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Bulusu Sambamurti

Congress leader of Kakinada and the Godavari districts who pressed for complete independence from 1924. He presided over the Andhra Provincial Independence League in 1928, was jailed for a year for campaigning against the Simon Commission, broke the salt laws at Chollangi in 1930, and was badly beaten by the police at Kakinada. He later became Speaker of the Madras Legislative Assembly.

Bulusu Sambamurti was a Congress leader of the Godavari districts, based at Kakinada.1 From 1924 he was one of the Telugu leaders who demanded complete independence instead of dominion status.2 He went to jail several times between 1921 and 1941.34 The source for this page is Sarojini Regani’s Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh, which mentions him often.2

Non-cooperation, 1920–1922

In September 1920 a special session of the Congress met at Calcutta.5 Regani names Sambamurti among the Telugu leaders there who supported Gandhi’s policy of non-cooperation.5 She lists him among the nearly 300 people of the Telugu districts who were jailed in the non-cooperation movement of 1921–22.3

The demand for complete independence, 1924–1928

At the Ganjam district conference in September 1924, Sambamurti and Dr. Subramaniam carried a resolution for Purna Swaraj (complete independence).2 They asked the Belgaum Congress to adopt it.2 Regani writes that the Andhra Provincial Congress passed a resolution moved by him in December 1925 and again at Eluru in 1926.6 He opposed the Swarajists’ policy of entering the legislative councils.6

In 1928 he worked with Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose to organise the All-India Independence League.7 On 19 December 1928 the Andhra Provincial Independence League was founded with Sambamurti as president.8 Tenneti Viswanatham was its treasurer.8

The Simon Commission boycott, 1928

Sambamurti toured Guntur and Tenali calling for a boycott of the Simon Commission.1 On 7 February, as he was boarding a train for Kakinada, the government arrested him.1 He refused to give bail and was sentenced to a year’s rigorous imprisonment in Bellary jail.1 Regani writes that he was made to walk two miles at night from Rajahmundry jail to the station, carrying his own luggage.1 His arrest, she adds, roused other Andhra leaders to press the boycott.1

Salt satyagraha and civil disobedience, 1930–1932

In 1930 he and V. Satyanarayana marched from Kakinada to Chollangi to break the salt laws.9 They made three maunds of salt there and gave it out to the public.9 In 1932 he was again among the Congress leaders arrested.10

Regani tells of a police sub-inspector, B. Subbarao Naidu, who broke up non-cooperators’ meetings by beating drums.11 She writes that he beat Sambamurti with a lathi (police stick) at Kakinada until his skull was fractured.11 According to her, Sambamurti later became Speaker of the Madras Legislative Assembly.11 He then called the officer before him and forgave him.11

Later years

In 1937 he was a member of the Andhra Congress Working Committee.12 Regani lists him among those sentenced in the satyagraha against the war in 1940–41.4 Swami Ramananda Tirtha of the Hyderabad State Congress went to Madras soon after his own release from prison, and met Sambamurti there.13 Sambamurti promised the support of the Congress leaders there.13

Footnotes

  1. Regani, Highlights (1956), pp. 109–110 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 104 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 74 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 145 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh (1956), p. 69 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 102 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  7. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 108 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  8. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 111 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  9. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 119 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  10. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 130 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  11. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 134 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  12. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 142 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  13. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 212 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

References

Sources (1)
  1. Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh (opens in a new tab), Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, 1956, pp. 69, 74, 102, 104, 108–111, 119, 130, 134, 142, 145, 212. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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