Roots...

Quite often caught in the vicious circle of our personal motifs we forget our past, our roots, our very cause of existence. Through my prep for a B-school interview I got the opportunity to re-discover my past and I must say it was one hell of a journey. Though I pretend to be very humble most of times I can’t do it in this particular occasion because it’s just too big to be humble about (I am contemplating a movie once I have enough resources to fund it).

To begin with, my fore fathers were prosperous diamond merchants. They migrated to Nalgonda district from southern Coastal Andhra’s Nellore district 400 years ago. (Source: My great grandfather’s personal diary).

Though there are a number of anecdotes that I could narrate about the family I want to talk about one particular person who I find, besides my grand father, very intriguing. Shri Raavi Narayan Reddy, born in the year 1908, he is someone every person in the family now and for generations to come will look up to.

I guess it was the era, the period of freedom struggle that inspired many a young person like my great grandfather to leave lives of luxury and jump in to active public service and politics. Born in a family of a prosperous farmer and Zamindhar he had every luxury available but he chose to leave all of them behind to fight for his people. Besides being an active participant in the Civil Disobedience Movement he was also the pioneer of the Telangana Peasant struggle, which was also called the Andhra Mahasabha.

Under Nizam's rule in the native state of Hyderabad, the atrocities of landlords on the peasants knew no limits. `Vetti' and all other types of levies would be arbitrarily and forcibly imposed upon the rural population. Landlords' goondas armed with lathis, swords etc. would enforce the orders and wishes by beating up peasants and murdering those who resisted. The Nizam's administration and police invariably sided with the landlords. The Andhra Mahasabha as a mass organization started building up the resistance of the people. To ensure security for the people and leaders from the goondas of the landlords, the Andhra Mahasabha, which by then had come to be led by the Communists, started organizing squads and arming them with lathis. The struggle against landlords' atrocities and levies soon developed into a struggle for land. This implied a fight against the prevailing law as well as Nizam's rule, which as already in full support of the landlords. It is thus that the full character of the Telengana armed struggle developed. It grew into full-fledged guerilla warfare against the armed forces of the Nizam.

After India achieved Freedom, there was a conspiracy to keep the Hyderabad State (the largest native state in British India), as an independent entity right in the centre of the country. The Telengana struggle led by the Communists fought against this conspiracy of the Nizam, his Razakars and armed forces, his landlord supporters etc., incurring huge losses in lives. It paved the way for Hyderabad’s accession to India. The Struggle which went on from 1946 till 1951 when it was formally withdrawn was one of the most heroic struggles led by the communists. It was a battle against feudal oppression rampant in the state. About a thousand Jagirdars and Deshmukhs held one-third of the cultivable land, or 10 percent of the landowners held 80 per cent of land while 23.77 Lakh families (at that time) had no land at all. The fact that the Hindu feudal lords joined hands with the aggressively communal Razakars revealed the class nature of the struggle.

In this Telengana struggle, more than 4000 communists and their supporters lost their lives, but they could liberate 2,500 villages from the autocratic and oppressive rule of the Nizam, distribute about a million acres of land and eradicate `vetti' (forced labor). Among the 4000 people who lost their lives were people from my family. An inevitable bye-product of this struggle was the land struggle, the distribution of land belonging to the Jagirdars and landlords. The Bhoodan movement launched later by Vinoba Bhave was admittedly an aftermath of the Telengana struggle.

"Our movement which had begun with abolition of taxes, forced labor and with distribution of landlords' lands went ahead with the people distributing thousands of acres of waste, fallow and peramboke land. They took to cultivation of those lands. Lands enjoyed by the landlords with false revenue certificates were taken over and distributed. A ceiling on landlord's holding was fixed and the rest distributed among the people, particularly among agricultural workers and landless poor. All the lands, implements and cattle of landlords who were allies of the enemy were taken over and distributed. Documents of debts with moneylenders and landlords were destroyed and such debts made infructuous. Hundreds of quintals of food grains were taken over from the godowns of traitors and given away to the people. Wages of agricultural labor were raised. Toddy tappers were given toddy trees free of cost...” etc.
- Raavi Narayan Reddy

Post Independence he was elected to the first Indian Parliament as a representative of the People’s Democratic Front party. It is said that in the first general election he got more mandate than Pandit Nehru! He subsequently served a term in the A.P. State Assembly and then another term in the parliament. He passed away in the year 1991 at the age of 86. He was conferred Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian felicitation, in 1992 for his extraordinary contribution to the nation. He also received an Honorary Doctorate from Andhra University and a Kala Prapoorna for his proven inspirational literary prowess.

A simple search on his name on Google gave me around 130 hits, this alone indicates what I missed all these days. Though there is a lot left for me to learn and explore about my family and it's roots I believe that I made the right start and I suggest, if possible, everyone who’s reading this take some time off from your busy schedules and look back, in to the glorious past of your respective families, states and nations. I am sure you will find a lot of interesting stuff that will inspire you.

Some links:
Obituary Reference from the logs of the Parliament of India:
http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/lsdeb/ls10/ses1/01110991.htm
Other links:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1523/15231020.htm
http://www.solidnet.org/cgi-bin/agent?RedHistory/012=026.doc

Give it a thought!

Quite often I keep calling people who speak about Hindutva, religious Jingoists, intolerant mavericks etc.., but truly speaking I am one too. And I guess its time Hindus shed their pseudo secularist attitudes and think beyond their personal interests, into the interests of the religion.
The question we are asking today (If I can use the Rajdeep Sardesai phrase) is – “Are we Hindus too lenient about our religion?”
The bomb blast at the Sankat Mochan temple yesterday took lives of over 20 people and more importantly shattered the belief of a number of Hindus. This may not be the first such context to discuss about the atrocities against Hindus and Hinduism if one can remember the blasts in Delhi a day before Diwali or the Akshardham attack. I bet no one can dismiss these acts calling them as separate and disconnected, a closer look would clearly show that a definite pattern is emerging – A pattern that is indicating the eventual attack on the entire religion.
Just like the previous instances these attacks will also be quickly forgotten and people all over will get involved in their daily chores, trying to make this country and the planet a better place. Not that I am against that but, before doing that why don’t we remind ourselves about our basic responsibility, that towards our tradition and our religion. If we don’t do it now we won’t be left with any!

Indiyeah...

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1674437