Baddam Yella Reddy

Baddam Yella Reddy was a political worker from Galipalli, in Sircilla taluk of Karimnagar district.¹ He went to jail in both the Madras Presidency and Hyderabad State before 1947.¹ He later became a leader of the Communist Party in Hyderabad.² After 1952 he sat in Parliament and the state assembly.³

Most of the dates on this page come from the Who’s Who of Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh, published by the state government in 1980.¹

Salt satyagraha, 1930

He was born in 1906, the son of Hanumantha Reddy.¹ He gave up his studies to join the salt satyagraha of 1930 at Kakinada and Eluru.¹ He was sentenced to seven months’ rigorous imprisonment from 26 June 1930.¹ He served it in the Rajahmundry, Tiruchirappalli and Alipuram jails.¹ He also worked for khadi (handspun cloth) and for the uplift of Dalits.¹

The State Congress satyagraha, 1938–1939

In 1938 the Nizam’s government banned the newly formed Hyderabad State Congress.¹ Yella Reddy offered satyagraha (non-violent protest by breaking a law and accepting arrest) against the ban.¹ Sarojini Regani names him among those who were jailed in this satyagraha.⁴ He was imprisoned from 28 November 1938 to 10 April 1939 in the Hyderabad and Gulbarga jails.¹

In 1941 he defied an order confining him to one place during the campaign against the war.¹ For this he spent six months in the Warangal and Hyderabad jails.¹

The Andhra Mahasabha and the Communist Party

He was secretary of the Andhra Mahasabha from 1943 to 1946 and its president in 1946.¹ When the Communist Party was banned in Hyderabad State in 1946, he was confined to his village.¹

Regani names him among the leading members of the Communist Party in Hyderabad.² She writes that he attended the “School of Politics” run by N. G. Ranga at Kankipadu in 1939.² During the campaign for joining India in 1947–48, he kept in touch with communist leaders at Vijayawada, among them P. Sundarayya.⁵

How the Hyderabad government described him, 1949

After the police action of September 1948, the new Hyderabad government issued Hyderabad Reborn (1949).⁶ It names “Baddam Ella Reddy” as one of the members of the communists’ State Committee in Nalgonda district.⁶ It calls the party’s armed squads goondas (thugs).⁶ It also lists him among the communists captured by the army and police.⁶⁷

After 1950

He was a member of the Lok Sabha from 1952 to 1957 and from 1964 to 1970.³ He sat in the Rajya Sabha from 1958 to 1961.³ From 1972 to 1978 he was a member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.³

In March 1973 the Government of India gave him a tamrapatra (copper plaque honouring freedom fighters).³ He died on 27 December 1978.³

Footnotes

1. Sarojini Regani (ed.), Who’s Who of Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh, Vol. II (1980), p. 67 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

2. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 208 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Regani (ed.), Who’s Who, Vol. II (1980), pp. 67–68 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh (1956), p. 190 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

5. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 203 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

6. Hyderabad Reborn (1949), p. 114 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. Hyderabad Reborn (1949), p. 115 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩