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N. G. Ranga

Peasant leader and economist from Nidubrolu in Guntur district (born 1900). He organised ryots' associations in Andhra from 1923, founded the Andhra Socialist Party in 1934, ran schools of politics for young workers, and helped found the All India Kisan Sabha. He was jailed for organising rural ryot societies and again in 1942. In 1951 he left the Congress and founded the Krishikar Lok Party, and he sat in the Rajya Sabha from 1952.

N. G. Ranga was a peasant leader and economist from Nidubrolu, in Guntur district.1 Sarojini Regani calls him “Acharya Ranga”.2 From 1923 he organised associations of ryots (farmers) and farm labourers in Andhra, and later across India.23 He was jailed more than once under British rule.34 From 1952 he sat in the Rajya Sabha.1

Early life

According to the Rajya Sabha Who’s Who of 1952, he was born at Nidubrolu on 7 November 1900, the son of Nagayya.1 He studied at Oxford and took the B.Litt. degree.1 From 1927 to 1930 he was chief professor of economics at Pachaiyappa’s College, Madras.1

Ryots and labourers, 1923–1936

Regani writes that in 1923 he organised a district agricultural labourers’ conference at Nidubrolu.2 She calls it the first such conference in India.2 Andhra formed a Ryots’ Association in 1923 under his lead, and a provincial association in 1928.3 In 1929, with Maganti Bapineedu, he founded the Andhra Provincial Farmers’ Union.2

He started the first school to train kisan (peasant) workers, at Nidubrolu.3 Regani writes that he set up three hundred rural ryot societies in Krishna district alone.3 For this, she says, the government gave him a year’s imprisonment.3 In 1936 he helped bring the All India Kisan Sabha into being, with Swami Sahajananda as its president.3

The Andhra Socialist Party and the schools of politics

The Andhra Socialist Party was founded at Vijayawada on 23 June 1934, with Ranga as president.5 Its other leaders included P. Sundarayya.5 In 1938 Ranga started summer schools of politics and economics at Madanapalle and Mantenavaripalem.6 Regani writes that young Telangana communists such as Ravi Narayana Reddy and Baddam Yella Reddy attended his school of politics at Kankipadu in 1939.7

Jail and the war years, 1940–1945

Regani lists him among the Andhra leaders sentenced in the satyagraha against the war in 1940–41.8 In August 1942, at the start of the Quit India movement, he stayed underground for some time and was then arrested.4 During that movement the government seized a hundred bags of paddy belonging to him and his brother from a godown at Nidubrolu, as a punitive tax.9

After his release he tried to rebuild his kisan sabhas in close touch with the Congress.10 In the elections to the Central Legislative Assembly in December 1945 he was returned unopposed.11

Hyderabad, 1947

In May 1947 he attended the open session of the Hyderabad State Congress, as a leader from Andhra.12 During the campaign for Hyderabad to join India, the State Congress sent a member of its working committee to Madras to consult him and Kaleswara Rao.13

In Parliament and after

The Rajya Sabha Who’s Who gives his public record to 1952:1

  • member of the Congress party from 1923 to 1926 and from 1930 to 19511
  • member of the All-India Congress Committee from 1931 to 1951, and of the Congress Working Committee from 1947 to 19511
  • president of All India Kisan Conferences in 1935, 1936, 1946, 1949 and 19521
  • member of the Central Legislative Assembly, and of the Provisional Parliament until December 19511
  • founder and president, from 1951, of the Krishikar Lok Party1

In 1952 he sat in the Rajya Sabha for Madras as a member of the Krishikar Lok Party.1 The Who’s Who names his wife as Shrimati Bharati Ranga.1 Regani writes of a Bharati Devi Ranga who was jailed for a year in the civil disobedience of 1932.14

Footnotes

  1. Parliament of India, Council of States: Who’s Who, 1952 (1953), p. 145 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13

  2. Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh (1956), p. 106 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 107 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

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

  5. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 140 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 141 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

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

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

  9. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 157 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  10. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 161 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  11. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 163 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  12. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 199 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  13. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 200 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  14. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 131 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

References

Sources (2)
  1. Council of States Secretariat, Parliament of India, Council of States: Who's Who, 1952 (opens in a new tab), Council of States Secretariat, New Delhi, 1953, pp. 145. Public domain in India; paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  2. 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. 106–107, 140–141, 145, 148, 157, 161, 163, 199–200, 208. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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