment of the Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce in Pune, named after the syndicate.
[17] After Indian independence in 1947, Agashe was able to expand the syndicate's production to 1000 tonnes of sugar cane processed per annum by 1950.
[29][34] The several senior managers of the company aided Panditrao Agashe, given his considerable youth when he joined the board of directors in 1957.
[38] Between 1958 and 1966, the syndicate financially aided several farming communities around the Malshiras taluka, including those regions affected by the Panshet dam flood in 1961.
[45][46] Beginning in the 1970s, under Panditrao and Dnyaneshwar Agashe, the syndicate manufactured liquor in Shreepur, Maharashtra,[47] specialising in whisky production under its several flagship brands.
[64][65] By 1998, the syndicate began marketing ayurvedic medicines, health care products, and bulk raw materials.
[67] In 1999, Mandar resigned as joint managing director,[68] going on to found the syndicate's sister company Brihans Natural Products Ltd. in 2000.