#shivasagar

Since Satyamurthy’s life is enmeshed in communist and Maoist politics, it is important to understand the historical context which brought him there. Gidla’s presentation of Communist party politics and Satyamurthy’s involvement misrepresents and grossly ignores legendary Dalit figures who built the communist movement in Andhra. Even though Dalits remained invisible in the mainstream communist party histories and were a mere social base as labourers and workers. A perusal of Telugu newspapers from the 1930s to the late 1950s as also secret reports of the police department reveal that Dalits were the vanguards of the communist movement as political and cultural activists. For example, Nambury Sreenivas Rao from Machilipatnam in Krishna district was a famous balladeer and organised Dalits and other marginalised sections. He travelled extensively. Inspired by his songs and performances, people in many villages looted the houses of landlords in Krishna, Guntur and Godavari districts. The Madras police department formed a special police battalion to capture him and failed. Only after independence was he jailed and released after he gave a written undertaking to disassociate himself from the Communist Party of India (CPI). Bethala Yesudas, a Dalit Christian from Tenali, organised Dalit agricultural labourers as part of the communist movement. He was also considered an outlaw by the Madras government and arrested after independence. Even in Vijayawada and Gudivada, much before Satyamurthy’s time, Pakis, also known as Rellis (manual scavengers), were organised by Thupakula Simhachalam, a Paki himself, into the Municipal Workers Union under the Communist Party in Vijayawada. Simhachalam’s moving autobiography, Nenu Communistunetlaina: How Did I Become A Communist (1946), provides the history of political mobilisation of the Paki community and also narrates the mistreatment of the Paki community even by fellow untouchable Malas and Madigas in the Vijayawada and Gudivada areas. Surprisingly, without even a scant reference to Thupakula Simhachalam, Gidla eulogises Satyamurthy as the pioneer in organising Pakis in Vijayawada. This ahistorical portrayal of Dalit lives not only erases the real heroes but is a gross injustice to activists. Gidla discusses Guntur Bapanayya, another communist leader who lived in the same Slatter Peta slum in Gudivada where Satyamurthy’s grandmother, Marthamma, bought a dwelling for them. Bapanayya was an elected member of the Madras Legislative Assembly and also general secretary of the Andhra Provincial Agricultural Labourers Association. Given the age of Satyamurthy at that time, Bapanayya would have been a source of inspiration to him as Bapanayya’s brother-in-law, Nancharayya, was a lifelong associate of Satyamurthy. In this context, by the time Satyamurthy came to Gudivada to study, the Communist Party already had roots among the Dalits and established leaders among them. Satyamurthy walked into a canvas of communist politics led by Dalits in their respective spheres and radicalised Dalit communist activism. Gidla’s portrayal of Satyamurthy as the pioneer of communist mobilisation among Dalits, including Pakis, is factually inaccurate and tantamount to the erasure of history of Dalit activists who sacrificed their lives to emancipate their brethren. Even though caste Hindus monopolised visible positions of power within the CPI, the spade work was done by Dalit activists. In this way, the communist movement in the coastal Andhra districts was built on the backs of Dalits such as Nambury Srinivasa Rao, Bethala Yesudasu, Gunturu Bapanayya and Thupakula Simhachalam