Anne Anjayya

Anne Anjayya was a Congress worker from Mudunur, in Gannavaram taluk of Krishna district.¹ He worked in the national movement from 1920 to 1945 and was jailed at least three times.¹ In 1942 he led the Andhra branch of the Forward Bloc, the party of Subhas Chandra Bose.¹ The source for this page is a short entry in the Who’s Who of Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh, published by the state government in 1980.¹

Volunteer and khadi worker, 1920–1930

He was born in 1905, the son of Venkatadri.¹ In 1920 he joined the non-cooperation movement as a volunteer.¹ He set up the “Valmeeki Ashram” to train volunteers.¹ The Who’s Who says that in the 1930s he worked with Gandhi to spread khadi (handspun cloth) in Hyderabad State and set up several khadi centres there.¹

Jail and fines, 1930–1932

During the salt satyagraha of 1930 he led a batch of volunteers.¹ For this he was sentenced to six months’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1,000.¹ The fine was collected by seizing his property.¹ In the civil disobedience of 1932 he received the same sentence again.¹

From 1934 to 1936 he was treasurer and then president of the Krishna District Harijan Sevak Sangh, which worked for the uplift of Dalits.¹

The war years, 1940–1945

In 1940 he started a school to train volunteers, who later took part in the Quit India movement.¹ During the campaign against the war he went underground.¹ He brought out a bulletin against the government called Ready.¹ He also edited Matrubhumi for three years.¹

During the Quit India movement he was president of the Andhra branch of the Forward Bloc.¹ He ran an underground paper called Congress to spread the movement.¹ For this he was arrested and detained from 24 December 1942 to 4 September 1945, in the Damoh, Amravati and Vellore jails.¹

Later years

In 1974–75 he was chairman of the Krishna District Freedom Fighters’ Association.¹ He died at Hyderabad on 22 June 1975.¹

Footnotes

1. Sarojini Regani (ed.), Who’s Who of Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh, Vol. II (1980), p. 154 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²²