Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao (1 June 1917 – 12 July 1984) was an Indian politician. He was a member of the 2nd Lok Sabha of India. He represented the Nalgonda constituency of Telangana.
D.V. Rao was born in Ingurthi village, Warangal District on 1 June 1917, son of Devulapalli Varada Rao. [1] [2] His family hailed from Bandameedi Chandupatla village, Suryapet taluk, Nalgonda District. [1]
Whilst a high school student in Khammam he took part in the 3rd conference of the Andhra Mahasabha. [1] D.V. Rao was active in the students movement, organizing protests against the Nizam of Hyderabad government. [2] Whilst a B.A. student at Osmania University, he was an organiser of the 'Vande Mataram' students movement in Hyderabad State. [1] [2] He was expelled from university for his role in the protests, but was able to complete his graduation at Jabalpur Arts College in 1938. [1] He came into contact with Marxist literature during this period. [1] After having returned to his village, he married Ranganayakamma in May 1939. [1] [2]
D.V. Rao was recruited by the Communist Party of India in 1939. [1] D.V. Rao would serve as President of the Nalgonda District Committee of the Andhra Mahasabha, and would go on to serve as secretary of the organization. [2] He was a key organiser of the Telangana armed struggle and spent eight years in the underground (until 1953). [2] He played an active part in the drafting of the 1948 Andhra Thesis of the Provincial Secretariat of CPI, which for the first time in India outlined a revolutionary line inspired by the experiences of the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong. [1] In the late 1960s Rao argued that the surrender of arms of the Telangana struggle had been a great betrayal. [3]
He was the secretary of the Nalgonda District Committee of the CPI, and secretariat member of the CPI Telangana Committee (formed in February 1952) and a member of the CPI Central Committee. [2] [3] D.V. Rao was the youngest member of the CPI before the 1964 split. [1] He served as Vice President of the Telangana Kisan Sabha. [2] D.V. Rao was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Nalgonda constituency in the 1957 Indian general election. [2]
In June 1968 Rao founded the Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (APCCCR) along with T. Nagi Reddy, Chandra Pulla Reddy and Kolla Venkaiah. [4] In April 1975 D.V. Rao and T. Nagi Reddy founded the Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India (Marxist–Leninist) (UCCRI(ML)). [1] In 1974 D.V. Rao's Telangana Armed Struggle and the Path of Indian Revolution was published in English and Telugu. [1] The pamphlet was a review of P. Sundarayya's work Telangana People’s Struggle and its Lessons. [1] In the late 1970s, he became the founding editor of The Proletarian Line. [1]
D.V. Rao died on 12 July 1984. [1] His work The History of the People’s Armed Struggle of Telangana (1946-51) Volume-I was published in Telugu posthumously in 1988, the book covers the history of the Telangana struggle up to the 1948 Police Action. [1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p countercurrents.org. Veteran Communist Revolutionary DV Rao Remembered
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Lok Sabha. RAO, SHRI DEVULAPALLI VENKATESWARA
- ^ a b Puccalapalli Sundarayya; Harindranath Chattopadhyaya (1972). Telangana People's Struggle and Its Lessons. Foundation Books. pp. 323–324. ISBN 978-81-7596-316-0.
- ^ Leslie J Calman (16 August 2019). Protest In Democratic India: Authority's Response To Challenge. Taylor & Francis. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-00-030844-0.