The drawing is part of a graphic depiction of what happened in Karamchedu, after decades of Court battles – which is not unique to that episode.The culprits who belonged to the landlord classes were protected by their State and their Courts. So many Ambedkarite leaders – the Athwales, Paswans and Mayawatis to cite only a few – sold themselves to ruling classes, to even brazen Manuwadis, for a few crumbs of power and pelf. A small share for such leaders in political power, as different from State power for the oppressed classes, did NOT help the oppressed masses as seen in many cases,see below.
The same thing happened in keelavenmani 1968, in Tamilnadu ruled by Periyarists, when 44 dalit rural poor were burnt to death by landlords. So it was in Laxmanpur Bathe of Bihar 1997 ruled by Lalu Yadavs, when 58 dalit rural poor were shot dead by Ranvir Sena of landlord classes. That is what the oppressed masses, irrespective of caste, including adivasis, fighting for their rights saw and experienced since 1947, and after 1950 Constitution too, in India ruled by landlord classes and their allies, the comprador bourgeoisie, serving the imperialists. That is the result of ‘Rule of (their) law’ in most cases. It is they who control the State, whichever party wins polls.
Those who questioned all this, on their behalf, including Civil Rights leaders, writers, academics, and even lawyers – whether they were born dalits or caste Hindus or even Brahmin-born, are imprisoned and denied bail for years, even without filing charge-sheets, under such lawless ‘secular’ laws as UAPA. Now from July1, reinforced Samhitas (Law Codes) came into effect. Such crimes in newly filed cases will no more come under ‘sedition’, Raja Droh, but will be called ‘Desha Droh,’ betrayal of the country!
Karamchedu 1985 marked a new mile-stone in dalit movement, after the Dalit Panthers Movement of 1970s. Forty years later, the movement needs to review experiences, and take a proper road of united struggles of all oppressed masses.
Therefore the question remains: Did the people really win the ‘battles of self-respect’?
Whither Dalit Movement?
It is useful to read the three Appendices at the end of this article. The first is OPDR’s Report on Karamchedu.
The other two are extracts from two noted, senior dalit activist writers:
Dalit movement At The Cross Road (Extracts), by By V.B.Rawat, 09 August, 2005.
Bahujan politics needs a new radical alternative, by S R Darapuri, former IPS officer of UP, a dalit leader and Founder President, All India People’s Front, wrote an article (27/05/2022)
This article including the Appendices is more food for thought,rather than conclusions which would naturally differ.
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“The rural poor should be given arms for self-protection…
..This is the only way to prevent another Karamchedu being repeated” – said OPDR Fact Finding Committee (FFC) Report 1985. Four decades later, we see day-light lynchings, pre-planned murders and ‘honor killings’ of dalits and adivasis, minorities and other oppressed people. As the Indian State fails to protect them, OPDR’s demand looks to be more appropriate than ever. A Brief FFC Report of 1985 that gives some details is published at the end as an Appendix.
It was neither an isolated incident nor merely an outburst of caste arrogance, said the FFC: “The immediate cause of the attack centres around approximately 120 acres, of porambok (cultivable fallow)land. The victims of Karamchedu have been cultivating the said land since two decades…Many of the victims are the tenants of the old land-lords, who have been carrying on their attacks on rural poor belonging to different communities, including the minorities on some pretext or other. But they could not browbeat the (present) victims as they were united and were always prepared to resist and thus were a source of strength and inspiration to other rural poor…” (See Appendix)
The FFC included activists hailing from adjoining areas who knew the socio-economic conditions of that area and the region.
We recall the Karamchedu carnage, and the then political background: that was part of post-election euphoria, which has echoes in the present post-election political scenario, with some political actors being the same from that period.
The ‘victors’ fanned and represented the same old class and caste frenzy to win the latest election, by defeating another section, represented and led by Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The present has ominous echoes of the past:There is a direct link to NTR and Karamchedu in the current scenario, which we see in this article.
“ Violence reminiscent of the turbulent 1980s and 1990s has marked polling day and its aftermath in Andhra Pradesh..” said a report (theprint.in, May 19), days after polling was over on May 13. A series of major incidents of violence was reported from several areas ofAP, including especially from Palnadu region, Macherla and Chirala (Karamchedu is here).. resulting in bloodshed ..The conflict escalated to the burning of vehicles, and damage to property, including offices and private houses..
See recent article of July 11, 2024…
Media gagged in AP: A fascist trend that was barely noticed, and a feature of Undeclared Emergency
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A dark day that witnessed a carnage in broad day light
It was on 17 July 1985 that landlords of Karamchedu, 7 km away from Chirala town in Prakasam (now reorganized in Bapatla) District, of undivided Andhra Pradesh (AP), indulged in brazen and brutal mass violence in which six dalits were killed, about twenty were injured, three women were raped, and hundreds displaced from their homes that were damaged, burnt and looted. A month later, the culprits killed a woman who was a direct witness to the massacre.
Katthi Padma Rao, a noted scholar and Dalit activist of that coastal Andhra area and (late) Bojja Tarakam, noted advocate and civil rights movement leader-activist of Telangana, unitedly had launched and led a movement under a newly founded AP Dalita Mahasabha, that was a mile-stone. It is because of that movement that the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act came into being in 1989, recalled an activist. But the movement soon weakened and splintered, also along sub-caste lines, and ruling classes and their parties co-opted and bought over many leaders.
“Communists who were in denial of caste-based violence had started agreeing to the existence of it,” after Karamchedu, said a senior journalist.
Such a view is spread by and among dalit activists, as well as many Leftists lost in class collaboration of Rightist and far Left schools, and overwhelmed by post-modernists and sub-alternists. They were blind, dogmatic, and so prejudiced that they were not ready to accept the distinct mass revolutionary trend founded and led by veteran communist revolutionary leaders…
DV Rao and T Nagi Reddy are remembered every year in July, the month both had died. Meetings this year were already held at Chandupatla (July12),and Hyderabad (July14); more are scheduled.
Both of them, DV and TN since their earliest days, took note of caste and caste atrocities, recorded later in their famous Court statements of 1971 December, long before such divisive and diversionist forces as above even opened their eyes. Both were printed and reprinted in book form several times by now. Readers of countercurrents.org are quite familiar with those writings, thanks to editor Binu Mathew committed to objectivity, truth and people’s interests.
We mention just a few:
Caste And Communists: Remembering T. Nagi Reddy, 08/02/2017.
https://countercurrents.org/2017/02/remembering-t-nagi-reddy
DV Rao on caste question.. Comrade DV Rao: Unique Role In Indian Communist Movement(2020). https://countercurrents.org/2020/07/comrade-dv-rao-unique-role-in-indian-communist-movement/
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Kararamchedu and the political scenario and now : Ominous echoes of the past
In AP CBN was sworn in again in June as CM, in the presence of PM Modiand Amit Shah. NTR’s close kin, son-in-law CBN and Purandeswari, NTR’s daughter, a turn-coat made now AP BJP chief, are now at the top. Both of them, seen in the photo, were directly linked to Karamchedu massacre. (Photo is of election rally at Rajahmundry, from where Purandeswari of Karamchedu, former Union Minister in Congress regime, is now elected BJP MP.)
Seven families of Karamchedu had 500 acres each of farmland, including at least three of Daggupati kin. Purandeswari’s Daggupati family isone of them, and was among main culprits of Karamchedu, protected by the then CM NTR, her father, and by CBN who was the chief leader of TDP regime even then.
Karamchedu now is home to several landlords and businessmen who are billionaires.
Purandeswari’s husband Venkateswara Rao Daggupati was also a Minister in NTR cabinet. Presently around seven members of NTR family are MLAs MPs etc. CBN the CM is a son-in-law of NTR, and CBN’s son cum successor Lokesh is a Minister. NTR’s son, cinema hero, Balakrishna is an MLA. A bunch of the NTR clan are film stars and producers, including many from Karamchedu itself, a village that boasts of several billionaires. It is not for nothing that NTR is hailed by Modi, (a commemorative NTR coin was issued), and NTR’s daughter is made the BJP chief of AP.
Film-actor-turned politician, Founder leader of Jana Sena Party (JSP), Pawan Kalyan is now deputy CM of AP; his family has around top cinema personalities, all of them billionaires. Like TDP, JSP is now a close ally of Modi, who called them all ‘family-owned’ parties that came to the rescue of PM Modi when he fell short of a majority.
Modi-led BJP, mouthing anti-dynasty politics, wooed several more ‘family-owned parties’ across India, more so in the South. Countercurrents.org recently published a series of five detailed articles on this theme, including on AP. See links below.
Thus BJP made a dent in both the Telugu States. TDP founded by NTR, and now led by CBN, is one of them. They represented and fanned the same old class and caste frenzy to win the latest election, by defeating another section led by Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Karamchedu was part of aggressive post-victory euphoria thenin 1985. A similar aggressive behaviour by the same forces is sweeping several parts of AP now, including in the same tract. Poor families who voted YSRCP, many of them dalits, are being violently attacked, including cases of arson, in what appear as political rivalry and factionalism.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) led by film star NT Rama Rao (NTR, 1923-1996 ) had come to power in 1983 January. It was the first non-Congress regime in undivided AP (bifurcated in 2014, Telangana State being formed), and the first led by one of Kammas, a farming community, as sociologists projected: Congress had mostly CMs from Reddys, also a farming community. The two were major dominant communities of AP. NTR regime was toppled by Congress-led Centre in 1984 August in political coup, using a Kamma Nadendla Bhaskara Rao who tried to split TDP. (Kammas were thus politically divided.)
But NTR had come back to power after a mass movement led by non-Congress parties overwhelmed the Indira Gandhi-led Centre. Amid the euphoria of a victory, the Kamma landlords of coastal AP were in an aggressive mood. And then happened Karamchedu, in early months of return to power of NTR and TDP, of which Chandra Babu Naidu (CBN) has been the chief leader with NTR as a figure-head. .
CBN is the son-in-law of NTR, who had toppled NTR’s regime in 1994 and earned notoriety as one who back-stabbed his own father-in-law, but that dark episode was sought to be covered up by TDP and CBN lobby. Now CBN and TDP claim the legacy of NTR they had ditched.
CBN was sworn in mid-June, within a couple of days of Modi-3.0, in the presence of a galaxy of BJP central leaders including both Modi, Amit Shah. CBN achieved what was admittedly impossible by a formidable NDA alliance, led by Naidu in AP, that included BJP, which was weaned away from a friendly YSRCP of Jagan.
BJP had less than one percent vote in AP, but CBN offered it many seats : BJP thanks to the rather unexpected last-minute alliance, now polled 2.83 percent votes, but won three Loksabha and 8 Assembly seats, and shares power with TDP both in Delhi and AP, with ministers from both parties.
It was crucial but not enough for a win against a formidable YSRCP. So CBN had already allied with Jana Sena Party led by film star Pawan Kalyan, younger brother of film star Chiranjeevi, who had also dabbled in politics and made a mark, representing another major community of Kapus. An alliance of Kamma and Kapu bigwigs is formidable, it was said. Each MP candidate admittedly spent at least Rs.100 cr, to buy seats and votes. Some spent several times more. The election results showed the same.
Pawan-led JSP won two Loksabha and 21 Assembly seats with an enhanced vote-share of 8.53%. It was Pawan who convinced BJP to join the alliance as it was skeptic given CBN parting ways with BJP; there was bad blood, both CBN and Modi condemned each other.
The unexpected alliance defeated YSRCP led by Jagan, now reduced to only 4 Loksabha and 11 Assembly seats (down from 151 in a House of 175seats; and down from almost 50% vote) in spite of polling 40 percent vote more than BJP vote-share in UP or at Centre.
There is a link to NTR and Karamchedu in the current scenario. Overlooking several senior leaders of Sangh pariwar,BJP picked up Purandeswaari Daggupati as its AP president. She is not only a daughter of NTR, and a close relative of CBN, but a daughter-in-law of Daggupati kamma big landlord family that was closely involved in Karamchedu dalit massacre. It was for that reason that NTR the CM went all out and protected the Daggupatis.
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Karamchedu 1985: political casteism and the class aspect
Remembering NTR the politician in his centenary Year – Part 2 – His was an autocratic regime, and a Police State (13/06/2023). This article dealt with Karamchedu carnage, with some details.
Karamchedu was not merely one notorious incident, but was developing into a phenomenon at the time. Kanchikacherla was a village in Krishna dt, where a dalit man was set on fire in 1968, and that was a ghastly but an ‘individual’ incident. Karamchedu was a mass massacre, followed by Neerukonda village massacre (July 1987) wherein five rural poor (SCs) people were killed. Later, the atrocities continued under Congress rule and eight Dalits were killed in Chundur (August 1991). A doctor (a dalit) who performed the post-mortem of the mutilated bodies, reportedly committed suicide later. Consequent and related violence of Chunduru led to around 20 deaths.
In this chain of events, NTR never acted in a way to gain people’s trust, nor against the landlord classes. Apart from the hyped dialogues (against caste system) in the movie Maharathi Karna(of Mahabaharat), he did little to unite Telugu people across castes.
The CM NTR had paid a formal visit, but only to pacify the people. The police in Karamchedu did not protect the victims, which showed complicity of the ruling party. For several days, the culprits were not even detained. CBN was the brain behind NTR at that time.
Initially,the incident was wrongly projected as a ‘clash between the two castes’. All this was in fact was a carnage by landlords and their henchmen who in that village belonged to NTR’s Kamma caste, who felt the TDP win in the January election was their victory, and ‘dalit labor’ must be subjugated, and taught a lesson.
The provocation, rather an alibi, was a small incident wherein dalits objected to their drinking water source, a tank (pond), being contaminated by a Kamma boy ( washing a buffalo, and letting the soiled water back into the tank. A Madiga boy objected to this, and a poor woman dared to defend him). It was an affront to landlords who owned most of the farmlands in the village.
The assailants were guided here by Kamma feudals, of Daggupati clan, closely related by marriage to NTR,the cinema hero: they were also big guns in film industry. (In Chundur, it was Reddy landlords, under Congress rule.)
While it was wrongly projected as ‘caste clashes’ by the ruling classes, others saw it as merely ‘caste oppression’. Among others, OPDR had sent a Fact Finding Committee that brought out the class conflict that was brewing, and the semi-feudal exploitation that was being covered up. Landlords instigated and mobilized their castemen, while the ruling party backed them.
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Role of the State and the Courts
The police did not act effectively. In fact, they connived and winked. The government did not work sincerely to punish the murderers. With that, in addition to the government and police repressive measures, NTR had announced : ‘we will form Village Defense Forces so as to enable the freedom of the landlords, and we will give gun license to two (Pettandars, village bigwigs) in every village.’ It was a private army, meant to serve landlords, contemplated with State support. Of course, amid severe opposition by democrats and wider public opinion, the idea got silently buried.
The UCCRI-ML had then given a statement with this caption: “ Armed attacks of landlords and their mercenaries can be faced only by the armed resistance of the united rural poor.”
“People need not choose humiliation, attacks etc under TDP or Congress,” it said: “the urgent task before them is to unite their ranks by overcoming the caste barriers,and resist their attacks…”
Another article, The Lessons of Karamchedu, pointed out that peasants including rural poor are also often mobilized by the landlords, “under the influence of wrong propaganda and of casteism.” It ended with DV Rao’s call for militant resistance (see below).
(For both see: The Proletarian Line No.52, 1985 November)
Comrade DV Rao: ‘Resist Caste Atrocities Militantly’, 13/07/2023
https://countercurrents.org/2023/07/comrade-dv-rao-resist-caste-atrocities-militantly
It is notable that CPI, CPM were allies of TDP and NTR those days. Karamchedu itself had communists, but class collaborationist politics led to TDP swallowing up them. Even today, they – CPI in particula r- openly hobnobbed with TDP, until last minute when it allied with BJP. They took an indirect way later on by allying with YS Sharmila, Jagan’s own sister, now a Congress leader, who helped TDP by seeking to cut into YSRCP’s vote.
Ongole district court initially sentenced 159 people to life imprisonment, which was later struck down by the Andhra Pradesh High Court due to the proverbial ‘benefit of doubt’, and ‘management’ of judicial processes.
The final verdict was delivered, (23 years after the massacre), by the Supreme Court in 2008: While the lower Court sentenced 159 people to life imprisonment, the Supreme Court said: the prime accused would serve a life sentence, while 29 others would serve three years in prison. But it was too late. Many of the accused had already died.
‘Management’ of judges was thus started on a large scale by TDP in those days. If you count the number of judicial inquiries ordered by NTR and completed (only to give clean chit, supporting the Govt in all cases), it will be obvious that the TDP ‘manages’ courts so effectively. Courts in the last four years (leading upto YSRCP defeat) gave ‘hundreds of orders’, unusually, against the Govt, now led by YSRCP! Thus TDP, as a ruling party or opposition, is effective in manipulating courts,and the judges.
‘Management’ of judges was well-known. Therefore, the OPDR, also in its FFC, said judicial inquiries are superfluous, and a diversionary tactic. Instead, it demanded, straight-away prosecution of the culprits, including conniving officials and police. The litigation will anyhow ensure an examination by judiciary, and there is no room for arbitrariness.
The role of the State and courts was the same in other cases too, including Chunduru that followed.
Politically speaking, arrogant with a heady election victory, the landlord class of the ‘script-writers’ indulged in massacres against the dalit rural poor, ‘to teach them a lesson.’
DMS (Dalit Maha Sabha) etc in course of time were reduced to a position where they can be “manipulated, co-opted, controlled and subjected to the dynamics of macro-politics,” wrote a scholar sympathetic to dalit-bahujan politics.
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Politically, it was a turning point that heralded a dalit movement and a new organization, AP Dalit Mahasabha, in the then undivided AP, with an impact beyond that state.
Caste-wise, it was landlords of Kamma caste and Madiga(SCs) rural poor that were involved. Politically it was during the rule
The Fact Finding Committee of OPDR (its report is given as an Appendix), has concluded that the attack was pre-planned.
Class and caste
Recalling the events (Karamchedu, Chunduru etc) recently in an obituary (07/08/2023), of Gaddar, the Revolutionary Balladeer, Vidya Bhushan Rawat, a social and human rights activist, a learned writer with a focus on dalit issues wrote:
“ While Gaddar’s popular poetry and popularity was always useful to spread the message of state impunity as well as feudal structure, there was very little about caste system and its root causes. Mostly, the left movement that time, was not keen to speak about caste and considered the ‘state’ as its main enemy…
“ After the Tsunduru visit, I visited Gaddar Anna at his house…Some how, I was disappointed with my meeting. Gaddar, that point of time, was not keen to speak up or open up on the issue of caste but he had started putting Ambedkar and Buddha portraits…”
The FFC Report of OPDR shows how class issue,the land question, was simmering for decades, and the caste issue was a trigger, rather an alibi..
It is notable that Madigas who were tenants, and resisted landlords, were singled out and targeted. The other section of dalits, Malas were NOT touched at all.They lived separately, and were submissive in that village at that time.The assailants included rural poor of other communities; Kammas were not alone. Rawat noted Reddys were assailants in Chunduru, where Malas(SCs) were victims. (See below). In that village, Malas were assertive, and resisted,as other reports showed. BC peasants etc were also mobilized by the landlords.
He recalled : “ People’s War Group avenged the massacre by killing one of the main accused but Ambedkarite sections were opposed to such violent move and followed the constitutional path..”
” Six years later, on August 6, 1991, a massacre committed by the Reddy landlords in Tsunduru (Chunduru) in Guntur district and this time the community which faced the brutality was the Malas, the biggest and assertive Dalit community in Andhra Pradesh. About 22 Dalits were brutally killed by the Reddy terrorists. This shook the nation and for the first time a special court was formed to hear the witness with in the village. There was lots of pressure on them.
“ It took a lot of time for the local court to give its judgement but finally the High Court absolved them. In the Karamchedu case, one person got life imprisonment and thirty others three years imprisonment…”
Rawat’s article can be seen here:
https://countercurrents.org/2023/08/gaddar-the-revolutionary-balladeer-is-no-more
In the beginning of this article, 40 years later, we mentioned how the Constitution, law and courts failed to protect the oppressed. The artist, a dalit Ambedkarite, depicted it with a poignant caption : He saw the limitations of the constitutional path.
To use the Constitution and law where it helped the oppressed is one thing; but to be chained by them is another. The Special courts did not help, as they were over-ruled by top courts, as in many cases.
Remembering NTR the politician in his centenary Year – Part 2 – His was an autocratic regime, and a Police State (13/06/2023)
Autocratic rule continued under NTR : CBN is already emulating him now
The TDP led by Naidu assured they would emulate NTR. The assurance may be taken as a warning, if past experience of NTR rule is seen:
Prohibitory orders by police that prevailed, under Congress rule, in the capital Hyderabad ceaselessly for years, were continued by NTR, renewed week after week. People were denied permissions for meetings and processions (eg. OPDR meetings in 1985-86-89): In 1986, after the permission given by the High Court, the police occupied the meeting hall, that in a peaceful small town, Gudivada, in NTR’s home Krishna dt, and blocked an OPDR conference.
Vangaveeti Ranga’s murder aggravated political casteism
The murder of Vangaveeti Ranga ( a don turned Congress leader) on Christmas night by TDP goons (when he was in a fasting tent on some anti-Govt issues) in December 1988 was another dark chapter of NTR’s regime, and that was a beginning of NTR’s fall. There were local rowdy factions in and around Vijayawada by the time NTR of the same dt arrived on political scene. Ranga was a small time factionist of Kapu caste, who was emerging as a leader, soon to be elected as Congress MLA.
Instead of countering the then endemic rowdyism by fair and proper means, and promoting unity of Telugus, TDP encouraged the faction of Kammas, and organized the murder, which aggravated a big caste turmoil in the ‘central coastal Andhra’ zone, spread over four dts. Within three days of the murder, revenge, arson and counter-violence led to 42 deaths, hundreds injured, state-wide bandh, curfew for several days; and Rs. 100 cr worth property was damaged. The police, partisan, miserably failed.
TDP leadership (Babu and NTR) initially winked at it, but ultimately it led to a political crisis : Two Kapu ministers (Mudragada, and Chegondi who narrated TDP role in his auto-biography) resigned blaming TDP and NTR acting with a pro-Kamma bias.
All these issues, including the persons involved, came up very much during latest elections. Karamchedu was also briefly mentioned by one YSRCP leader. Now Kamma and Kapu bigwigs joined hands, and allied with Modi. Scholars wishing a ’sudra resurgence to counter a Brahminical hegemony’ should take note of this combination.
And the suicide of 20 cotton farmers, under NTR rule, angered the peasants who had voted for TDP. “They look at us as worse than the cigarettes that have been smoked,” said 70-year-old farmer Pamidi Kotayya Choudhary, and farmers’ leader Yalamanchili Shivaji- all kammas. Tanguturu farmers refused to accept monetary compensation for police crimes; they said that they were not poor, and demanded punishment to the police who misbehaved with women too.
NTR spoke against the Center on some issues, including its autocracy, and it is blown out of proportions. However, he never even slowed down, let alone stopping the Center’s autocracy and police-military rule over the people. Even though the Home Ministry is in the state list, the TDP Govt had joined hands with the Center and continued the police state.
Same will be the attitude of TDP today: Already its close co-ordination with Union Home Ministry and Amit Shah was seen in full glare during and after latest elections.
Under NTR rule, people experienced tyranny, arrests, custodial tortures and killings, police firings, black laws, and it was virtually a police state in the name of tackling naxals:
Especially in Telangana, (as also in North coastal Andhra) the Central Armed Forces (CRP BSF etc ) were allowed to go berserk. Central laws, black laws like TADA and ESMA were used indiscriminately. The notorious ‘Disturbed Areas Act ‘ was invoked as in Northeast:
In UP’s BJP- Adithyanath regime reportedly killed 150 ‘criminals’ in its tenure, quite a record. Compare it with NTR regime those days. There were a series of encounter’ deaths: about 200 shot dead during 1983-89 alone, and 75 in 1994-95 when NTR-TDP rule was back. And they were not criminals by any reckoning. All this was meant to suppress the movement of the rural poor.
Adityanath is notorious for bulldozing and demolitions. The TDP, emulating him, in its one month rule already indulged in illegal demolitions, including poor people’s homes. Their crime – supporting YSRCP in elections.
After 1975-77 Emergency, the civil and democratic rights movements had to work over-time again after 1983. Even wall writing had become a crime those days. The slogan ‘Police Rajyaam-Tupaki rajayam’ became very popular once again during NTR’s regime.
No wonder NTR is being recommended by ruling classes, and being considered by BJP and Modi too, for a Bharat Ratna award.
There are many ‘Leftists’, their parties and Unions who ‘forgot’ all this and are backing TDP and CBN today with vested interests and wrong politics. Some of them in civil liberties movement are hobnobbing with TDP today.
Did they forget that Chandrababu regime trampled ordinary protesters with horses, and resorted to police firings? Later, popular singer Gaddar was shot at (aiming to kill him) by ‘unknown persons’ (police) during TDP regime (April 7, 1997). Dr. K Balagopal was kidnapped by police and harmed. A few other Civil Liberties leaders, including Dr.Ramanatham, were simply shot dead. Caste was no factor for the State violence.
Media freedom curbed
The killing in 1985 by pro-NTR forces of Pingali Dasaratha Ram, an unconventional journalist with his own magazine, was a mile-stone. Bihar Model Press Bill to silence the press, the ‘Defamation Bill’, and the Police Bill so as to empower them with magistrate’s powers, so as to strengthen the police state not only in villages but also in towns.
The TDP began its innings of suppression of media(11/07/2024) even before it was sworn in :
“Potential Karamchedu”
In an article with the title, Telangana Wants To Have Its Own Karamchedu, Anand Teltumbde wrote 10 July, 2015:
“Telangana region unlike Rayalseema and coastal Andhra, did not have history of caste atrocity”, he wrote…But he analyzed a recent event:
“ While on 17 July 2015, progressive groups in Hyderabad observed 30th year of Karamchedu massacre, the Madigas of Patapally remained in the dread of their village becoming Karamchedu as threatened by the Boyas..But in terms of hatred for Madigas, the key prerequisite for that scale of atrocity, Boyas have displayed enough of it. Moreover, they are known to be more ferocious than the Reddys and Kammas…”
(https://countercurrents.org/teltumbde100815.htm)
It is a case of violence by a lower caste, Boyas, traditionally a hunting tribe,a ‘low’ caste that is not a SC in Telugu states, but just above the SCs in social hierarchy. There was a similar incident in Lakshmipeta of Srikakulam dt,AP, where BC rich peasants and landlords were the assailants.
(The author is a Telugu media person who contributed several articles to countercurrents.org)
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Appendix-1
Karamchedu Carnage- OPDR Fact Finding Committee Report, 1985
“The rural poor should be given arms for self-protection. This is the only way to prevent another Karamchedu being repeated” – OPDR.
OPDR, Organization for Protection of Democratic Rights, had its roots in late 1960s Srikakulam Adivasi movement, and its Fact Finding Committee Report of early1970s had documented Srikakulam that was witness to hundreds of encounter deaths, mostly of adivasi fighters and communist revolutionaries who led them. OPDR was founded under the guidance of DV Rao and T Nagi Reddy with a revolutionary mass movement perspective, as different from a Left Adventurism. It is still active in the two Telugu states.The Countercurrents.org published some reports (links given below) including obituaries of two OPDR leaders who were members of that Karamchedu FFC. …
Conflict on podu lands in Telangana: cultivators in dismay – “We won’t leave the lands” they say..A Report by Dr S Jatin Kumar, 26/08/2021.
Homage To RVK Satyanarayana, 10/10/2016.
https://countercurrents.org/2016/10/homage-to-rvk-satyanarayana
Ch. Kondeswara Rao Passes Away, 19/06/2019
https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/ch-kondeswara-rao-passes-away
OPDR (AP) constituted a Fact Finding Committee to inquire into the ghastly attack on Rural Poor of Karamchedu and their Socioeconomic conditions.The Committee was led by late RVK Satyanarayana, General Secretary OPDR (AP),and late Ch. Kondeswar Rao, (Organising Secretary, OPDR, AP). It included, among others, G. Vijaya Saradhi, (then Secretary, Nellore Dt OPDR), who is now an Advocate, practising in AP High Court.
OPDR’s brief Report on Karamchedu was published in its bulletin Voice of OPDR, September, 1985,with the title given below. Emphases added.
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The victims must go back to Karamchedu , and continue their fight by uniting with other sections of the rural poor for their rights
The carnage at Karamchedu in which six people were killed and about twenty were injured, has been in the headlines for days together. The ghastly act resorted to by a section of landlords, some of them belonging to Telugu Desam Party, has been condemned by all.
The Fact Finding Committee of OPDR has concluded that the attack was pre-planned. The landlords could mobilise a section of the rural poor by raising the caste frenzy, in order to suppress the rural poor.
The persons guilty of the ghastly act are identifiable, many of them have been arrested, but for the main persons. Yet none of them has been punished so far. The judicial enquiry is yet to begin. Meanwhile, the victims have fled the village.. Some have gone to their relatives, and some are being settled at Chirala.
Settlement of the victims at any place away from Karamchedu will not be in the interest of the victims. It is harmful to the struggles of the rural poor. The victims must go back to their village, unite with other section of the rural poor and continue their fight for their rights. To enable them to do so the rural poor should be given arms for self-protection. This is the only way to prevent another Karamchedu being repeated.
The Committee visited Chirala, Karamchedu and Guntur on 8th and 9th August, interviewed the injured, in Government Hospital and those staying in Chirala as well as other local people in Karamchedu, From the deposition by scores of people, the Committee came to the following unanimous conclusions.
Conclusions:
The barbaric attack on a section of Rural Poor by a section of landlords and their henchmen was neither an isolated incident nor merely an outburst of caste arrogance. It was pre-planned by a new upcoming section of landlords under the aegis and protection of Daggupati Chenchu Ramaiah, a relative of NTR and local TDP Leader and big landlord. The attack aimed at browbeating the Rural Poor into submission in order to continue their exploitation, under their tutelage.
The immediate cause of the attack centres around approximately 120 acres, of porambok (cultivable fallow)land. The victims of Karamchedu have been cultivating the said land since two decades. But the landlords used it to graze their cattle and thus destroy their crop. The victims made several representations for title over the said land to the concerned authorities. They even approached Daggupati Chenchu Ramaiah to help them get the land. At first Daggupati Chenchu Ramaiah assured them (he would help). After a few months when the victims again approached him he turned volte-face and brought in two Stuartpuram settlers who too claimed the same land. Obviously Daggupati Chenchu Ramaiah tried to pit the settlers against the victims. The victims persisted in their efforts and finally got oral assurance from the District Collector who conceded their claim. This happened on 15th July.
The upcoming section of landlords under the aegis of Chenqhu Ramaiah have been maintaining a gang of henchmen led by Vaddeela Nayudamma, Pothina Akkayya and Rayineedu Prasad, in order to extend their grip after old landlords lost grip after 1980 when two Tobacco farmers were killed in Police firing. Many of the victims are the tenants of the old land-lords. And have been carrying on their attacks on rural poor belonging to different sections of communities, including the minorities on some pretext or other. But they could not browbeat the victims as they were united and were always prepared to resist and thus were a source of strength and inspiration to other rural poor.
On 16th July, a poor woman raised an objection, a genuine one, when an young man was washing a buffalo, in a tank (pond) used by dalits for drinking water. Viewed under this background, washing of the buffalo served only as a provocation (an alibi) for the planned attack.The landlords and their henchmen made an issue of it, but conciliators led by Puvvati Rattayya, Chaganti Subbarao, and Veeranki Shantaiah, made it appear as if the issue is settled. But preparations by the landlords continued throughout the night. The elders of the victims, Tella Moshe and others, made efforts for mediation.
This (apparent settlement of the dispute) led to many of the victims leave for the work on the farms, leaving behind hardly about 20 (persons of their colony) in the village. The attack started with beating up of Pandita Nagaiah, at the village Tea Stall. By 7 AM a crowd of 100 gathered, of whom about 30 led the attack with spears, axes and lathis. The victims resisted them and pushed them back.
With this a still larger armed crowd of about 400 gathered on one side and from another batch led by the same conciliators raised(false, diversionary) cries of ‘Police! Police!’ and pounced upon them again. This led to the frantic dispersal of the victims who were chased into their fields. Tella Moshei and Tella Muttaiah, were speared to death by Yarlagadda Ramesh, Yarlagadda Tirupathaiah and their gang. Yevosa, S/0 Polaiah, Duddu Vandanam, Ramesh and Abraham who died in Hospital were killed by the gang led by Rayineedu Prasad and Vaddeela Nayudamma. Most of the injured were hit by spears and axes. Mariyamma aged 15 and three more women were raped.
The Socioeconomic conditions of the people in Karamchedu are reflected in the extent of exploitation by the landlords.
Karamchedu is a rich village of rich landlords many of whom have prospered in trade and industry and own large tracks of land. About 50 landlords hold 200-300 acres each. Of them 7 families, Jagarlamudi Choudary and their sons, Raghavaiah, Chenchu Ramaiah and Ramanayudu, all of Daggupati families, hold more than 500 acres of land each. There are landlords holding 30 to 50 acres also. This rich section of landlords have been exploiting the Rural Poor, irrespective of caste, for there are many tenants and also landless labourers. This speaks volumes of Land Ceiling Act.
Of all the rural poor of various communities about 30% are tenants and the remaining are bonded labourers for all practical purposes (They work for 12 hours a day throughout the year for petty wages of Rs. 4 to 5 per day.) The degree of exploitation, irrespective of caste, can be understood by the fact that half of the produce is given as rent and a larger part of the remaining half serves to pay back the interest on loans. Thus the tenants just eke out their living.
Since no records of tenants are maintained by the landlords, they are unable to own the land though they till the land as tenants for decades together.
The money-lending business of Chaganti Nayudamma known as Vaddeela Nayudamma (vaddee means interest on a loan) enabled him to acquire about 25 acres of wet land within the last few years. The annual rate of interest comes to about 400%. The feudal practice of NAGU and PETCHU (loans in kind, as food grains) is also continued. Under this practice the poor take about a bag of paddy just two months before the crop is ready for harvesting. After two months, two bags of paddy is to be paid back. The rate of interest comes to 600% per annum.
The above facts clearly show the extent of exploitation in spite of several Acts (that are flouted), such as Land Ceiling Acts, Tenancy Acts, and Minimum Wages Acts, both under the Congress (I) as well as TDP rule.
The Committee therefore demands :
- Immediate launching of prosecution of the concerned landlord sections belonging to Telugu Desham Party, who resorted to (the daylight) attack since the attackers have been identified and there is lot of evidence; therefore, the judicial enquiry is superfluous.
- The Rural Poor should be given arms for self-defence.
- The PORAMBOK (cultivable fallow) land should be given to the victims of Karamchedu.
OPDR holds that the victims should go back to the village and fight for land and against the atrocities of the landlords by uniting with other sections of the rural poor.
Any other alternative that keeps the victims of Karamchedu from going back to their village, will not only be no solution but harmful to the interests of the people and their movements for land.
(Source: Voice of OPDR, Bulletin, September, 1985)
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Appendix-2
Dalit movement At The Cross Road(Extracts)
By V.B.Rawat, 09 August, 2005
https://countercurrents.org/dalit-rawat090805.htm
In June 2005, I saw a huge crowd of Madigas at the Nizam college ground sitting two days and demanding categorization of reservation meant for scheduled castes. There were rumors that the opposition TDP instigated this incident to divide the Dalit votes who have been supporting the Congress Party for long. Though, these charges may not be entirely ruled out yet those championing the cause of Dalits need to ponder over the situation as what has happened to the entire movement. Whether there was a Dalit movement or there were separate caste movement defending their own identities.
Very unfortunately Dr Ambedkar’s untimely death paralyzed the entire Dalit movement. His followers went to different streams. There are so many Republican Party of India that it is difficult who can we call as original party.
The Ambedkarite movement (if it ever was), remained confined to ‘Sarkari babu log’, who will throng the parliament street in Delhi or Diksha bhoomi in Nagpur on December 6th and April 14th every year. It looked Ambedkar never spoke beyond reservation and varnya vyavastha…
To be frank, Ambedkar’s reach to areas beyond his traditional domain is not just spreading of his ideology but using him as point of entry to gain a separate political status by the elite
Dalit groups.
When Mayawati became the chief minister of Uttar-Pradesh, analyists mistook it as a great revolution in the Dalits of Uttar-Pradesh. The fact of the matter is while it may be proudly said that a Dalit woman became chief minister of Uttar-Pradesh and that every Dalit felt proud of her being there at the chair yet the fact of Mayawati’s ascendancy to Lucknow’s thrown are different then what we perceive. They have very little to do with Ambedkar’s movement and more to do with Mayawati’s Chamar caste…(using that merely for her power.)
Mulayam Singh Yadav has the same status quo situation. Both have realized that their respective vote bank remain in their pocket and will not ditch them however both now think to go beyond their traditional vote banks and are now flirting with the Brahmins and Thakurs.
So the narrow Dalit politicisation in UP has also resulted in increasing power of the Brahmins and Thakurs being wooed by both the SP and BSP. This is an unfortunate trend being followed everywhere.
BSP’s over dependence on Chamars and a few other communities antagonized the other dalit communities..
This irony of the Dalits movement is that it has not resolved its own contradictions because Ambedkar is used as tool to hit at others and not resolve our own contradictions.
The elite Dalit groups who enjoyed reservation and power now refuse to accept this reality that those living in villages, living as landless, powerless without participation in political life are to be catered. They have no emotion other then selling Ambedkar’s portrait and their own self. Today, this growing chasm between different Dalit group is just not an upper caste ploy but their own contradiction. In politics every opponent is ready to hit you when you are weak. Dalit movement failed to resolved many issues important to it and now face flak from all over.
The politics of identity never helps. The Dalits vision is to fight against hegemonies but in this process of breaking hegemonies, if we create our own hegemonies then the movement will break. In our efforts to break brahmanical hegemonies we created hegemonies in our own self and therefore Valmikis ( Swachchkars), Madigas, Kuhmhars, Mangs and hundreds of other communities ask question for their fare representation. And a typical elite answer is that they have been allured by the upper castes. But the fact of the matter is that there is a wide gap between the numerically powerful communities in Dalits and the minorities.
The irony of the entire movement is that rather than working on the collective wisdom, the movement though claim to work for all communities, has by and large remain confined to a few individuals who used their community identity to gain the political clout.
The Ambedkarite movement rarely talk of violence and violation of human rights. Their obsession with Manu Smriti and Hindu Gods to joke at took a perverted turn as one of the major problem that the Dalits face is to get acknowledgement from the caste Hindus.
That a majority of Dalits despite all the facts, go the temples of the Brahmins and follow the same rituals. But these issues are seldom addressed in true sense. They are used as a rhetoric to lumpen the brahmanical system. The system will not go unless we want to get rid of it.
And as I mentioned earlier, it has nothing to do with social movement which we all need to secularise and democratize our societies. The entire campaign is a power game. In this power game no body want to leave anything for others.
The non ambedkarite groups, mainly the NGOs, self-styled civil society people don’t talk of philosophy. They bring a bundle of individual cases and weep all the time that Dalits are beaten up.
Narrowing Ambedkar’s vision to a limited people and communities will damage the entire Dalit movement. Dalit movement is at the crossroad and need various answers.
Ambedkar has been misquoted by every interest groups. The upper castes, the Muslims, the Christians and the Sikhs every one has quoted Ambedkar for their own purposes.
Ambedkar’s genuine anti Brahmin or anti varna sentiments got exploited by the religious groups for the purpose of proselytization.
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Appendix-3
Bahujan politics needs a new radical alternative
S R Darapuri, former IPS officer of UP, a dalit leader and Founder President, All India People’s Front, wrote an article (27/05/2022) Bahujan politics needs a new radical alternative.
SR Darapuri mentions how Ambedkar formed successively Independent Labour Party of 1937, All India Scheduled Castes Federation in 1942..”Finally, on October 14, 1956, he dissolved the Federation and founded the Republican Party of India (RPI). He also framed its constitution.”
It is clear from the above description that the objective ..was to create a multi-class party which could include Dalits, Backward, Muslims, Workers and Peasants. The agenda of the party was also made on the issues of these sections. The agenda of his parties was not casteist at all.
Now if we look at the current Dalit politics, then politics in the name of Bahujan comes to the fore. Its main father is Kanshi Ram. Kanshi Ram’s concept of Bahujan was from an alliance of Dalit, Muslim and other backward castes whom he considered to be 85% of the total population of India and the remaining 15% as upper castes. Hence his Bahujan politics is also known as 15 vs 85. ..
The main objective of Bahujan politics was to either capture or share political power. Its policies or agenda were not to replace the policies or agenda of the politics of the present exploiting class…Although Kanshi Ram had given the slogan of change of system, but when he came to power, he did not do anything for it. In fact, he had no alternative policies or agenda of his own which would uplift the common man (Dalit, Backward or Minority or others).
In fact, Bahujan politics had no capacity to fight Hindutva and pro-corporate politics and it was bound to decline.
Babasaheb in his Agra speech had expressed deep concern over the landlessness of the Dalits and talked about fighting for getting them land… The main goal of Kanshi Ram was to get power by any means, for which he also took three-time support from the stauch anti-Dalit BJP, due to which Bahujan politics got confused and headed towards its downfall.
At present, the main representative of Bahujan politics is considered to be the Bahujan Samaj Party. Apart from this, there is Ramdas Athawale’s RPI (A) in Maharashtra and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Bahujan Shakti Party in Bihar which has alliance with BJP. The agenda of all these parties is only to get power or share in power. They have no policy or agenda different from the ruling party BJP or Congress. That is why they cannot compete with BJP’s Hindutva and pro-corporate politics. In these parties, democracy is replaced by authoritarianism and the leadership is in the hands of one person.
There is no interference of common man in this. That is why their leaders make alliances with anyone for personal gain, which does not benefit the common man. Dr. Ambedkar had said that political power is the key to all problems. He had further said that political power should be used for the development of the society but the conduct of leaders of Bahujan politics is completely opposite.
Therefore, in view of the above circumstances, in place of the present Bahujan politics, there is a need to develop a new politics…. For this, alternative policies like making employment a fundamental right, making education universal, improving health services, stopping privatization, making agriculture profitable, allotting land to the landless, ending corporate monopoly, restoration of democracy, ending black laws and the need for secularism etc. Along with this, democratization of society in which the destruction of caste is prominent also needs to be implemented. The present politics of caste is the promoter of Hindutva itself. Therefore, instead of this, the politics of public issues should be adopted…
Let us together honestly build a multi-class politics that can withstand the onslaught of BJP’s Hindutva, pro-corporate politics and global finance capital and can fulfil Dr. Ambedkar’s dream of establishing a casteless and classless society.
S R Darapuri, National President, All India People’s Front
https://countercurrents.org/2022/05/bahujan-politics-needs-a-new-radical-alternative
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See also
India’s is a ‘constitutional autocracy’ : Hereditary ruling classes are inherent in India, said Ambedkar,17/04/2024
(The author is a Telugu media person who contributed several articles to countercurrents.org)
