Ravi Narayana Reddy · Telugu History

Ravi Narayana Reddy was a leader in Hyderabad State, first in the State Congress and then in the Communist Party.¹² In 1944 he took over the leadership of the Andhra Mahasabha, the main Telugu organisation in the state.³⁴ The Congress and the government of his time described his work in very different ways.⁵⁶

Early life, 1908–1938

According to the Who’s Who of Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh (1980), he was born on 4 June 1908 at Bollepalli, in Bhongir taluk of Nalgonda district.⁷ He was the son of Gopal Reddy.⁷ In 1930 he left his Intermediate studies to join the civil disobedience movement.⁷ From 1932 to 1938 he was president of the Hyderabad State Harijan Sevak Sangh, which worked for the uplift of Dalits.⁷

In the State Congress

In 1938 the Nizam’s government banned the newly formed Hyderabad State Congress.¹ Ravi Narayana Reddy was a member of its working committee, which decided to offer satyagraha (peaceful protest) against the ban.¹ On 24 October 1938 he courted arrest (broke the ban on purpose to be arrested) in Hyderabad.¹ Govind Rao Nanal, Ramakrishna Dhoot and Janardhan Rao Desai were arrested with him.¹

In 1940 the State Congress was trying to have the ban lifted by changing its name.⁸ He, Valla Reddy and Vasant Rao then issued a statement that the change would not alter its spirit.⁸ The Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen newspaper Rahbar-e-Deccan used that statement to argue against lifting the ban.⁸ Before the Quit India movement of 1942 he was among the leaders who asked the Nizam to form a ministry of elected ministers.⁹

The Andhra Mahasabha

Until 1941 the Andhra Mahasabha, the main Telugu organisation in Hyderabad State, was led by moderates.³ Among them were B. Ramakrishna Rao, K. V. Ranga Reddy and M. Narsing Rao.³ Sarojini Regani writes that a left wing grew in strength under Ravi Narayana Reddy’s leadership after the Chilkur conference of 1941 in Nalgonda district.³

At the Bhongir session of 1944 he captured the leadership of the Mahasabha.⁴ Communists from the Andhra districts were invited to take part.⁴ The older leaders denounced the session as a Communist Party meeting.⁴ They formed a separate Nationalist Andhra Mahasabha, which joined the Hyderabad State Congress in 1946.⁴

The Communist Party and the Telangana struggle

Regani names him among the leading members of the Communist Party in Hyderabad.² The party there worked as a wing of the Andhra Communist Party based at Vijayawada.² She notes that in 1939 he attended the school of politics that N. G. Ranga ran at Kankipadu.² By 1946, she writes, the party under his leadership had begun what it called an anti-feudal struggle in the Telangana districts.⁵ This later became known as the Telangana movement.⁵

The Hyderabad government that took over after the police action of 1948 saw the same men very differently.⁶ Hyderabad Reborn was issued by its Director of Information in 1949.⁶ In its section on Nalgonda district, it names Ravi Narayana Reddy among the members of the communists’ State Committee.⁶ Under their direction, it says, the party built a network of district, taluk and village organisers and armed squads (dalams).⁶

The book uses the word goonda (thug) for the party’s members.⁶ It says villagers were too frightened to give information against them.⁶ The wider struggle, and the different accounts of it, are described on the page Reform, freedom & people’s movements.

After 1948

The Who’s Who adds details of his later life.⁷ It says he gave 500 acres of his family’s land to landless poor people.⁷ He was a member of the Lok Sabha from 1952 to 1957 and from 1962 to 1967.⁷ Between these terms, from 1957 to 1962, he sat in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.⁷

Where the sources disagree

The sources differ on his part in the Andhra Mahasabha before 1944:

Regani writes that the left wing grew under his leadership after the Chilkur conference of 1941, and that it took control of the Mahasabha at Bhongir in 1944.³⁴
The Who’s Who says he presided over three sessions of the Mahasabha: at Chilkur in 1941, Bhongir in 1944 and Khammam in 1945.⁷

Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh (1956), p. 189 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 208 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 181 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 182 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 196 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Hyderabad Reborn (1949), p. 114 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Sarojini Regani (ed.), Who’s Who of Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh, Vol. II (1980), p. 534 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹
Regani, Highlights (1956), pp. 192–193 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 195 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩