P.

SUNDARA rTA

TelanganaPeople'sArmedStruggle, 1946-I951
PART Two

First PhaseandIts Lessons

DURING the whole period of 1940-44, the Communist Party and the left cadre of the Andhra Mahasabha (AMS) carried on agitation and made representations, to see that whichever firmansof the Nizam favoured the people were put into practice and not sabotaged by the landlords and corrupt officials. This enabled the AMS to gain a wide popular image; the left wing led by our Party took over the leadership of the AMS. From the beginning of 1944, the AMS under the leadership of the Communist Party conducted many militant and deshmukhs, struggles against zamindars against the practice of vetti,against illegal exaction and against eviction of cultivators from their lands. The mood and militancy of peasant masses in Telangana at the beginning of the post-war period can be guaged from the following incident: In Dharmapuram Jangaon taluka, in Nalgonda district, the zamindar, Pusukuri Raghavarao, sent his goondas to drive away the tribals from the lambaditanda (hamlet of the lambadipeople, a backward tribal community), who had in their possession 80 acres of dry and 25 acres of wet land. The lambadis under the leadership of the AMS, or the Sanghamas it was Known to the people, took up sticks and slings, planted red flags in their fields and, marching

TELANGANA

PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE

19

up and down, protected their fields, drove away the goondas and tilled their lands. It was the lambadiswho had cleared these waste lands and cultivated them for decades. The landlord who had all the power in the village in his hands could not drive away the lambadisand was defeated in his plans. This is just one example. Many other mass struggles were conducted during this period-in Mundrai village, in Errapadu, in Betavolu, in Bakkavantulagudem, in Mallareddygudem, in Mellacheruvu, in Allipuram and Thimmapuram, in Mulakalagudem, in Nasikallu village, and so on.

the Revolt Agrarian Sparkthat Set Afire Telangana
of Visnur Ramachandra Reddy, the hated deshmnukh Jangaon taluka forcibly tried, in one of his villages, Palakurthi, to take possession of land belonging to a washer-woman, Ailamma, a staunch supporter and worker of the Sangham. He planned to seize the harvest directly from the fields. Just before this, he had sent his goondas to murder the Sangham leaders in a public meeting in that village. But the people had foiled his plans and had given a sound beating to the goonda leader, Onamala Venkadu. Using this as a pretext, the landlord arrested 14 of the Sangham leaders and lodged a case against them for attempted murder. Leaders of the Sangham from that village, taluka and district were involved in the case. With the people scared, Visnur Ramachandra Reddy considered that no one would obstruct him from taking possession of Ailamma's land. The landlord sent a hundred goondas and a hundred farm servants, men and women, to gather the harvest. The Sangham leaders and 28 volunteers, staking their lives, armed with lathis and shouting slogans attacked the goondas. At the sight of these volunteers marching deter-, mined in formation with lathis, the goondas ran for their lives. The harvest was gathered and sent to Ailamma's house. The same night, police from Visnur arrived but dared not touch the harvested grain roused spiritof thepeople. the stored in Ailamma's house. The incident The next morning, six leaders were arrested and taken to the Visnur police station. At midnight they were taken with shackles on their hands and feet to the kutcheri houses, beaten and tortured brutally. In spite of this, Ailamma's harvest could not be seized. The victory over Visnur Ramachandra Reddy, the notorious deshmukh, enthused and to the people of the whole of Telangana. Long after, gave courage the people used to describe this heroic struggle and sing songs about it.

of Martyrdom Doddi Komarayya
The Visnur deshmukh,very much enraged, took the incident as a big defeat, the like of which he had not experienced in his life-time. He planned to murder the leaders of Kadavendi village with the help of the

When the procession came near the house of the zamindar. drove them away. hoist the red flag and declare: "The Sangham is organised here. was hit in the stomach by a bullet and died on the spot. Baburao. 1946. As part of his plan. But the people had already surrounded it. The song saluting the hero used to be sung at all meetings and processions which took place in the district. sensing trouble. about 60 policemen who came to the village told the people that they would take action against the goondas and asked them to go home. But. They surrounded the zamindar's house. armed with lathis and slings and raising slogans. no more illegal exactions. The goondas taking shelter in the shed panicked and jumped into the zamindar'shouse. some were keeping watch outside the village. inspite of this. All of them pledged that they would not bend before the zamindar.situated on the main road. work for the Sangham. who was leading the procession. he launched cases against several people and got 15 of them arrested. leaving everything behind. The people. goondas. and some were parading the village streets. The village Sangham leader. fired many rounds at the people. Seeing the enraged masses the goondas ran away for their lives. After the post-mortem on the body of Doddi Komarayya. and the people came with dried grass and other fuel to set fire to the house of the zamindar. goondas. People rose in all talukas in Nalgonda. They would jointly hold public meetings before the brick-built stronghouse of the landlord. took out a procession. began pelting stones at the houses of the leaders of the people. Komarayya's death and martyrdomset ablaze the pent-upfury of the Telanganapeasantry. six cases were launched against the Sangham leaders. daggers and pistols. took shelter in Madapuram tanda. People of one village armed with sticks and slings would march to the neighbouring villages and rouse them. Some had surrounded the bungalow. came from Visnur with 200 goondas armed with swords. Visnur Ramachandra Reddy's son. They were later released on bail. shouting "blood for blood". no . who had taken shelter in a shed near the house. Some others were injured. The police handed the goondas over to the zamindar. No more vetti. people took it in a big procession in the village and and cremated it. For the next three months they did not allow the zamindar'smen to come to the field and do the work. but the people there. The crowd swelled to nearly 2000. who were drunk.but with renewed energy. while running away. Doddi Komarayya. Apart from this. Many of them. thinking that its high walls would give them protection. But the people did not run away in panic. At this time.20 SOCIAL SCIENTIST police. People who were on the look-out outside the village raised slogans and rushed towards the goondas. the people were undeterred. News was sent to the surrounding villages. On July 4.

Our Party." If the landlord did not carry out these orders of the Sangham. especially in those areas where our cadre were facing determined attacks from the lathials (paid goondas . neighbouring Warangal(and Khammam) to Directives Counter Mass ArrestsandPolice Terror By the beginning of 1946. The people who came from neighbouring villages were fed in a village without any distinction of caste or religion. we had a trained volunteer corps capable of effectively using the ordinary lathi. the problems of land.TELANGANA PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE 21 eviction. The officers and men who used to collect it were not allowed to step into the villages. he was socially boycotted. our Party and the AMS started training people's volunteer corps in the Telangana area. house-maid or domestic servant-were carried out. The orders of the Sangham that none should work for such persons in the fields-or as barber. the Government could not collect the levy grain. in the course of conducting these struggles and developing its own independent political basis from 1942 onwards. who had lived on vetti. our Party's Central Committee reviewed the growing post-war upsurge of the people and decided upon a militant development of the mass struggles. In short. in organised squad fight. Vetti was brought to an end. The processions used to stop before the house of the zamindar and raise slogans for abolishing landlordism and against landlord and police terror. It demanded the unconditional withdrawal of all cases against the Indian National Army personnel. both of the working class and of the peasantry. That was the main feature of this period. In the Andhra area by 1945. It was the local leaders who marched. found it an absolute necessity to develop a people's volunteer corps to defend its cadre from the attacks of various goondas inspired by the Congress as well as by the landlords. For the first time. to put fear into the hearts of traitors to the people. abolition of zamindari. Songs written on Ailamma's land struggle had a powerful impact on the women. On that experience. It came out for an uncompromising struggle against the British and for full independence. and forcible grain levies-problems of their life-were connected with the slogan. A new feature of these processions was that along with men. eviction. The deshmukhs and village officials. The movement spread within a few weeksto about300 to 400 villages in Nalgondaand districts. vetti. washerman. it revised its reformist policies pursued during the war period. not only in their own villages but in other villages also. or if they remained. could not raise their heads. In the flood of the people's movement. addressed and spread this movement. A common practice was for the processionists to strike the ground with their lathis (gutupalu) with a thud. women also took part. either ran away from the villages.

If the masses are not prepared to defy courts and warrants. on a mass scale. It was only when under the incessant police attacks the first upsurge of the peasant masses were suppressed and our cadre forced to scatter. jump bail. to resist arrest. or mass militant defiance of authorities. The people's resistance in Dharmapuram village in Jangaon taluka and in Balemula village in Suryapet taluka were examples of the ele- . The mood and preparednessof the masses to take up a militant form of struggle could be guaged by their readiness to avoid arrests and face the consequences. the masses responded enthusiastically and carried out these instructions to the letter. stones and boiling water. with the sanction of the Polit Bureau. it is meaningless to think of any higher form of struggle. Large numbers of country-guns. were taught to a limited cadre. not to get caught by the police . but want to appear before courts. The Party instructed the volunteer squads not to take recourse to them. allowed our carde to arm themselves with muzzle-loaders and seize firearms (sporting guns. women with chilli powder. with lathis and slings. fight confiscation and auctions. the Arms Act was not strictly enforced. swords and country-made guns) of the deshmukhs and jagirdars. as this would transform the struggle into an entirely new stage and would have all-India repercussions. But it must be noted that in those struggles of 1945-46 (excepting the latter part of the year). developing newer forms of resistance on their own initiative to big police raids. some elementary training in handling small arms and some elementary fielderaft. In the Telangana villages. that the Party. come out on bail bonds and employ lawyers to defend them. As the experience of the Telangana movement shows. and hundreds of AMS militants-peasans and agricultural labourers and youth-the Party gave a call to defy the summons and arrest warrants. resist confiscation and auction of the properties of wanted persons. revolvers and rifles) and allowed them to go in for armed self-defence. were available and in common use. and when the police and their landlord agents started combing villages and fields widely. to defend their hearth and home. hover around and come back to the villages to carry on normal activities the moment the police went away.22 SOCIAL SCIENTIST armed with lathis. day after day. As the Nizam Government resorted to mass arrests of AMS and Party cadre. to harass and demoralise the masses. These trained volunteer corps proved useful in defending the peasants against the landlords' goonda attacks in the Nalgonda district in 1945 and 1946. retreat before a large police force. when hundreds and thousands are dragged to court after court. This brought in hundreds and thousands of peasant youth. Only then. the peasant squads were not trained to take up fire-arms. the use of explosives for mining and bomb-making and tactics to attack enemy targets. or muzzle-loaders.

The military raids on Patasuryapet. The military raids did not stop there. Heaps of stones were collected in the villages. The raids went on for days and nights and the people were harassed. fences. wherever he might be. a watch was kept. Every street had heaps of stones. kept watch the whole night. That was the mood. Another important feature at this stage was the absence of enemy agents in the villages : they had either run away.TELANGANA PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE 23 mentary and spontaneous nature of the mass activity and resistance at this stage. Pressure was brought on the people to trace out the village Sangham committee members. and a sling to throw stones. The people from neighbouring villages came to these places and. arrangements for the carrying of news were made perfect. pounding sticks and so on were kept on hand. on all sides of the village. every house had some stones.2 The people's upsurge was temporarily disrupted. Besides this. they immediately decided that these centres must be protected.' The following example of their preparations for resistance would be revealing: Patasuryapet in Suryapet taluka. the cadre was scattered under severe repression. when this was sounded. the Party cadre had no idea of military raids. The people used to be rounded up and taken along with the military for searching the fields. their strength and their results. Day and night. Military camps were established in many villages. shrubs and all other possible places. but would get deflected by the sack cloth ! Besides this naive belief. Devaruppula and Mallareddygudem. the idea was to shout slogans and scare away the military. The bullet would not penetrate. Armed with lathis and slings and with one's body wrapped in gunny cloth. along with the local people. The whole district was handed over to the military. When this news reached the people. cultivation work and other work of the Sangham. at night. or had submitted to the will of the people. everyone. had their impact. At the same time. The village cadre used to carry out every detailed direction of the taluka and district leaders. chilli powder. the people were . During daytime. Devaruppula inJangaon taluka and Mallareddygudem in Huzurnagar taluka were expected to be the next targets of big police raids. wells. with couriers ready to relay the news of the police to other villages. was to rush in and join the battlefield with his weapons. Every man and woman in every house pledged himself or herself to the fight. their weapons. Each one had a stick. Practically every family participated in these struggles. A big drum was put in the centre of the village. with the attendant brutalities and terror. The beating of the drums could be heard in the neighbouring villages also. the discipline and the confidence that the people had. Balemula. the leaders of the volunteer corps and the other chief leaders of the Sangham. During this stage. watch-used to be the daily programme. the spirit. one could face the rifle shots-this was the idea entertained by the local cadre.

along with his goondas who had become notorious in Kothagudem. Pichireddy. and those remaining could not be given protection. The Nizam's son. The patels. used to participate in the searches for the Sangham leaders. But after these resignations. People also beat up the goondas ofJannareddy Pratap Reddy at Chilpakunta and the goondas of other landlords. even without the help of the military. In Ramannapet taluka. who tried to loot the houses. three CID men. when the people found it necessary to control the activities of the traitors. his hands and legs were also broken. outside the village. Though the landlords had their own firearms. the landlord of Bakkamantulagudem in the Choutapalli area. used to sleep together. In Seetaramapuram. was killed by the people. The women. In Patasuryapet village. taking advantage of the military raids. and advised them to come to terms with them. the men used to live scattered all over the fields. The village traitors. armed with knives. patel and landlord were given a good beating and their arms and legs were broken. Some people were persuaded to resign from the Sangham on the understanding that the military raids would stop if they did so. in groups of 15 and 20. and insulted the wife of the village leader. returned. the goondas and the other anti-people elements who were emboldened by the military camps in the villages. The people surrounded the house of Bhogala Veerareddy. the hated police patel lost his life at the hands of the people. emboldened. so as to be able to protect their honour. In the fight. The people stood these hardships without losing courage. but the rifle was broken by lathi-blows. the Pallerla deshmukh. the military took the people along with them everywhere. they would not leave the place alive. Pichireddy. During the night. the Visnur deshmukh's goondas. Saidireddy.24 SOCIAL SCIENTIST asked to pay the grain levy. The Chandupatla landlord.patwarisand deshmukhs. who had left the villages and gone to the towns. who had come disguised. were beaten up and let off with a warning that if they. or any of their lot. were resisted successfully by the people. the police. Some elders in the villages started discouraging the people. A number of local and village leaders were arrested. These conditions prevailed till May 1947. In Kadavendi village. He tried to resist with his rifle. a big traitor. Mukkaram Jah. Bhogala Veerareddy. the people decided to go to their houses with lathis and knives and teach them a lesson. started taking the villagers along with them to look for the leaders. visited many taluka centres and donated clothes to many people. where one leader was arrested on a hillock. and his brother. lathis and other weapons. who . were dragged out of the cart in which they were travelling and given a good beating. saying that they would not be able to face the military.a hated oppressor. dared to enter the village again. In Addagudur village. in search of the leaders of the Sangham and the Communist Party.

and thrashed while returning from the police station. The local people started writing posters and leaflets. with their valuables. By morning. Its reformist understanding of the massesin the immediate post-war and functioning during the war period made it difficult for it to foresee these developments and prepare itself and the people's organisation for them. Reports of the Chilukuri deshmukh. democratic agrarian programme. Even when our Party took to developing militant mass struggles during the second half of 1946. The feeling spread among the people that the Sangham was back in their midst. It came out with an anti-feudal. SomeLessonsAboutThis Phase One patent fact that emerges from the events of 1945 and 1946 is that our Party had not understoodthe depth of the revolutionary upsurge situation. faced with the Congress Ministry's repression. the landlords were given a beating by the people in disguise. in an independent India. including the Andhra area.TELANGANA PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE 25 attacked the volunteers. The search for Sangham leaders stopped. organised seizure of waste lands and lands under zamindariand in the illegal possession of feudal landlords in the Andhra area. they could not move about without protection. and pasting these on the walls and doors of their houses. On the eve of the transfer of power on August 15. 1947. An important change took place in the conditions in the whole of the Nalgonda district due to these actions against the traitors. and being waylaid of the resistance to the jagirdar of Dorakunta by harijan agricultural labourers rekindled a new spirit and created a favourable atmosphere for the Sangham in the taluka. A large number of leaders were under detention or underground during the first few months of 1947. under the Prakasam ordinauce. warning the anti-people elements in the village. Leaflets threatening the police were thrown into the police camps. farm servants who worked in the houses used to leave these leaflets on the tables and cots in the houses of the landlords. they were very effective in striking terror into the hearts of the enemy. and against the landlords. In many places. was virtually under ban. this news had spread all over the taluka. would be. All the landlords and their goondas ran away to the taluka centres. advocated dissolution of Hyderabad State and raj merging it in its neighbouring linguistic areas. in various sectors. In many places. The Party in the Madras province. the enemy left and shifted to the towns. it withdrew them. all . goondas and other anti-people elements. It is true that only our Party came out with the slogan of "people's in Vishalandhra". It traced out a vision of what people's raj in Vishalandhra. Jupudi Narasimha Rao. got a blow on the head and died on the spot. In some places. but all this was envisaged as a slow process.

resulted in total dislocation But in spite of our hesitation--which and disruption of the first upsurge-the Telangana people's discontent and upsurge was so deep and great that by their spontaneous activity (guided they by our Party with all its limitations). -People of one village rushed to the help of neighbouring villages under police attack. we would have trained our cadre and the people for launching vigorous attacks on the whole feudal system. it was the Telangana struggle in Hyderabad State. The line of conducting militant mass struggles went into the background and the Party was involved in a controversy as to whether all-out support should be extended to the Nehru Government of national independence. in the name of defeating the British imperialist conspiracies and the narrow Vallabhbhai clique. spread to hundreds of villages. We lords-instead could have trained our cadre and militants not only for defence with the lathi. to a certain extent encouraged and supported by the It was Vayalar Indian National Congress and the Indian Government. and developed our Party on correct Marxist-Leninist principles. groping hesitantly. taking Telangana itself. It was only in the Hyderabad and Travancore States. and Punnapra under the leadership of our Party against the Travancore Maharaja and his Dewan. who were out to undermine the newly won independence. that gave vent to the post-war discontent. in every manner possible. and within a few weeks. got ready to face the armed police. . again led by our Party. With the advent of independence. C P Ramaswamy Iyer. illegal exactions and compulsory grain levies. step by step. and the orientation to an agrarian revolt. who started resisting the attacks of the armed goondas of -People. and partly because of the inability of our Party to give a proper lead to the masses owing to its weakness and isolation from the rest of the democratic parties and groups. If we had had a correct revolutionary grasp of the situation that was shaping up. but for armed defence also. -Put an end to vetti (forced labour). -The women joined their menfolk in the actual resistance.26 SOCIAL SCIENTIST of them were released or came out. which refused to join the Indian Union. thus the movement became one for abolishing feudal landlordism and even the Nizam's rule. the landlords and beat them back. seized the illegally acquired lands and the surplus lands from the landof doing this later. We would not have hesitated for such a long time before allowing our cadre to seize and use the country guns. that the people's discontent and struggles were further developed. whatever militant movements were conducted in British India slowed down-mostly because the people were expecting big changes from the Congress Government headed by Nehru. and even the military forces of the Nizam. and started to reoccupy the lands seized by the landlords and the deshmukhs.

to our Andhra unit. 1948. and later. the Party was under attack from the Congress Government even during the first half of 1947. It was to the credit of our Party. merging its linguistic components into the respective linguistic areas and the formation of united linguistic states in an Indian people's state. that it guided the Telangana anti-feudal and anti-Nizam struggle from 1940 to 1946 and converted the Andhra Mahasabha into a united mass organisation and front of all the anti-Nizam people's forces. This struggle shook the very foundations of the Nizam's rule. the Party helped to regroup the scattered movement in Telangana and was able to reorientate it on proper lines-first. and the abolition of Nizam rule. in developing it into the anti-feudal and anti-Nizam agrarian revolt. once again in August 1947 (when the Nizam refused to join the Indian Union) to surge forward in spite of the bitter blows it had received earlier. then. The whole national sentiment was in favour of this movement. to stop it from spreading further and to buttress their own class rule in Hyderabad State as well as in the rest of India. For this. it was once again banned and attacked on January 30. The bourgeois-landlord Government of independent India. in developing it into a liberation struggle against the Nizam's rule. the Nizam. in joining with the State Congress leaders in the struggle for merging the State in the Indian Union and giving it a mass character. The depth of the mass discontent and upsurge enabled the struggle. under the leadership of the Congress and Nehru. because they wanted the stooge and supporter of British imperialism. It provided shelter and help to the cadre and people under the Nizam's attacks. rushed their armed forces to suppress the Telangana agrarian revolt. Armed Resistance AgainstNizam and Razakars The Congress gave the slogan of merger of the state with the Indian Union. As the waves of anti-feudal agrarian revolt spread. and a mass militant cultural upsurge of militant songs. etc resulted. also wanted Hyderabad's merger. in the special and peculiarly favourable conditions in Hyderabad State. to be thrown . It made the coastal districts the rear of the Telangana people's movement. All the democratic forces in the whole of India were in favour. it popularised the struggle of the Telangana people.TELANGANA PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE 27 -The Sangham became their guide and leader and helped to solve all their problems. It won the confidence of the people and became the leader of this front and organisation. During this period. after the short period of legality following independence. and mobilised wide-scale support to the fighting Telangana peasantry. including the disputes between husbands and wives. headed by the big bourgeoisie. Later. the big bourgeois-led bourgeoislandlord Government of independent India. folk arts. in the coastal areas. the idea of Vishalandhra. We advocated at the same time dissolution of the state.

the growing bourgeoisie. Finally. of forced grain levy. He organised the Razakars under the leadership of Kasim Razvi. All currents joined in this all-in anti-Nizam struggle. as the movement developed. The movement became a widespread people's movement. for a democratic regime. We started seizing the grain stocks of the hated landlords and distribuiting it to the rural poor. We actively turned it into a definite anti-fuedal agrarian revolt. of vetti. The Nizam's rule was shaking to its foundations. We led them not only to retain the lands they were cultivating on lease from the landlords. the records of the moneylenders. the rural poor. but the sweep was deeper and statewide. only this time. of illegal exactions. reduction in rent and. Our Party and the AMS did not confine themselves to transforming the items of the Congress programme into action. The workers wanted employment and better wages. All the groups. into one of large-scale mass participation. . of the Majlis Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen. The ceiling started with 500 acres . to refuse to deliver the forced grain levies. He let them loose.28 SOCIAL SCIENTIST out. the capitalist landlords and rich peasantry also wanted the Nizam's autocracy to go for their own economic and political development. on the villagers. looting. A progressive section of the Muslims also joined the movement. and wanted land for cultivation. arson. the toiling peasants. the Communist and the AMS squads. but with whatever firearms could be obtained. Patasuryapet. He had resorted to large-scale terror. Balemula and Mallareddygudem was witnessed. The people began to feel that once again the "Guttapalu Sangham" (the lathi sangham) was on the march. it was not only with lathis. We led the people to stop all kinds of forced labour and illegal exactions. the three linguistic nationalities wanted liberation. along with draught cattle and agricultural implements. the Congress. and all promissory notes and bonds executed in their favour. of forced labour. Along with the records of patels and patwaris. We led them to occupy and cultivate the waste lands of the Government and of the big landlords. later. within a few months. as in the days of Devaruppula. total non-payment of rents to the bigger landlords and to the enemies of the people was also encorced. but also to recover all the lands illegally seized by the landlords . as the urgency to meet the poor peasant demand for land grew. we began seizure of the surplus lands of the landlords and their distribution to the poor peasantry. as a component part of the Indian Union.we burnt the records of the landlords. and the people were arming themselves. torture. with the full backing of the army. then by stages was reduced to 100 acres dry and 10 acres wet. The same enthusiasm. the whole Hindu population wated the feudal Muslim Nawab's rule to go. and experience got enriched. because of the desire to merge with their own linguistic areas and develop their language and culture. wanted the wholesale abolition of feudal landlord exploitation.

Under this heavy-handed terror. about 3000 Suryapet villagers took a victory march to Anantaram. police agents. a large number of persons. The cooperation that had existed in the initial stages of the merger movement between the Congress and the AMS cadre evaporated within a few weeks. they broke open the stores of the landlord and distri- . with whatever organisation they could muster. anti-Nizam armed struggle developed in the Telangana area rapidly: village squads with about 10. left for the Union territory for protection. landlords and their goondas. 3000 people surrounded the Tadakamalla landlord's paddy stock. nearly 2000 militants. In Huzurnagar. Only the Communist and AMS squads could continue to function inside the state and fight back the Razakar and Nizam terror. from where they started counter-raids. with whatever weapons they could lay hands on. migrated to the Indian Union territory. became the common programme. 400 bags of paddy were distributed among the people. The sweepof the anti-feudaland anti-landlordmovementand the mass character the anti-Nizam movement the that was takingshapecooled ardour of of the Congressleadership. Our squads had to act and disarm many of these Congress squads. 3000 villages administered by village panch committees or gram rajyams. continued to supply the Nizam's forces with arms and ammunition while the Nizam Government and its police and army personnel went on with their marauding raids on the people and on the freedom fighters in the State. Having no stomach for such a radical programme. After their usual programme. Congress satyagraha camps and squads also left the area. and all rural services organised by these fighting people's committees. fighters and leaders laying down thei lives but taking a heavy toll of the Nizam's armed personnel. It is to be noted that quite a large number of militant and honest members of these Congress squads joined us later and fought together with us.TELANGANA PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE 29 murder and rape stalked the land. The anti-Razakar.000 members and regular guerrilla squads with more than 2000 members were formed. The people had to defend themselves and fight back. in support of the exploiting landlords. New Upsurge Thousands of people from 10 to 15 villages coming together and marching to other villages with their lathis. Razakars. In Miryalagudem taluka. and established their armed camps on the borders. driving them away from villages. especially from the rich top sections. innumerable struggles. hoisting national and red flags. education and health. land distribution. breaking open the grain stocks of the landlords and distributing it to the people. heroic deeds. It is a matter of historical record that the Government of India concluded a stand-still agreement with the Nizam. their squads degenerated into raiding and launching attacks on the people.

people from the villages were forming village squads and were resisting the Razakars and the police. the people foiled their plans. Just as in the earlier period the people. four comrades dressed as Brahmin priests entered the station master's room. The people took the initiative. Muzzle-loaders. successfully made their way out. property and honour. knives etc and everything they used in hunting. The fourth seized the rifle. One policeman was sitting in the room. They were ready to protect their houses. When the hidden arms were not found in some houses. With the people's initiative. police and customs outposts and railway protection police forces were raided. every village acquired from five to ten muzzle-loaders. Youth in villages formed themselves into village squads. They brought in their country rifles. One day. They had with them spears. Ingenious methods were used by the people in these efforts. and arms seized. all of them. Hiudus and Muslims. One comrade engaged the station master. The Razakars who had their centres in cities and towns used to raid the villages. asked for railway tickets. who used to raid the villages. threatening the policemen and the station master. the people used to enter the houses. muzzle-loaders and rifles when they made these raids. shikaririfles etc from the deshmukhs. they got hold of 12-bore guns. When the village officers tried to recover the weapons from the local people to hand them over to the Government. and saying that they wanted to go to Yadagiri Gutta to the Narasimhaswamy temple. asking him about the fare etc while two comrades caught hold of the policemen. Similarly. the land tax and the excise . two policemen were kept on guard duty. They had . They had stopped giving the levy. They collected arms from wherever they could. The lathi sangham was named the "Victory March Sangham" (Jaitra ratra Sangham). with his rifle leaning against the wall. shot-guns and rifles of all varieties were seized by the people and local squads to arm the village as well as the regular squads. spears. Patels and patwaris who had come to some agreement with the villagers were persuaded to hand over their arms.30 SOCIAL SCIENTIST buted the grain. jambias.303 rifles. swords. the other policeman was not in the station. search all over for arms and take them away forcibly. fought the landlords in the villages unitedly. the people kept a day-and-night watch on the houses and the movements of the inmates to prevent hidden arms from being sent out of the villages. at four in the evening. without falling prey to religious fanaticism. Besides these muzzle-loaders. To give one example of the ingenuity of the people and of local squads: In Vangapalli railway station. now also they fought shoulder to shoulder against the Razakars. Where they refused to give in. These arms were captured by raiding the houses when the enemy was alone or careless. loot the people and pull down the national and red flags. At this same time.

the capacity to mount surprise and quick actions upon. Taluka (zonal) squads were organised and some modern weapons were given to them also from district squads. they had become an easy target for the enemy. Whenever a bigger force was required. Coordination and mutual help among district and different taluka squads was organised. The lack of this basic character of guerrilla activity would have led to irreparable losses and to total destruction. burn houses.TELANGANA PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE 31 duty. and the zonal (taluka) and village squads had none. the tactical coordination between its various squads and the use of available firepower and manpower were not there. People started resisting them. there were the district guerrilla squads. the district squads alone were not sufficient. small guerrilla squads of 10 members as a standard unit for actions were formed. but for the very low morale and the total isolation of the Nizam's forces. In Suryapet. the quick dispersal and reconverging. had become too cumbersome. the training of squad leaders of the command and its auxiliary personnel at the company level were lacking. to five and three persons. 1) VillageSquads: The youth in the villages joined these squads. and quick disengagement with. The party organised and trained regular armed guerrilla squads without which the people's resistance could not be really effective and succeed. to evade the enemy's dragnet and to get the necessary shelter and the mobility for action. But the few modern weapons were with the district squads. In the beginning. The structure of all guerrilla forces was as is described below. The grain procured under levy and the grains of the landlords and the anti-people elements were distributed to the people. though they were a morale-booster to the guerrillas and the people. insult and rape women. when the Indian Union military intervened. The necessary training of the ordinary squad members. The technical military skill of a whole company going into action. then the zonal (taluka) and village squads were formed. the number in a particular squad rose from 10-20 to 100-120. two to three squads were mobilised. Various actions were taken against traitors who were harassing the people and giving information to the Razakars. After some initial losses and experiences. loot the houses. These company squads. the size of these squads was reduced even further. To resist the Razakars and police. This was realised in practice by the Party. these company formations were given up as premature at this stage. Formation Guerrilla of Squads Razakars and armed police used to raid the villages daily. They were called company squads. the enemy were absent. Huzurnagar and Nalgonda talukas. kill people and forcibly collect levy and excise duty. Later. Besides. While carrying on their own normal vocation they had to resist the Raza- . The organisation of supplies.

etc. too. etc. With the formation of regular guerrilla squads. had courage. nails and such other things as their equipment. Whenever necessary. a change came in the armed resistance movement. Their work mainly was to resist Razakar and police raids. taxes. There was regular coordination of these two branches of work. The guerrillas used to ambush or attack and fight the enemy forces face to face. spades. had to dig up the roads so that the enemy vehicles did not come that way. the retaliation of the guerrillas at Pedaveedu village. or raid and destroy the enemy camps. 3) Regular Guerrilla Squads: In these squads. raid near Kandagatla wells. Squads: These forces had to carry on their 2) VillageDestruction normal occupation. the Party work was divided into two branches-political and military. The members of these squads were not to be exposed. the Razakar and police raids on Puligilla village and the . that the village moderates did not discourage or see confusion among the people at the time of the struggles nor entice them to pay grain levy. From among the youth who joined the squads. quick wit and had won the people's confidence and the Party's confidence. The village squads used to work in cooperation with these regular guerrilla squads and help them whenever necessary. They had to coordinate their work with the village squads. and destroy the property of those enemies who were in the police and enemy camps. They had limited modern weapons with muzzle-loaders. due to inexperience. and enthuse them and help the village committee in their day-to-day work. the raid on the Bikkumalla palm-groves. After the formation of guerrilla squads. and were working as whole-timers. and on top of this. This was an important step. the heavy losses to the people's forces. planks.32 SOCIAL SCIENTIST kars and the police with muzzle-loaders and spears. Every member who was recruited into these forces had not only to take a pledge but also remember and concentrate on it always. They became experts in these resistance attacks. the lightning raid on Mamillagudem camp. The raid on Ravulapenta camp. baskets. they used to carry out raids and immediately disperse. destroy the enemy and protect the people. the tactic of the Kotapadu 'smoke bomb. Their number used to be about 10 in a squad. such people were recruited as had given up their own occupation. crowbars. the first raid after regular district armed squads were formed. These squads with their country weapons became the nuclei of the people's armed forces that enabled the people to destroy the governmental authority in village after village and establish people's rule in about 3000 villages of Telangana. in Chintalammagudem. keep planks full of nails on the road to puncture the tyres of the enemy's vehicles. capable young men were recruited to the regular guerrilla squads. They had muzzle-loaders. spears. They had to carry on political propaganda amongst the people. and who were very much disciplined. see that the enemies in the village did not raise their heads. the murder of comrades by Razakars in Chitakoduru.

the encounter at Kootigallu. the heavy losses suffered at Lingampalli. the number of enemy personnel in the other camps increased. the fight at Ammanabrolu village. Vetti. corrupt and autocratic rule. the action in Kothakonda. from a cruel and hated feudal rule. The attempts to surround and destroy the camps were made on a big scale. the political and economic tasks urgently needed were successfully carried out. no eviction from the land. They started out for some elementary relief in their miserable life: no vetti. Thus. in Nasimpet. for education and culture and for responsible self-government. They liberated villages from the enemy's grip. the squads and the people took the programme of destruction of camps to arrest these raids and put up the enemy on the run. The movement developed under the leadership of the Communist Party and the AMS into a powerful people's armed struggle for land and liberation. no illegal exactions. People destroyed the camp buildings vacated by the military. and against the hated Nizam's rule.illegal exactions. the fight against cavalry raids in the villages of Arruru. and the attack on Mushtyalapalli camp were notable examples of this programme. Velamajala and Rapaka and in the palm-groves of Solipet. in Vadlakonda and in Akunuru. The conditions of the people in 3000 villages improved. the raids on Wardhannapeta-these were some of the heroic armed actions of this phase of the struggle. One result was that the raids suffered by each village became less. against feudal exploitation. The military and the police used to be in a continual fright. groped their way slowly towards a new life. the great battle at Bairanpalli.3 The activity of the Communist Party in the Khammam-MadhiraKothagudem (Palvancha) area. The number of camps decreased. to nearly one-third of the Telangana area where gram raj and fighting committees were established. the fight in Manukota taluka. and less frequent. the destruction of Kodakandla camp. With the increase in enemy raids. In many cases the people were not successful. It spread to about 3000 villages. the fight to get Addaguduru camp abolished. in Nutanakallu and in Amrnanabrolu village. the fight for the release of the levy grain carts near Konduru. and the winning over of Koya youth and the people are also part of the saga of this phase of the struggle. groaning under a cruel. The guerrilla squads were helping the people. the stiff resistance on the hillock of Errabelli village. from forced labour and illegal exactions.' Achievements the ArmedLiberation of StruggleAgainstthe Nizam The people of Telangana. the safeguarding of a woman's honour in Anantapur. but there were many other successes and gains. The attack on Atmakur camp and Errapadu camp. fighting the enemy and protecting the villagers. with their language and culture suppressed. for elementary civil liberties. . eviction from the land. suffering from age-old feudal oppression. no torturing and dishonouring.TELANGANA PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE 33 murder of 22 people.

waste lands and surplus lands of the landlords to the extent of a million acres along with the necessary cattle and agricultural implements were distributed to the rural poor." it was not a far cry to come to the conclusion. The movement started with asserting that no peasant be evicted from the lands he had been cultivating. This slogan had become an urgent practical reality by sheer pressure of the developing movement. it became a state-wide slogan of action: "all evictions must be stopped and land seized by the landlords must be restored. only from there could they go on their forages during certain hours of the day. Let us analyse what lies behind the success of the Telangana people's great upheaval. The AMS and the communist Party took over without hesitation the slogan of the peasant masses: "Restore the illegally occupied lands to the original peasants. Their main declared purpose was also the suppression of 'Communist violence'.34 SOCIAL SCIENTIST usurious loans. and torture and dishonouring by corrupt officials and village oppressors were put an end to. They fought and laid down their lives along with these peasant masses. beginning with the successful defence of Ailamma's crop from the Visnur deshmukh. to the whole of Telangana and beyond." The Communists proudly raised that burning question and stood with the expectant and fighting peasant masses. Even the enemy press doralu(kings at night). The landlords had leased the land to some other small peasants. Later. they guided them to enforce this in practice. to send its own army on the plea of curbing Razakar violence on the people and making the Nizam accede to the Indian Union. This slogn gave rise to innumerable problems before the panch committees and the Sangham organisers. "all illegal evictions and occupations must be cancelled. Regular guerrilla squads and village defence squads were organised. The movement was spreading to more and more areas." This spread like wildfire. whose lands were seized by the deshmukhs various raised the question of restoration of these lands." on The peasants. "Land to the tiller. the Nizam's police and army and the village oppressors were confined to the big camps. The people used to say that. It was at this juncture that the Ini lian Government decided to intervene. they could have two full meals a day. had to admit that the Communists were cheekati The Nizam's entire state and society were shaken to their roots. the slogan. Fair wages for agricultural labourers were enforced and grain distributed." The need for the unity of all the peasants whom the landlords had evicted earlier and those peasants who were now being evicted by the very same landlords was an urgent practical task. It was with great difficulty that an acceptable solution to the two contending peasants . From flimsy grounds. for the first time in their lives. and won significant victories. The great power behind it was the slogan. "all evictions must be stopped. or had sold it to them.

"People's Raj in Vishalandhra. The Government tried its best to take back these lands after the police action. The need for unity. to get patta rights. the surplus lands they had been cultivating. exorbitant rents. The principle adopted was to settle it by reconciling both. much more easily. When the struggle was withdrawn. and who were hand-in-glove with the would be confiscated. To satisfy the land-hunger to some extent. continues." in 1946 (a ceiling of 100 acres.TELANGANA PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE 35 could be found. This factor of the peasant's insistence on getting back his old land was an important one to be kept in mind. It tried to set up shepherds against the harijans and the agricultural labourers. after 20 years. there would not be land for their cattle or sheep to graze. the pressure of public opinion helped them to come to adjustments. with adequate compensation for the land taken over) was evidently born of a reformist understanding. but fought doggedly till the end to retain their own land restored to them. finally. but failed miserably. by the middle of 1948. The battle even now. while a good portion of the distributed surplus land was taken back by the landlords. Union army. when the landlords and deshmukhs that the peasants gave up. title deeds on these lands. This move began with the taking over of land over 500 acres. the land ceiling was reduced to 200 acres and. and to strengthen and consolidate the fighting mass base. But as the movement in Telangana developed. It was noted that the peasant could be moved more easily on the question of re-occupation of his own lost lands than on making him go to occupy the surplus lands of the landlords. The ceiling which the Party advocated in Andhra in the election pamphlet. usurious interests and other illegal exactions. It was also a feature after the intervention by the Indian were brought back. . The land-hunger of the rural poor made the agricultural labourer and the landless poor peasant occupy waste lands under the Government or under the occupation of the landlords. and the demand for land became more insistent. The Government had been forced gradually to concede this demand to a larger and larger number of cultivators. It did not analyse the actual class differentiation and evolve a suitable agrarian programme. telling them that if these waste lands were allowed to be cultivated. In Telangana. but not coercing them to accept any forced solution from above. leased lands and waste lands that had been newly cleared or occupied by the rural poor. the Party should have popularised the slogan that the land of the landlords who indulged in feudal exploitation. the ownership rights. to 100 acres dry and 10 acres wet. But all such obstacles were overcome by the Telangana peasant movement. But those Nizam andjagirdars and big deshmukhs. most of the land which was in the possession of the peasant masses were these 'restored lands'. it had become necessary to actively consider taking over all the surplus land.

Ravi Narayan Reddy and quite a number of his supporters challenged the correctness of distributing the land. Later. Such armed resistance to defend the partial gains or to defend partial demands is partisan struggle. is sheer bourgeois reformism and tailism. With the Indian army's entry and merger of Hyderabad State into the Indian Union. because such a situation and correlation of forces did not exist at that time. that land seizure and distribution during this period was wrong. The liberation struggle against the Nizam could not become automatically transformed into a liberation struggle against the Nehru Government or the Indian State. But to argue. permission for this was obtained from the Polit Bureau with some reluctance during the latter part of 1947. the question of defending the land and other gains of the Telangana peasantry was there. every partisan struggle is not necessarily a liberation struggle. Formationof Gram Raj Committees There was no Nizam Government in the villages during the . a different state with an entirely different correlation of class forces came into existence. as Ravi Narayan Reddy did.36 SOCIAL SCIENTIST who would come with the anti-Nizam movement would be left enough to earn a decent living cultivating with their own family labour and employing a certain amount of wage labour. at the same time. It is important to note here that the taking away of the surplus land and its distribution were resorted to when the pressure form the fighting masses became insistent. Even so. It was correct to have carried on armed resistance against the attempts of Nehru's armies to seize back land from the peasants and give it to the landlords. The GramRaj committees were in fact organs of struggle and. the Party leadership was following the policy of building a front with progressive sections of the Congress against the narrow Vallabhbhai clique in the name of strengthening the independence achieved in August 1947. It must be noted that all of them are now in the Right Communist Party. It is true that our Party in Andhra at that time decided to continue the Telangana armed struggle against the Indian Government (which had sent its armies mainly to suppress the Telangana peasant movement) as a liberation struggle. At that time. But the Telangana movement developed from small partial demands to partisan armed struggle to enforce these demands and later developed into an armed struggle to overthrow the Nizam's rule itself. Its understanding that this was the beginning of the Indian revolutionary armed struggle for people's democracy was wrong. Such partisan struggle is not to be confused with the partisan struggle carried on during the period of armed liberation struggle. organs of power.

In every village. despite the tremendous gains they got from the united struggle against the Government and zamindars. and the monthly salary (in grain) of farm servants from 40-60 kgs to 80-90 kgs and. and landlords were not entitled to receive rent or compensation on these lands. Some of them had begged for mercy and forgiveness from the guerrilla squads and from the people. Along with the lands. were reluctant to increase the daily wages of the agricultural labourers. these loans (either in cash or in the form of grain) ranged anywhere from Rs 5000 to Rs 15. The cattle herds of the enemies of the people were taken over and distributed. consisting of five or seven members. The village administration was carried on by the committees elected by all adults in the village. women and leaders of village squads were elected to these committees. Tenants were given full rights on lands they were tilling. in certain cases. All the problems were solved in a democratic way. Many ordinary people took part in this work. This order was changed under the agricultural reform. . Men. bribery and other dirty methods. The GramRaj committees used to solve the people's problems without the earlier prevalent evils of corruption. These were called GramRaj committees. What is notable is that the rich peasants. and promising to abide by their rule had stayed on. All these were free of cost. especially after the 'police action'.000. Loans which were given to the people by landlords. even to 120 kgs. the extra cattle belonging to the landlords were distributed to the people. and by bringing pressure on the peasants through their representatives in the village committees-succeeded to a great extent in their demands. along with the committee members. With the land received and the increase in wages. The majority of the village officers and the hated deshmukhs had run away from the villages. The daily wages were increased from 2 to 3 kg of grain to 4 kg.5 The agricultural labourers in these villages-sometimes through strikes and demonstrations for increases in their yearly or daily wages. goats and sheep and agricultural implements were also distributed. The cancellation of these loans amounted to ridding the people of a big burden. The lands which were confiscated by the landlords and the moneylenders (even 20 years earlier) were returned to the original owners. Strikes and demonstrations of agricultural labourers became inevitable. The landlords had deprived the people of good lands and had given them less fertile lands instead.TELANGANA PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE 37 movement. They and the capitalist landlords used to strongly resist increases in wages. deshmukhs and moneylenders were cancelled. a remarkable change came about in the political consciousness and the mode of living of the agricultural labourers. The agricultural reforms were carried out successfully. Along with the cattle.

very melodious and rousing to the masses. Sangham and Party to campaign against the age-old ideas prevalent in the society that women were inferior to men. such as Burra Katha. and training people to observe minimum hygiene . their defeat and so on. From the Gram committees. Many songs were written about every problem. about big incidents during the struggle. Pata (cradle songs) Kolatapupata Gojlasuddulu (shepherds' songs). Equal Rightsfor Women In this struggle. with this. they came from the ordinary people in the form of folk songs. Cultural Progress Political propaganda was carried on extensively. These songs. Women were elected to village panch committees. village squads to organisers and regular guerrilla squads. about martyrs. Vuyyala dance with small wooden pieces in the hands of the dancers. a programme of digging irrigation canals. Apart from this. Owing to this. about the atrocities of the enemy. palm leaves. The guerrilla squads used to exhibit their military knowledge before the people. without any distinction of caste and creed. Family disputes and problems were settled in accordance with the principle of the equality of men and women. supplied to peasants whose houses were burnt down during the struggle. it disappeared noticeably. all the people were forced to work and fight collectively. small tanks for agricultural betterment. it became easier for the Gram committees. medical facilities and health care. among the youth. grass. This practice changed the ideas of the people. cowherd boys used to give these cultural programmes and organise military drill. such as : the absence of government agents to collect taxes. Equality and mutual respect were strictly practised in guerrilla squads. Gram Raj committees proclaimed and campaigned that men and women had equal rights. whenever it was possible and necessary. demons and so on decreased to a great extent. These were not written by learned poets .38 SOCIAL SCIENTIST Under these gram rajyams. taken from the palm groves of landlords and government forests. there used to be cultural performances. women participated equally along with the men. (sing-song used to produce rhythmic sounds) and bhajans. Belief in gods. Along with this. fighting the evil of untouchability became easier. . everyone used to explain every problem in mass meetings.the people received many other benefits. wood. were sung everywhere and at any time. Abolitionof Untouchability In the struggle against the Government. an end to the programme of cutting down toddy-yielding palmyra and date trees. Local squads also used to take military training every day.

In the villages. Gram Raj committees could not clamp down too many restrictions and start suspecting these traders or interfere with their trade as possible enemy agents. small crime under effective control. or in fields. and the organiser and the guerrilla squad were always ready to help all of them. The guerrillas felt they were one with the people . This discipline and devotion became possible because they were closely linked with the people's movements. The Military Aspect the Struggle of The most satisfactory and inspiring aspect of this activity was the discipline and devotion of the village squads and the greater degree of these qualities in the regular squads. if necessary. a certain amount of bribing and understanding with the Nizam's officials had to be arrived at by the village traders or their counterparts in the towns. The people helped them in every way: billeted them in their homes. This was the secret of the amazing . The whole attitude of the people kept to such crimes kept the usual criminal in check. Many illiterate persons in the squads were able to read newspapers and books after a few months. But for this. the adult literacy programme was taken up and carried on. Gram Raj commictees.TELANGANA PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE 39 Even when the enemy raids were at a peak. Tradewith Towns Village committees had to make arrangements to carry on trade with towns . they were teaching others. they were fighting for the removal of their sufferings and grievances. or in huts at their irrigation wells scattered all over the fields. to lay down their lives for the cause of the people. and regular supplies of essential goods were brought from the towns and the produce of the peasantry were disposed of in the towns. The people loved the guerrillas. Because the towns were centres of enemy concentration. These squads came mainly from the toiling sections. The village squads gave their full support to this . especially the shattering losses it sustained during the Indian military terror regime of 1948-51. Owing to their political consciousness. It was through this trade that some essential raw material for making gunpowder or crude bombs could be gathered. many were ready to learn in a short time. Some anti-social elements indulging in such activities were caught by the people and the squads and were duly dealt with. which meant they were fighting to transform their accursed conditions of living. Village committees and village squads were not only learning themselves. nor could it have borne the tremendous losses in both the phases. These tasks were carried out by the village committees according to the principles and instructions laid down by the higher committees. were always ready. through their local squads. the movement could not have reached the sweep it did during its anti-Nizam liberation phase. respected them and praised them.

If only we had had some kind of military training. but their safety itself. The commanders of the squads implicitly obeyed the instructions and directives of the political organisers. But. even those belonging to the enemy. a minimum supply of modern weapons. As a result. perhaps the whole of Telangana could have be- . We could not combine and develop small-scale guerrilla actions of harassing the enemy into sufficiently large-scale operations to drive out the enemy from their scattered posts. was the lack of any kind of military training: knowledge of the use of fire-arms. no maltreatment of old men. in an entirely different political situation. If certain actions were taken against women in certain cases. supplies. we had to contend against the well-trained and disciplined Indian army. The general instructions were : do not hurt women or children.40 SOCIAL SCIENTIST discipline and devotion and of the capacity to bear great hardships. by then. Rarely did any action against any enemy take place without proper direction from the local committee or without the organiser's direction and decision. A number of times. There was no laying hands on women. from the military aspect. when thousands of actions and raids on the houses of the landlords or their agents were conducted. During this period of five years. and forwarded to the higher committees. till the Indian military intervention. the guerrilla forces had to suffer tremendous losses. even when the guerrillas are taking action against the enemy. Weaknesses There were lapses. These could have been avoided if better training. it was because these women rushed against the guerrillas. the Razakars and the Nizam's armed forces were in panic and on the run. Every bit of property. better awareness and better political consciousness had been imparted. our movement in Telangana could have been far more widespread . there were practically no complaints of misdeeds on the part of the guerrillas. articles. Its manufacture and repair was so dismally poor that even great enthusiasm and sacrifice could not overcome it. The biggest weakness. sentries posted in the plains failed to be alert at their post during the anti-Nizam struggle and during the first few weeks of the intervention by the Indian army. Nor were we able to capture any worthwhile number of modern weapons from the enemy. endangering not only their action. and of the readiness to make sacrifices. The elementary lack of military tacticsfor planning attacks or retreats-was so glaring that we failed to coordinate the actions of small guerrilla squads against the enemy. jewellery or cash confiscated from the houses of the enemy were meticulously accounted for. and to clear the enemy from larger and larger areas. and our squads helped by the mass upsurge seized quite an impressive number of modern weapons. Then.

there was little growth of the intelligentsia . and especially of the revolutionary working class movement and the Communist Party in the cities. on the spur of the moment. and keep the Indian army and Government at bay for such a long time. They helped us to organise houses. who had been driven out of the villages. could have won and retained great successes on the anti-landlord agrarian front. the working class was very small. in that phase. This was apart from the prospect of sections of the army or police revolting and joining the fighting peasantry. from where we could keep some contact with neighbouring fighting regions. and there was very little organised working class movement. could have been in a far better position to meet the onslaught of the Indian army and. The enemy made them his base for military and police operations. no hartals. perhaps. with practically no support or action from the cities. a good portion of whatever existed were from the big feudal or other landlord families. There was very little industrial development in these cities . But during that time. shake the Nizam's rule. even medicine. not even counter-intelligence on the enemy's moves. the Telangana armed struggle as peasants' partial struggle for land and not liberation struggle against the Nehru Government). Apart from this. could achieve such great success. The cities and towns had become strong fortresses and bases for the hated landlords and their agents. with whatever little guidance which the Communist Party could give them at that time. the cities and towns lagged far behind. rendered yeomen service to the Telangana movement. no general strike. at company or battalion level. places for a number of underground offices. The Telangana movement was essentially a peasant partisan movement. It was like the Paris Communards "storming the heavens". It became difficult to carry on the struggle in the rural areas. the impact of the huge Telangana upsurge upon the toiling masses and middle classes . given a correct political strategy. Whatever little contact we had. no sabotage actions or reprisals on the enemy. The weakness of the democratic movement. became a serious problem. Some supplies and some arms could also be procured. When the post-war mass upsurge started in Hyderabad. persisted. Classand UrbanCentres in Action not Working One of the biggest drawbacks during the whole of the Telangana movement was the weakness of the democratic movement in the cities and towns in Hyderabad State. There were no solidarity struggles in support of the fighting Telangana peasantry: no big demonstrations . It could not be developed into a real united worker-peasant onslaught on the enemy. (of treating. It is a wonder that in spite of the miserable weakness in this respect. To procure essential supplies.TELANGANA PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE 41 come capable of fighting militarily in bigger numbers. the spontaneous rising of the people and these squads springing from them.

2 Ibid. pp 139-174. and the "Story of Comrade Mudireddi Venkatachalam: Only Telangana Guerrillas Can Dare Do It. the sectarian policies followed by our Party had further isolated it from the people.42 SOCIAL SCIENTIST was there . 6 For two examples of the discipline and corps d'esprit that had developed. all their sympathies were with that struggle. the amount of loans cancelled was about Rs 8 lakhs. The Congress leadership was able to integrate the states into the Indian Union by promising privy purses and privileges to the princes. the physical annihilation and the calculated murder of 300 Communist leaders and cadre after arresting them. and by rousing the hopes of alleviation of grievances and of a new era to the people of the states. By striking the communist movement in its strongholds. Here the Congress Government launched a ferocious attack to liquidate it . the post-war upsurge in the rest of India had been more or less successfully contained by the rul- ing classes. and of rousing the rest of the country to emulate them. pp 131-132. Calcutta.. . the first attack in the first half of 1947 and the second attack beginning from January 1948 and lasting till the middle of 1951 . and. No All-IndiaSolidarityAction By the time the Telangana peasant movement assumed its armed partisan character. No real solidarity actions in support of the Telangana movement could be organised. 3 Ibid. pp 103-112 for details about the martyrdom of a few leading cadre. In that situation..7 Telangana People'sStruggle and its Lessons. whose life and death reveal a specific characteristic feature of the Telangana people's struggle at this stage. and later a liberation character against the Nizam's rule. Andhra and Bengal. The people's struggles were effectively halted. December 1972. pp 44-49. 5 In the areas surrounding Epuru and Errapadu villages. Only in the Andhra part of the Madras State.. Kerala. India had become independent. it was left to fight on its own. 1P Sundarayya. pp 68-89. see "Guerrilla Member and Toddy". By the time the Indian army intervened in Hyderabad State." Ibid. it tried to hamstring whatever possibilities of developing the revolutionary movement there were. published by CPI (M). had the Party and the people become the rear of the Telangana struggle. pp 41-42. from the beginning of October 1949. pp 132134. 4 See Ibid.. 7 The struggle of the Party and the democratic movement in the Andhra rear is dealt with in Ibid.. Political power was transferred by the imperialists to the Indian bourgeois-landlord classes.