Dasu Kesava Rao
When the NDA Government abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution and facilitated Jammu and Kashmir to become an integral part of the country, the step was widely welcomed by the people, though Congress raised a political storm over it.
It is interesting to see how Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru reacted to a similar situation in Andhra State during the early 50s. Yanam, a small piece of territory in East Godavari, continued to be under the French although the rest of the country became independent. Freedom-loving Yanamites were harassed and subjected to atrocities.
The following is an episode from the autobiography of Andhra Kesari Tanguturi Prakasam Panthulu, whose birthday falls on August 23. Prakasam had a battalion of armed police of Andhra State stationed on the border with Yanam as the French police opened fire on the residents of Andhra State to suppress their civil rights. On hearing this, Nehru dispatched an ICS officer to Kurnool to convey that ‘we should not get into a confrontation with the French lest international problems should arise’. Prakasam responded he had no intention whatsoever of ‘picking up a row with the French authorities.’ He justified the police deployment ‘to protect our people as they were shot at by the French’.
A week later, Tenneti Viswanatham, Minister in the Prakasam Cabinet, was in Delhi for an official meeting with the Prime Minister. At 3 am, he received a wireless message from Kurnool that ‘hundreds of citizens entered Yanam and peacefully occupied the municipal office and government offices. After nominal resistance, the French police had surrendered and arrangements were being made for the establishment of peoples’ government in Yanam.’
As soon as Tenneti was ushered into his presence, Nehru exploded ‘Who will take responsibility for the unnecessary international problems arising from the actions of your government?’. Tenneti replied ‘not a single person belonging to the government staff crossed the international border to enter Yanam. How could we oppose it when the Yanam residents took possession of their own town?’
The Prime Minister was not convinced. ‘Whatever might happen, Yanam should not be merged in your province. We should protect its French character and French culture,’ he said. What an irony of a great freedom fighter and the country’s tallest leader saying this!
Tailpiece: Like all great leaders of the past, Prakasam, who had sacrificed everything for the country, is forgotten. Media have little or no time or space to remember such men and women on their birth or death anniversaries.
Nehru and Prakasam were not great friends, but gentlemen who respected each other. (EOM)
Tiny Republic. A tiny people’s republic, vibrant and functional, existed in the country even before it became independent in 1947. It was a matter of pride for the people of Telangana that the republic was a small jagir town in the Nizam’s dominions.
Paritala and a cluster of villages, now in Kanchikacherla mandal of Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh, formed the jagir of Nawab Kamal Yar Jung. The jagirdar enjoyed civil and criminal authority exercised through his tahsildar, based at Paritala. This was backed by a police force, a magistrate, and a sub-treasury.
The land-locked jagir was bounded on all sides by the Krishna district of the Madras Presidency. The people could not remain indifferent to the winds of change next door brought about by the nationalist movement and the dawn of freedom.
The long-suppressed people of Paritala revolted against the Nizam. Under the leadership of Madiraju Devaraju, they attacked the police station. The Jagirdar’s police found it impossible to contain the upsurge and fled to Hyderabad. The people organized a meeting to declare a people’s republic named Paritala Republic on November 15, 1947. Madiraju Devaraju was elected President of the Republic while Avva Satyanarayana wrote the Constitution. They constituted a voluntary militia, trained by Ramachandran of Azad Hind Fauz.
The Paritala Republic joined the Union of India after the fall of Nizam’s Hyderabad on September 17, 1948, but its formal accession took effect on January 26, 1950, when the country itself became a Republic. The Paritala Republic lasted a little more than a year.
