My long interview with Dr Rajbahadur Gour - IM Sharma

I had taken a long interview with Sri Raj Bahadur Gour about 15 years back which I think apt to reproduce here [I. Mallikarjuna Sharma, Advocate; Convener, MARXIST STUDY FORUM and Editor, LAW ANIMATED WORLD (http://lawanimatedworld.blogspot.in/)]: 

Dr. RAJ BAHADUR  GOUR

Text of interview dated Monday
24-12-2001 at 02-00 P.M.
at Hyderabad.

Raj Bahadur Gour,
son of Rai Mahboob Rai Gour,
Born  21 July 1918 at Gowlipura, Hyderabad City.

This interview has been taken in the ordinary narrative form.

Rai Mahboob Rai Gour, son of Rai Hariprasad Gour was my father and Srimati Amaravathi Gour my mother. My mother belonged to Kaitholi village in Benares district. She died in my early childhood when I was only 3 years old. I am the only survivor of my mother’s children. A girl before me and a boy after me died in childhood. Thereafter, in 1930, my father married Girija Bibi, eldest sister of Manohar Raj Saxena, Advocate and Civil Rights leader. Girija Bibi gave birth to three sons – Raj Kumar Gour, Kunwar Bahadur Gour, Vijaya Bahadur Gour – and three daughters – Nalini Devi, Anjani Devi and Kamini Devi. So now we are seven brothers and sisters in our family. My father was in the service of Salar Jung State and retired in 1953. He died recently.

We belong to the Kayasth community. My forefathers lived in Kishenpur village of Goshain Gunj Tehsil of Faizabad District, Uttar Pradesh. Kishenpur is near Pausra – in fact they are almost joint villages. My grand father came down to Hyderabad along with two younger brothers and left the village to his elder brother, Kanta Pershad. He must have come here around 1850. He was employed in the service of Ghalibul Mulk Ghalib Jung. He married and permanently settled down here.

We have a piece of land in our ancestral village, left in the care of Kanta Pershad. He had a son, Hanuman Pershad, and a daughter – who married my mother’s eldest brother, Jagdamba Pershad. They had a daughter, Kusum, who is living with her husband and grandchildren in Azamgarh. Hanuman Pershad had a son, Bhagvath Pershad and the latter’s sons are now living in Goshain Gunj, Faizabad and Azamgarh.

I had my primary education in Mufeed-ul-Anam, Dharmwanth and Rifah-e-Am Schools in the Old City. Afterwards I had joined the third standard in Shalibanda Middle School in 1928, from which I passed my sixth standard in 1932. Up to this point I studied in Urdu Medium only. Then I joined 7^th Class in Government High School, Chaderghat, when I switched over to English medium. In 1936
I matriculated from this school, securing first division.

My school days have left some memorable impressions. Perhaps I had some political inclination from my tender childhood days. I was influenced most by my History teachers – Mr. Liaqat Ali Khan in the middle school and Mr. Deuskar in the High School. Mr. Liaqat Ali Khan perceived this incipient political inclination in me and advised me to take to law. Both of them created in me a taste for History. So much so that even while in High School I used to visit the State Library (it was then at the Abids Circle) and read several books on history. It was in that course that I happened to read Robert Sewell’s The Forgotten Empire about the history of the Vijayanagar Empire.

Likewise my English teachers in the High School,
Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Khan and Mr. Waman Rao influenced me very much, creating a strong taste for English in me and
Mr. Tassaduq Hussain ‘Sidq’ Jaisy, Urdu teacher and himself an old school poet, created the Urdu literary taste in me. But more so than Mr. Tassauduq Hussain it was my paternal uncle – Rai Mahboob Narayan Gour – who was mainly responsible for promoting in me the taste for Urdu. I was staying with him first in his students hostel (first at Domalguda and then at Sultan Bazar), and then in the house at Gowlipura. I used to get scholarships from quite an early age; I used to spend my savings from the scholarship on running a reading room. It was in this reading room that I read Prem Chand and also political literature coming from the Socialist Book Club at Allahabad, M.N. Roy’s Independent India and Ashok Mehta’s Congress Socialist - all this up to 1936.

I was not much interested in sports. In my school days
I used to play some Volleyball. But I used to always accompany our school football team whenever it played matches. This not as a player but as shouting fan to encourage our team. I do not recollect any sports and games activity in my college days.

I joined the Osmania University in 1936 to do my Intermediate with Science – Biology. I stayed in the ‘A’ Hostel and enjoyed a bursary of Rs. 10/- per month. I completed my Intermediate in 1938 and then joined the Osmania Medical College. It was the practice in this Medical College that the student standing first in the examination was granted both freeship and a bursary of Rs. 17/-; students in the second and third ranks were granted bursary only and students in the fourth and fifth ranks given freeships only. I have always stood second or third in the class and so all along I enjoyed a bursary of Rs. 17/- per month.

In the Medical College, my Professor of Pathology,
Dr. Ali Hussain was quite hostile to me. But Dr. Nusrat Ali, the Reader, and the Professor of Clinical Medicine, Dr. Shah Nawaz, were quite kind towards me. Also I should be indebted to Dr. S.W. Hardikar, the then Principal of our Osmania Medical College. I could not get through my Pathology Examination in the final year in March 1943. I was already neck-deep in politics and so thought of giving up my studies without completing the examination. But our Principal,
Dr. Hardikar called me to his presence, and saying, “ If you learn to swim, it does not mean you need to swim always. But your knowledge of swimming might be of help to you in an odd situation,” etc., prevailed upon me to appear for the supplementary examination in Pathology in the same year. So it was due to him that I completed my M.B.B.S. in September 1943 but rarely ever used my professional skills later on.

In Osmania Medical College, I became the Vice-President of the Union in 1941 and edited the college magazine. Our Principal was the President of the Union then. In the college magazine I wrote an editorial criticizing the low pay given to medical graduates (at that time, Rs. 100/- Osmania currency). Dr. Hyder Ali Khan, the then Director of Medical Services and Medical Education, took objection to it. Our Principal, Dr. Brijmohan Lal at that time, called me and put the whole thing before me. I explained to him about the really low pay and the consequent general discontent. Thereafter he gave some ‘explanation’ to Dr. Hyder Ali Khan and the matter was dropped.

The period 1936-38 was a stormy one for Hyderabad State. With the announcement of the scheme of Federation by the British where the Princes were to play a key role for the imperialists, the national movement too woke up to the need of paying attention to the states’ problems.

Hyderabad State and Telangana in particular, was extremely feudal, ridden with jagirdars and deshmukhs running roughshod over the people. There were no civil liberties. Educationally the State was very backward and there too the mother tongues of the people at large – Telugu, Marathi and Kannada were not the medium of instruction, even at the primary stage.

In Telangana, the Andhra Maha Sabha was formed for cultural renaissance as also mass awakening against feudal despotism. The peasants were being organized under the Andhra Maha Sabha. Then in 1937-38, the State Congress started the Satyagraha for ‘responsible government’ and ‘civil liberties’. The Arya Samaj and the Hindu Civil Liberties Union had also joined the fray.

To begin with I was inclined towards the Arya Samaj and used to attend Arya Samaj meetings. But in one Ganesh Utsav meeting Khalifa Abdul Hakeem in his speech full of philosophical overtones said, “ Man is God creating animal.” To this one Prof. Soukhe who presided over that meeting posed a rejoinder – he remarked, “ Why did Khalifa stop at that? Man is a God killing animal too.” This was in 1935 when I was studying 9^th Class. This completely shook me and created a rationalist spirit of inquiry in me. I pursued that and later on my study of M.N. Roy’s “Materialism” had further impact on me. At that time I also happened to read Bukharin’s Historical Materialism and all these studies and more drew me to atheism and materialism. By 1939 I was a convinced communist.

But before that transformation, in 1937-38 I was with the State Congress and was naturally attracted to the State Congress Satyagraha. I had even offered to go to jail in it. However, in the meanwhile Gandhiji had called off the Satyagraha. With the withdrawal of the Satyagraha, the youth got frustrated and started looking for a new path.

In 1938 I was actively associated with the Vande Mataram movement that shook the whole of the Osmania University and also the Government to some extent. I was a second year Intermediate Student then and was staying in ‘A’ Hostel. Muslim students were allotted a room for offering namaaz and so Hindu students were also allotted one room for offering their prayers. Then the question arose as to which prayer song should be sung daily. At last, D.M. Deshmukh, others and I decided to sing the Vande Mataram song which had by then become a national song, greatly inspiring the freedom struggle. However, the Muslim students objected to its singing by us contending it had an anti-Muslim stance being a part of Bankim’s novel, Anand Math. Consequently the University authorities banned its singing. But we defied the ban and continued singing it all the more loudly. But at that time examinations were nearing and so the authorities did not want to precipitate the matters and put up with it. However, they imposed the ban strictly in the subsequent academic year and this gave rise to the student agitation and strike. By then I was studying the first year Medicine at the Osmania Medical College. So I had nothing much to do with the main agitation and strike in the University Campus but was actively associated with it. I had also organized a day’s sympathetic strike in our Medical College for that cause. The later developments of that Strike and agitation – rustication of many students, joining of several such students in the Nagpur University, etc. – are well-known but we were not in anyway penalized by our Medical College authorities for that one day sympathetic strike.

The withdrawal of the nationwide Civil Disobedience movement had made the youth in the entire country disenchanted with Gandhiji and his moderate policies and they were moving towards the Left. The withdrawal of the State Congress Satyagraha herein made me disappointed and I was also attracted towards the Left. The thirties saw an upsurge of the Left. In Hyderabad I was already reading Independent India  of M.N. Roy and The Congress Socialist  of Ahok Mehta, as also the literature coming from the Allahabad Socialist Book Club. I read Jayaprakash Narayan’s Why Socialism  published by that Book Club and was very much impressed by it. Further my Urdu literature readings created in me a fascination for the progressive writings of Prem Chand and others of the Progressive Writers Association (PWA).

My interest in literature started in 1934 itself as I have already stated about running a reading room in my home when ‘Sidq’ Jaisy was my Urdu teacher. To Jaisi I owe the learning of basics of how to go deep in a poem or couplet and get at the heart of its meaning. However, I was attracted more towards forward looking Premchand and others in literature than my conservative master Jaisy. In politics I was attracted towards Jawaharlal Nehru and Sarojini Naidu – she largely because she was here. But Gandhi did not impress me, primarily because of his religious overtones and I was already turning rationalist, atheist and materialist. In those days the Urdu daily Payam of Qazi Abdul Gafar was playing a very revolutionary role in drawing people towards secularism and democracy. I wrote in 1938 or so an article – perhaps my first political article – expressing doubts about the efficacy of non-violence in achieving freedom for the country and Qazi Sahib published it under the heading ‘Kis Tarah Aur Kyon Kar’ (How and Why?) in Payam. I was very much encouraged by this publication of my article and my elderly neighbours had also appreciated and congratulated me for having taken the first step in public life by way of that article.

Makhdoom Mohiuddin was senior to me by 5-6 years and when I was in Intermediate Second year he was in M.A. Second year or so. He was attracted towards the left movement much earlier than I and was employed as a teacher in the City College after his post-graduation. He had already established contacts with the progressive and communist movement and from the Aurangabad group he started getting the organ of the CPI, the National Front. He used to give passages from this National Front for translation in Urdu to his students and the boys were wondering at these ‘peculiar’ pieces. In 1939-40 Maqdoom helped by the Nagpur group of comrades organized a Students Union in Hyderabad. It was in this period that Andhra Provincial Committee of the CPI arranged to send a party organizer to Hyderabad City. Prior to that and even afterwards C. Rajeswara Rao himself used to frequently visit the city. I was also involved in the CPI activities by that time and had actually joined the party in 1939. In 1940 a regular unit of the party was organized in Hyderabad City; Maqdoom was its first secretary and I was the assistant secretary. Later Shahabuddin became City Secretary and after him, Mirza Hyder Hussain. Earlier Mirza was the Secretary of the State Regional Committee. Comrade Chandragupta Choudhary became the State Secretary after his release in 1941, and Hyder came back to the City as Secretary of the City Committee.
I was both in the City Committee as well as in the State Regional Committee that functioned under Andhra P.C.
I became City Secretary when Jhikre left for Marathwada in 1945. Later after a break, I again became City Secretary after the Second CPI Congress in 1948 - but more of this afterwards.

It was in 1939 that I was married to Sanjogita, daughter of Amrit Singh of Nizamabad in Azamgarh district. Then I was 21 years old. However due to my serious involvement in politics, we couple could not get on well and in due course separated. I then married Brij Rani in 1948. I had two sons with Sanjogita, but unfortunately both of them died in childhood. Brij Rani had two sons – Prabhakar and Hari Singh – by her former husband and I have two daughters with Brij Rani – Tamara and Clara.

Another important development in Hyderabad politics was the formation of Comrades Association in the city in 1938-39. Syed Alam Khundmiri and other fellow travellers who were not exactly communist party members but sympathizers and activists for the cause wanted to form an association to propagate the ideals of Communism and Socialism among the students and the youth. At that time Khalifa Abdul Hakim advised Alam Khundmiri not to play any hide and seek but, since they were socialists, openly declare their association as ‘Comrades Association’. Accordingly Alam Khundmiri, Com. Maqdoom, Syed Ibrahim, Manik Lal Gupta, Ahsan Ali Mirza, and my classmate Nago Rao and others had formed the Comrades Association. After a short time, Ghulam Hyder, Mirza Hyder Hussain, Aquil Razvi, Srinivas Lahoti, Jawad Razvi and Omkar Pershad also joined it. By then I was already a member of the Communist Party of India. But I did not join the Comrades Association then but later in 1941. I became its Secretary in 1942-43 and its President in 1943-44. It is to be noted that not all the members of the Comrades Association were Communist party members; nor vice versa, though both stood for the ideal of communism and socialism and were closely inter-linked. Communist Party of India was a relatively well knit, disciplined and at that time illegal organization whereas the Comrades Association was rather a loose, open and informal organization – a sort of front organization.

I had attended the All India Students Federation Conference at Nagpur in 1939 along with Maqdoom and Hemadri and that in Patna in 1941. It was in 1939 that I came in contact with the Nagpur comrades Mukherji, Mushtaq and Bardhan. We had developed contacts with Comrade Habibuddin of Aurangabad, Com. Mukherji of Nagpur and the comrades of Andhra through Comrade Ravi Narayan Reddy. Comrade C. Rajeswara Rao used to visit the city frequently. At that time the party was declared illegal in the country and hence whatever party literature, like the National Front, we used to get was being circulated secretly. And in 1939 or so the Andhra Provincial Committee had deputed a comrade, Rama Rao from Guntur, to organize the C.P.I. in Hyderabad City. He was code-named ‘Haji Saheb’.

There is a humorous episode in connection with this comrade Haji Saheb’s efforts at organization of us – largely prankish adherents to communist cause. In 1940 regular units of the party were formed and we were to work secretly. But this technique we did not know; we were rather careless about party literature and talk regarding the party. However, we slowly learnt the ‘job’ under the guidance of our party organizer – Haji Saheb. Soon our number grew and we were divided up into various cells. This was in 1940-41. Shahabuddin was the City Secretary and Mirza Hyder Hussain was the secretary of the Hyderabad State Regional Committee. And Makhdoom was the secretary of our cell consisting of Hamid Ali Qadri, Ghulam Hyder, Makhdoom and myself. Our main work was to carry on party propaganda, reading and disseminating party literature in small circles, etc. Comrades’ Association was our public platform in the city from which we projected the political policy of the party.

During that period Haji Saheb was quite particular about our conducting cell meetings regularly and was insisting that we send reports and resolutions as proof of such conduct. However, we never knew what resolution to pass; actually we felt no need for it. But what to do, Haji Saheb was too insisting. So one day, Makhdoom, mischievous as he was from the beginning, moved a resolution in our cell that we wanted that Haji Saheb should at once marry and we all unanimously supported and passed the resolution. The same was duly intimated to the higher committees. For us this was but innocent mischief. However, Haji Saheb was quite offended and took it up in all seriousness with the Andhra Provincial Committee. Rajeswara Rao tried his best to pacify that comrade, saying that we were only prankish, played a joke and did not really mean that or have any ill-will or malice against him. All this we came to know much afterwards and I do not know whether that comrade ‘Haji Saheb’ was satisfied at all by CR’s explanation and persuasion. We could, however, do nothing to make ‘amends’ for our mischief.

When the Molotov-Ribbentrop Anti-Aggression Pact was concluded in 1939 August between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, there was no debate or controversy here as to whether that line was correct or not. Likewise when, subsequent to the Nazi Germany’s attack on Soviet Union in June 1941, the People's War policy was adopted by the Communist Party of India in the end of 1941, then also there was no debate or controversy here as to whether that line was correct or not.

In 1942-43 we (CP of Hyderabad) had given a call for a People’s Cabinet with equal participation of Hindus and Muslims (50:50) in it but this scheme was not accepted by the State Congress. Their demand was the ushering in of responsible government under the aegis of Nizam. Later in 1945 at or after the Khammam Andhra Mahasabha, our party here advanced the slogan of Constituent Assembly for the State to decide about its future whereas our party units in Andhra advanced the slogan of Vishalaandhra-lo Praja Rajyam (People’s Rule in Greater Andhra). During and subsequent to the Great Telangana Peasant Armed Struggle our party herein also took the slogan of Vishalaandhra-lo Praja Rajyam and finally it was our agitation and unstinted support that achieved the present united state of Andhra Pradesh.

With the Communist Party of India adopting the People's War policy, the ban on it was lifted and it came into the open and started functioning legally with its headquarters at Bombay. Party organs and literature started appearing openly. We comrades in Hyderabad also got more opportunities to expand our work. We were, however, groaning under a feudal rule with severe restrictions on civil liberties. For example, Ravi Narayan Reddy and I were prosecuted for organizing a meeting in aid of the victims of Bengal Famine because of our harsh criticism of the British government.

About this time, we organized an anti-fascist rally under Maqdoom’s presidentship and invited Jalaluddin Bukhari, a central committee member of the party. He could not reach in time for the meeting but coming later, stayed for some days here. His stay in Hyderabad was utilized by us to arrange a party meeting at Maqdoom’s house to discuss our organizational problems. The party organizer, Haji Saheb, was also present at that meeting. Our main problem was that we worked in fits and starts, with no sustained activity. At the meeting, we discussed these matters threadbare. The conclusions arrived at this meeting marked a turning point in the work of our party in the city. We were to expand our work among the students, the working class and the urban poor. It was thought that this would impart strength to the party and sustained activity on its part.

So we decided to organize the Andhra Mahasabha and the Maharashtra Parishad branches in the various localities in and around the city. The Students Union also expanded its work. We started entering the trade union field also. Maqdoom had to resign his post in the college and take up party work whole time. With the release and arrival of Chandragupta Choudhary of Aurangabad, the Hyderabad State Committee of the Party was re-organized with him as the Secretary. Hyder Hussain who till then was officiating as the Secretary of the State Committee now returned as the City Secretary. After completing my medicine in 1943, I too joined the whole time functionaries’ team in the city and all of us seriously plunged into the work. Just at that time Makhdoom made a speech in Hyderabad in which he strongly condemned the role of Lord Linlithgow and demanded the formation of a National Government. That was sufficient to prosecute him and ultimately he was convicted and sentenced to a fine of
Rs. 250/- or 3 months simple imprisonment in default. The party could have paid the fine but for political reasons it was decided that Maqdoom should not pay fine but undergo jail sentence. In jail Maqdoom was in the company of State Congress Satyagrahis like Swami Ramananda Tirth, Achyut Rao Deshpande, Bridichand Choudhary, and others. He underwent all the rigours of jail life in those days.

I worked for the party mainly in the trade union field. At first with the railway strike in 1940, I got in touch with the trade unions in the city. The post-war price rise and scarcity gave rise to a strike wave in the State. It is to be noted that in the early forties there was no Trade Union Act in Hyderabad State. We had the Industrial Disputes Order promulgated under the Defence of Hyderabad Rules. The Nizam’s State Railway Union, however, functioned as it was registered in the British administered area of Secunderabad. It was this Union which conducted the above-mentioned Railway Strike in 1940. Then even as a student I went to Warangal and Nanded when textile workers there were on strike in 1942. Then I was associated with the old Mills Union (Hyderabad Spinning and Weaving Mills Workers Union) and the D.B.R. Mills Union around 1943. I was connected with Shahbad Cement Workers Union, of which Maqdoom was the President, along with Jawad Razvi and T. Anjaiah. I was also associated with the Allwyn Metal Workers Union in 1944 and the M.S.K. Mills Workers Union, Gulbarga in 1946.

Actually the working class of Hyderabad State began to organize itself without waiting for laws or favours from the Government. Trade unions without legal registration have come up in the Charminar Cigarettes Factory, in the cotton textile factories, in Allwyn Metal Works, in the Shahabad Cement Works and so on and so forth. During 1944-46 period there was a wave of unionization and over a hundred unions were formed. The Azam Jahi Mills Workers Union, Warangal, under the presidentship of Comrade Ramanatham; The Singareni Collieries Workers Union with Com. D. Seshagiri Rao as its General Secretary, the Osman Shahi Mills Workers Union, Nanded with Com. V.D. Deshpande as President and Com. Nagapurkar as General Secretary and the Aurangabad Textile Mills Workers Union with Com. Syed Maqdoom as its President were some important unions formed in this period outside Hyderabad City.

At the time of Khammam Andhra Mahasabha in 1945
I was in the Hyderabad State Committee of the Party. D.V. was the Secretary and Makhdoom, Ravi Narayana Reddy, Baddam Yella Reddy, Chandra Rajeswara Rao, S.V.K. Prasad and some others were the other members in the State Committee. S.V.K. Prasad was sent in as the organizer of the Party here after Haji Saheb. He remained here throughout the armed struggle until his arrest in 1951. In 1946-47 there was a spontaneous armed and unarmed resistance and upheaval against feudal oppression and atrocities in Telangana – especially in the Nalgonda and Warangal districts. The actual call for armed struggle was given by the Party only in September 1947.

Here the peasants were organized first and the workers’ organizations came relatively later. So we find some important Kisan comrades like Linga Reddy, Seena Reddy, et al shifting to workers front and organizing working class struggles in contrast to the expected scenario of working class comrades playing lead for other classes. However, some socially conscious worker comrades like Adivamma of Hyderabad later participated in the armed struggle directly and Adivamma went to join Amrabad forest squads. Likewise Com. Seshagiri Rao, renowned trade union leader of Singareni Collieries workers, Kothagudem, attained martyrdom during the armed struggle period.

I already told you that I was mainly in charge of the trade union movement and we formed unions here even before there were any laws for the protection of the workers. It was only later on, after our formation of the Unions and starting working class struggles on their many demands, that the Industrial Disputes Order, etc. were promulgated. By early 1946 several trade unions were formed. In Hyderabad City, Com. Makhdoom, Mahendra, Jawad and Linga Reddy had organized the Electricity and P.W.D. Workshop Workers Union. Makhdoom and Ghulam Hyder headed the Building Workers Union and the Button Factory Workers Union.  Jawad had organized the Tanneries Workers of Mushirabad. Tanneries workers of Warangal were also organized under our Red Flag. Jawad had also organized the Iron and Steel Workers in Azamabad, Musheerabad.

The idea of a central trade union organization was gaining ground ever since the Aurangabad Labour Conference in 1938. I attended it as a student. Abdullah Brelvi of Bombay Chronicle had inaugurated it. Khurshid Hassan of Motor Union was in it. Comrades Habibuddin, Govinda Das Shroff and Vaishmapayan were in it and I think Chandragupta Choudhary was also there. I had no contact with them but stayed with my medical college classmate Vasanth Kayarkar in Aurangabad.

Then in 1945 a Committee was formed for the purpose and a meeting of trade union leaders was organized in Aurangabad. Subsequently the All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress was formally inaugurated by the then General Secretary of All India Trade Union Congress, Com. N.M. Joshi, at the session held on 16 August 1946 at Jeera Compound in Secunderabad.

Two significant events marked that function. Comrade Makhdoom was evading arrest, as a warrant was pending against him. And he came out of hiding at this Conference. He was arrested and subsequently released on bail. Comrade Jawad Razvi, leading a procession of tanneries workers to the conference, was arrested and kept in Police Station. At this Conference Comrade Makhdoom was elected the President and I the General Secretary.

By that time the peasant movement in the rural districts of Telangana was growing by leaps and bounds and so did the state repression too. As such we observed an Anti-Repression Day on 16 October 1946 against the severe State Repression and there was a general strike in which the workers expressed their solidarity with the ongoing peasant movement. Around this time warrants were issued against me, Maqdoom and others. Maqdoom was in Shahabad at that time and was advised to take shelter with some comrades in Sholapur. Jawad Razvi and I went underground. However, ignorant of the ways of underground life, we were arrested after a few days in November 1946 and lodged in Hyderabad Central Jail. On 15 November 1946 the Communist Party was banned by the Nizam Government. Later on 7 May 1947 Jayaprakash Narayan who was to address a public meeting at Karbala Maidan, Secunderabad, was arrested and externed. On the same day Jawad and I escaped from police custody while we were taken to Osmania Hospital from Jail. Comrade Mahendra was the brain behind this operation escapade. Comrades
B.S. Paranjpe (then final year medical student) and Rafi Ahmed of Students Union also helped in the process.

We met the dentist Dr. Morris and then came down to enter the E.N.T. Outpatient Room. This room had a door behind also that led to the mortuary which in turned opened towards Begum Bazar. Com. Rafi and his colleagues prevented the jail guards from coming inside the outpatient. Paranjpe was inside guiding us. We escaped through the mortuary and found Basith waiting there in a car. We went off in that car. Near Asifnagar we changed into another car and came to Mahendra’s place, where Jawad and I separated.

From there I was taken again by Basith along with Sita Devi (Ravi Narayan Reddy’s wife) to Yadgir. There I was to take the train for Guntakal on my way to Guntur. Makhdoom who was coming from Sholapur was to be picked up at Yadgir and taken in the same car in its back journey to Hyderabad. At Yadgir, I was to be dropped at Mallappa Kollur’s house but he was arrested the previous night. Basith and Sita Devi were arrested but I managed to escape and went to the railway station. I met Makhdoom in the railway station, warned him telling about the happenings and asked him to go back to Sholapur by the train that was already on the platform. I took the next train and reached Guntakal, where Venkatachari was waiting for me to take me to Guntur. But Guntur at that time was virtually under police seige since municipal workers were on strike. So I went to Vijayawada from there.

From Vijayawada I went to Allinagaram in Madhira taluk, Khammam district (then part of Warangal district) for a state committee meeting. From there I came back to Vijayawada and attended the Gannavaram Conference of Andhra P.C. Thereafter I went to Calcutta along with Comrade Chandram to attend the second Party Congress in February 1948. Makhdoom had come from Bombay and Jawad from Hyderabad to that Congress. From Calcutta I returned to Vijayawada, Makhdoom went back to Bombay and Jawad to Hyderabad. In early 1948 I came back to Hyderabad and took over the city secretaryship from Jawad.

In the period from August 1947 to September 1948 the main difference between us and the State Congress was that we were conducting an armed struggle against the Nizam Government whereas the Congress was not doing so. However, we were not opposing each other in this period. Only we were not participating in their Satyagraha and they were not participating in our armed struggle. The State Congress was not for land distribution and Gram Raj either.

In September 1947 we had taken up arms by a decision of the State Party. I had to go to Bombay to get this decision approved by the central leadership. I went, reported the decision and the matters relating to it to P.C. Joshi and got the decision approved. Therein I met Govind Das Shroff and discussed with him the prevailing situation. Then I went to Ahmednagar to meet Com. Chandragupta Choudhary and V.D. Deshpande and reported our decision to them. At Ahmednagar I had also, under the disguise of Narasimha Reddy, addressed a public meeting and explained the situation in Hyderabad – particularly that in Telangana to the audience there. No less a person than the renowned freedom fighter Senapati Bapat was presiding over that meeting. I then went to Pune and met the State Congress leader, Baba Saheb Paranjpe, there. From there I went to Sholapur and met our party leaders there. This was November 1947 and the Party Central Committee’s November resolution was just out. Thereafter I took a round about route to reach Vijayawada. During this journey I had met Comrade M.S. Krishnan at the Harihara Junction. It was after all this that I went to Calcutta Congress of the Party along with Comrade Maddukuri Chandram, the then Secretary of the Andhra P.C.

At the Calcutta Congress almost all the delegates from Andhra and from Hyderabad State were for the Ranadive line and none supported P.C. Joshi. Also even later Makhdoom, Jawad and others and I had supported the Russian way of General Insurrection in contrast to the Chinese path advocated by Chandra Rajeswara Rao, P. Sundaraiah and others.

A short period after the Calcutta Congress, when Laik Ali was the Prime Minister here in Hyderabad State, the State Government played a trick on us. It issued a declaration to the effect that warrants against Govind Das Shroff, Ravi Narayan Reddy, Makhdoom and myself were withdrawn and we were free to come out and openly participate in politics, etc. We however were apprehensive of the real motives behind this and whether it was not a ruse to arrest us. Yet we, of the City Committee, decided to take a chance and expose any ill motives by the Government. We decided to hold a public meeting at Hashmat Ganj (Sultan Bazar) and announced that it would be addressed by me. Comrade B. Narsing Rao convened the meeting. I emerged from the underground for that day – for only one day. In the evening I cycled to the meeting place and spoke from the dais. But the government was not fair in its dealings and the police were very much present there. They closed the gates and were preparing to come and arrest me. We had made prior arrangements for such an eventuality. Already it was dark and suddenly the lights were turned off. All the comrades at the meeting surrounded one Rajmalliah, a worker, and began to shout “Raj, Zindabad!” etc. to give an impression to the police that he was Raj Bahadur Gour and the comrades were protesting against his apprehended arrest. The police were deceived by this ruse and rushed there to arrest that person taking him to be me. Meanwhile I managed to escape through a house towards Sultan Bazar garden and sped away in a waiting car. However, this was sheer adventure and we later on admitted our mistake.

Around the same time we of the Hyderabad City Committee had issued a 8-page leaflet narrating the international and national situation prevalent then in the light of the changed line of the party at the Second Congress at Calcutta. We had specifically stated therein that Hindustan did not get any freedom – that freedom which is being boasted of is only a deception (yeh azadi jhuti hai). Nehru Government is an agent of Anglo-American imperialism and hence has to be opposed tooth and nail. As such the Join Indian Union slogan given by the State Congress was not correct and it is not advisable for us to support that movement. Rather we have to struggle for the azadi of the Hyderabad people in our own way, etc. However, this stand of ours was distorted by our opponents in the party to say that we had demanded Azad Hyderabad, etc. We advocated nothing of the sort. It is noteworthy that this leaflet was fully supported by Rajani Palme Dutt in England who even published it in full in his (party’s) journal there. Also the C.P.I. central leadership of the time also supported the stand taken by us (Hyderabad City Committee) in this leaflet. However, it is true that Ravi Narayan Reddy, Baddam Yella Reddy and others of the Hyderabad State Committee as well as P. Sundaraiah, M. Basavapunnaiah, C.R.  and others of the Andhra P.C. – All the members of the Hyderabad State Committee as well as Andhra Provincial Committee strongly opposed this leaflet. Later on we of the City Committee also did not press this stand taken by us any further.

I do not know about the Nagna Satyalu (Naked Truth) document of Ravi Narayan Reddy harshly criticizing the party line of armed struggle against the Indian Union and castigating all that as individual terrorism, anarchism of degenerate gangsters, etc. However, I was aware that Ravi Narayan Reddy had advanced arguments for the withdrawal of the armed struggle soon after the Police Action in 1948 September and that he was the first person to press for an unconditional withdrawal of the armed struggle. But this stance did not appeal to me; I was never for an unconditional withdrawal though I saw no harm in negotiating with the Union Government and was of the opinion that the armed struggle could be withdrawn on certain conditions. The important conditions I insisted were that the lands distributed by us should be allowed to be kept by the beneficiary poor people and the warrants against all the leaders and activists of the party and movement should be withdrawn. Feudalism should not be allowed to raise its ugly head again in any guise. In the beginning Makhdoom was also not for any unconditional withdrawal and so did not support Ravi Narayan Reddy. But later on, after my departure to Devarakonda Forests and subsequent arrest in April 1950, Makhdoom changed over to the line of Ravi Narayan Reddy and totally supported him.

It is to be noted here that Chandra Rajeswara Rao, a staunch supporter of continuance of armed struggle, also slowly came to the opinion that withdrawal was imperative. When once he went to address a meeting of underground squad members and leaders somewhere near Kazipet or so, he found that they were quite careless. Also he noticed that they kept up some lights in the meeting venue so that light may be focussed on the speaker and his identity could be easily established. He also noticed some suspicious movements by some unknown persons. He at once apprehended some betrayal and from a distance itself retreated without joining that meeting and thus saved himself. He was very much disappointed at this treacherous act of so many squad members and leaders, etc. and this experience turned the tables. He also decided firmly in favour of withdrawal and thus the Party resolution for withdrawal of armed struggle came about.

During the entire period from the time of my return to Hyderabad in March-April 1948 to almost a month or two before my arrest in April 1951 I was in underground mostly in the Hyderabad City only. I was looking after the political side of the Hyderabad State Committee activities. In late March or early April 1951 I went to Rachakonda forests in tune with the Party’s call for armed squads and important leaders to retreat to the forests and continue armed struggle against the Union Military in a protracted way. Within a few days of my going to those forests I was arrested by the military in a sudden encounter with them. Pyla Ramachandra Reddy and Krishnamurthy was along with me at that time and the former had gone to a nearby dauna (crevice or pit full of water in the hills) to drink water when suddenly the military pounced on him and caught him. Krishnamurthy shouted on sighting the military and escaped quickly. I was also running away, but chased and caught. The military severely beat me with the butts of their guns and took me to their camp. There was a prize on my head announced by Nehru. After arrest I was taken to Warangal where Nanjappa had his headquarters. But since they had handcuffed and fettered me, I refused to talk anything to him until those were removed. Later I was taken and kept in a quarter in the Azam Jahi Mills Colony and tortured for 72 hours with continuous interrogation. Later I was sent to Nalgonda Jail. From there after some petitioning, etc. I was shifted to the Hyderabad Central Jail where Makhdoom, Yella Reddy, Chandragupta Choudhary and Iftikar were also confined by that time. After some days Dr. Waghray and
M. Narsing Rao came to the jail and met us when I told them that the Party could withdraw the armed struggle if all the political prisoners were released, warrants withdrawn and the land distributed to the peasants be legalized. Later Comrades A.K. Gopalan, Muzaffar Ahmed and Jyoti Basu also met us. In the end of 1951 the Party announced the withdrawal of the armed struggle and in early 1952 it decided to participate in the Elections. Comrades Makhdoom and others were released as they were contesting elections. However, I was not so released but filed the nomination papers from jail itself. However, my name was not included in the Electoral Rolls till one day after scrutiny of the nomination papers and so my nomination was rejected.

However, I was elected to Rajya Sabha and upon prevailing upon the Government by no less a person than Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, I was released on 13 May 1952 when the First Parliament opened. Dr. Radhakrishnan had himself told me that Gopala Swamy Iyengar, the then Minister of State argued with him saying that my case was different,
I was a ‘jungle man’ captured with arms in hand and it was not advisable to set me free. But Dr. Radhakrishnan convincingly told him: “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future,” and then I was released. My first term in Rajya Sabha ended in 1956 (at first it was a four-year term only). Then I was re-elected to Rajya Sabha in 1956 and continued for a six-year term until 1962. The Party leadership wanted to again elect me to the Rajya Sabha for a third time in 1962 but I myself refused as I had accepted the secretaryship of the Hyderabad City Party.

I also contested for the Assembly – in 1962 itself from Shalibanda against Salahuddin Owaisi but lost my deposit. Later in 1977 I contested from Secunderabad against Shiv Shanker for the Lok Sabha but again lost my deposit.

Even after 1952 I was quite active in the trade union front and was elected President or Secretary of so many trade unions and/or their federations. In 1958 I was elected the Secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress at its Ernakulam Session. Prior to that I was its Treasurer, elected at its Calcutta Session. I also became the Vice-President of the AITUC for a term. I was the President of A.P. Bank Employees Federation ever since 1956 till 1989. I am still the President of the N.M. D.C. Staff Union, the A.P. Government Press Employees Union, Honorary President, A.P. Medical Employees Union, etc.

In 1969 I visited Soviet Union to attend the World Federation of Trade Unions General Council meeting and in 1988 to participate in a seminar organized by WFTU.  I along with my wife Brij Rani had visited Mongolia via Moscow in 1987 and Bulgaria in 1991. I had also gone to Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic and North Korea as a party delegate. I also extensively toured in our own country.

I am connected with the Progressive Writers movement ever since 1955 and am at present in the presidium of All India Progressive Writers Association. I am also at present Vice-President of the A.P. Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu.

I wrote some books and many articles. My first book, Tricolour shall fly our Hyderabad (in English) was published in 1947. Later came my pamphlet on Makhdoom and in 1975 was published the book – Glorious Telangana Struggle, in which my extensive article along with the articles of comrades Chandragupta Choudhary, Ghulam Hyder and Dr. Paranjpe appeared.  Some Urdu books of mine have also been published. I have written articles for so many papers and journals - they might number anywhere between 50-75.

[ Published in In Retrospect, Vol. 5, Part I, compiled and edited by I. Mallikarjuna Sharma and published by Marxist Study Forum]

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