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Kala Venkata Rao

Congress organiser from Amalapuram in the Godavari district. He left his B.Sc. studies at Machilipatnam in the non-cooperation movement of 1920–21 and was jailed then. He was among the leaders banned from public work in 1932, was sentenced in the satyagraha of 1940–41, and on 29 July 1942 drafted the Andhra Congress instructions known as the Kurnool circular.

Kala Venkata Rao was a Congress worker from Amalapuram, in the Godavari district.1 He joined the national movement as a student in 1920 and was jailed in the non-cooperation movement.23 In July 1942 he drafted the instructions of the Andhra Congress that came to be called the “Kurnool circular”.4 The source for this page is Sarojini Regani’s Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh.4

A student in non-cooperation, 1920–1922

In 1920 the Congress called on students to leave British-run colleges.2 Regani writes that Kala Venkata Rao, then in the final year of the B.Sc. at the Noble College in Machilipatnam, was one of those who left.2 She names him again among the students who gave up their studies in 1921–22.51

She also lists him among the nearly 300 people of the Telugu districts who went to jail in the non-cooperation movement of 1921–22.3

The 1930s

During the civil disobedience movement of 1932, the government used Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code against Congress leaders.6 Kala Venkata Rao was among those served with orders forbidding them to say or do anything to further the movement.6 In the satyagraha against the war in 1940–41 he was among the Andhra leaders sentenced to imprisonment.7

The Kurnool circular, 1942

Before the Quit India session of the All-India Congress Committee in August 1942, the Andhra Provincial Congress Committee sent out a circular.4 Regani writes that Kala Venkata Rao drafted it on 29 July 1942.4 It was sent through Pattabhi Sitaramayya to the Congress Working Committee for approval.4 Regani says it was called the “Kurnool circular” because the full text was found only in the office of the Kurnool district committee.4

The page on Reform, freedom & people’s movements describes what the circular asked Congress workers to do.

After the war

In the elections of 1945–46 he was one of the leaders who campaigned for the Congress in Andhra, with T. Prakasam and others.8

Footnotes

  1. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 77 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  2. Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh (1956), p. 69 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

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

  4. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 148 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  5. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 73 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  6. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 130 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

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

  8. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 162 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

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, 73–74, 77, 130, 145, 148, 162. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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