Editor: I. Mallikarjuna Sharma Volume 11: 15-31 March 2015 No. 5-6

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8 Paruchuri Hanumantha Rao (I.M. Sharma) (2015) 1 LAW Rule we had propagated a lot by way of songs, sloganeering, etc. in Machilipatnam. Chalasani Venkateswar Rao and I were staying together in a room at Frenchpet in those days and some underground leaders of the party, especially Chalasani Srinivasa Rao, used to come and take shelter in our room. This Chalasani Srinivasa Rao was later shot dead by the police. Once the police raided our room and arrested both of us and kept us in sub-jail. After 3 days we got released on bail. Then some discussion went on inside the party as to what reply we accused should give if we were asked by the judicial officers as to our political identity – should we say we were communists or not. At last it was decided that we should own up our real political identity and say we were communists. Accordingly when at the trial of our case Chalasani Venkateswar Rao and I replied in the affirmative to the question as to whether we were communists, we were immediately put under detention and sent to Rajahmundry Central Jail where we were kept for 3-4 months. Later we were transferred to Cuddalore Camp Jail where in all 350-400 communist prisoners were confined. Kodali Satyanarayana, Katragadda Venkata Narayana Rao, Tammareddy Satyanarayana and others were there along with us. In the jail all of us communist detenues followed the then party policy and adopted militant tactics. This led to great friction with the jail authorities and I think when we violently resisted being locked up in nighttime a serious disturbance occurred and the armed police attacked us severely. Police resorted to firing also after first lathi-charging and then bayoneting. One Sitarama Rao, a peasant leader, was bayoneted to death. In the ensuing firings also one or two comrades died and several injured. At that time I was just beside the bayoneted peasant leader and immediately lied down and rolling my body over for a distance safely escaped from police clutches. Though Katragadda Venkata Narayana Rao, Tammareddy Satyanarayana, Kotaiah and others were injured, I was not. It was due to that injury that K.V. Narayana Rao became lame and Tammareddy Satyanarayana received a bullet injury in his hand. At last in the evening at 6 P.M. we communist detenues surrendered like defeated soldiers in a battle. At that time I fully supported and followed the Ranadive Line. In Cuddalore Camp Jail political classes used to be held daily and we received good education in History, Soviet Socialist Constitution, Political Economy and languages and we built up a good library. It was like a university to us. Comrade Vijayakumar from Vizag, Vallabha Rao, Tatineni Chalapati Rao, Koganti Gopalakrishnaiah were in our cultural team also and we used to stage some plays and sing revolutionary songs. Once I even acted in the roles of Comrades A.K. Gopalan and M.R. Venkatraman. There were intense discussions among us detenues as to whether it was proper to continue the armed struggle or withdrawal was necessary and inevitable. Some comrades like Koganti Gopalakrishnaiah could not withstand the severe repression by jail authorities and opted to get transferred to a separate camp. At this the extremists among us used to scold and abuse them but in such cases other comrades and I used to intervene and persuade the extremists not to be too hostile towards our erstwhile friends. There were comrades who stood fearless and unmoved at any amount of repression but there were also comrades with weak sentiments – some of them used to even weep aloud on hearing sentimental tragic stories in the Balanandam programme broadcast over All India Radio. Once 200 of us detenues went on an indefinite hunger strike on some important demands but about 50 withdrew in the middle. On the advice of Dr. Chelikani Rama Rao we all had taken one glass of jaggery solution (panakam) before starting the fast and that did a lot of good to our health condition. I continued the fast for 30 days. But later seeing no possibility of any amount of success we ourselves gradually stopped fasting. But we all got so weak and emaciated due to that prolonged fast that it took nearly one month for us to regain our former energy and strength. Ultimately, after 3 years of Law Animated World, 15-31 March 2015 8
(2015) 1 LAW Paruchuri Hanumantha Rao (I.M. Sharma) 9 detention, we were released sometime in 1951. I worked as correspondent for Vishalandhra at Madras for a long time after independence. I very much know about the fasting of Potti Sriramulu since I used to visit his camp and report the details to Vishalandhra. Bulusu Sambamurthy was seen there many times encouraging Sriramulu to continue his fast to death. He himself was eating fruits and talking when Sriramulu was fasting for days together which struck to me as somewhat odd. Sambamurthy himself refused to fast but used to say to Sriramulu who was much younger than him: “Hi, Sriramulu, you don’t have a wife or children. So continue to fight and die for the cause. You will earn a good name.” On the last day of the fast Chandra Rajeswara Rao and I went together to visit Sriramulu. However, it should be said to the credit of Sriramulu that he was always quite firm and never wavered in his determination to fast unto death. As for the controversy that the communists did not press for inclusion of Madras in Andhra Province, which was the chief demand of Potti Sriramulu, I can only say that it was an impractical demand. Already Madras was an overwhelmingly Tamilian majority city and though there was a talk of partition of Madras too at one time the Tamilians would never have agreed to it. On this aspect Prakasam Pantulu, Tenneti Viswanadham and us communists jointly held a big public meeting at Madras in the premises of Velagapudi Ramakrishna’s factory. There was no consensus in it but in their speeches Prakasam and Viswanatham declared that a resolution calling for the formation of Andhra State including Madras in it was passed and then quickly left the place. All people thought that the meeting was over and began to disperse. But Chandra Rajeswara Rao announced from the dais that the meeting was far from over, no consensus resolution was passed and called the people back. Narla Venkateswar Rao was asked to preside the meeting and Nagi Reddy gave a wonderful speech for about one hour patiently explaining the entire situation and ultimately a resolution calling for the immediate formation of the Andhra Province with al the undisputed areas included in it was passed. I think it was a wise resolution. I am of the opinion that it was our mistake to have given up Bellary, which was mainly a Telugu city, and not Madras, which was even then mainly a Tamil city. Later a huge public meeting was held at Law College Grounds, Madras on the issue of Andhra Province to which leaders from all parties were invited. There was a very tense and electric atmosphere and if anybody were to oppose inclusion of Madras in Andhra Province the audience would have thrown stones, etc. Velagapudi Ramakrishna from Justice Party, some Congress party leaders, Tenneti Viswanadham of Praja Party, Gowthu Latchanna and Tarimela Nagi Reddy from our communist party addressed the meeting. In that surcharged meeting Nagi Reddy spoke excellently for one hour in chaste Royalaseema Telugu without openly asking us to give up Madras but hinting that we should not insist on its inclusion, etc. and drew applause from the crowd. After the defeat in 1955 General Elections to the Andhra Assembly our Communist Party of India got very much disheartened and the entire apparatus of fulltime party workers was almost disbanded. Every worker was asked to look after his own livelihood and then if it was possible do free service for the party too. In such a situation I happened to enter the cine field for a time. Varalakshmi, C.V.R. Prasad, Kondepudi Lakshminarayana, and some others also entered the film arena at that time. Until then though I had taken part in IPT and possessed some cultural talents I was largely in the student organizational field or journalistic field as correspondent for Vishalandhra. Yarlagadda Ramakrishna Prasad, brother of Challapalli Zamindar, was somewhat friendly and sympathetic to us and had some progressive ideas. Of course he was mainly a businessman only but had good contacts and rapport with S.V. Narsaiah (SVK Prasad’s brother) and used to help our AISF activities. He wanted to establish a film studio in Hyderabad after the formation of Vishalandhra (Andhra Pradesh). Thus was born the Sarathi Studio at Amirpet, Hyderabad and I was asked to look after 9 Law Animated World, 15-31 March 2015
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Editor: I. Mallikarjuna Sharma Volume 11: 15-31 March 2015 No. 5-6

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