Vattikota Alwar Swamy

Vattikota Alwar Swamy was a Telugu writer and publisher from a village in Nalgonda district.¹ He worked for the Andhra Mahasabha in Hyderabad State and later joined the Communist Party.¹ Sarojini Regani names “V. Alwar Swamy” among the leading members of the Communist Party in Hyderabad.²

The main source for this page is the Telugu history of the Telangana struggle by Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao (1988), a Communist leader who worked with him.¹ It gives no dates for his birth or death.¹

Writer and publisher

Devulapalli writes that Alwar Swamy grew up poor and had no school or college education.¹ He taught himself and became a writer.¹ Devulapalli adds that he turned down chances of a comfortable life and chose to live on his own earnings.¹

In 1938 he founded the Desoddharaka Granthamala, a series of books.³ It published small books meant to awaken national and political feeling.³ Subscribers paid ten rupees each and received books to that value.³ Devulapalli writes that the series ran for the rest of his life.³

Work for the Andhra Mahasabha

The Andhra Mahasabha held a session at Chilkur, a village on the road between Kodad and Huzurnagar.⁴ Devulapalli writes that its central office sent Alwar Swamy to supervise all the arrangements.⁴ He stayed in the village and saw that the work was done on time.⁴

At the Mahasabha’s eleventh session, held at Bhongir in May 1944, Baddam Yella Reddy was elected its general secretary.⁵ Alwar Swamy was appointed organising secretary, in charge of the Mahasabha’s office and organisation.¹ Devulapalli writes that he was linked with the Mahasabha and also with the clerks’ union of Secunderabad.¹

He toured the villages of the area with Ravi Narayana Reddy, Devulapalli and Arutla Ramachandra Reddy.⁶ Processions and public meetings were held during that tour.⁶ The government then brought cases against the sangham leaders of about forty villages for holding meetings without permission.⁶

From nationalist to communist

Devulapalli describes him as a nationalist who later became a communist.¹ Regani, writing from the Congress side, names him with Ravi Narayana Reddy, Baddam Yella Reddy and Makhdoom Mohiuddin among the leading communists of Hyderabad.²

Footnotes

1. Devulapalli, Sayudha Porata Charitra (1988), p. 277 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

2. Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh (1956), p. 208 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

3. Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao, Telangana Prajala Sayudha Porata Charitra (1988), p. 38 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. Devulapalli, Sayudha Porata Charitra (1988), p. 209 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Devulapalli, Sayudha Porata Charitra (1988), p. 276 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

6. Devulapalli, Sayudha Porata Charitra (1988), p. 298 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³