‘I am a one-man cultural army’: Telugu poet Gaddar on his lifelong class and caste activism

In 1972, I first came into contact with the People’s War Group. I met Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, the leader of the People’s War Group (PWG). He said the organisation would be called the Jana Natya Mandali. We would sing of the victory of the rytu coolies (agricultural labourers), portray the true picture of village reality and be the cultural front of the People’s War Group. My songs were the blueprint of the People’s War policies. As a result the lyrics changed direction at this point of time.

My song “Voli Volila, Rangula Voli” was about the Girayapalli encounter. You remember the four youth shot in Girayapalli forest in 1977? The encounter and public outrage which led to the formation of the Tarkunde Committee and the setting up of the Bhargava Commission? The song “Lal Salaam” also came out of that moment.

I then married Vimala who had given me shelter when I was a fugitive. After my marriage, I lay low for some time. I was semi-underground during the Emergency. I was arrested, beaten, and tortured for 45 days and then released. But they said I was not arrested as they had not filed a case. I went straight to [KG] Kannabiran when I was released and he advised me to go home quietly and lie low. So I saved my job and continued to work in a bank which I had joined around a year before that, in 1975.

Soon after, however, I quit my job and contacted the Party. I started a cultural project. I would stay in the huts of the poor and write songs of protest. Every song was linked to a social movement. In 1980, I wrote “Ragal Janda” (‘Red flag’)…

In 1985, after the Karamchedu massacre, I wrote the Karamchedu songs. I wandered across the countryside composing and singing. There were many days when we sat amidst the graveyards surviving on the food offered to the dead.

In 1989, I went to Dandakaranya and became a member of the military camp as a poet/singer for eight to nine months and I infused Marxist principles into my poetry. The role of the cultural movement, the Jana Natya Mandali, was that of a cultural front of the People’s War Group. But there was no secretary or office-bearer. It was the sword and pen in military uniform. The City Secretary was the Commander of the cultural front. The Party could suspend or expel any member. But to be effective, a cultural front must have its own independent structure; it cannot remain a mere front.

Armed revolution is just one aspect of the struggle, it is not the whole of it; it is not the only form of liberation. The Radical Students Union, Radical Youth League and Jana Natya Mandali, which came together and started the cultural liberation movement, disagreed with Kondapalli Seetharamaiah. When Chief Minister Chenna Reddy said that Gaddar as an artiste can sing freely, I began to perform again in public. Around 1988 or 1989, KG Satyamurthy, a powerful leader in the People’s War Group, left the Party saying that the caste issue in the country was as important as the class question. I also raised the caste issue again in the Party. There was a lot of heated debate within the Party. It was simply not willing to look at the caste question…

Later, I started the Ambedkar Niketan Trust. I remembered Ambedkar’s advice to educate children and to remember that knowledge is power. When my father was working at Ambedkar’s school in Aurangabad, Ambedkar used to hold a meeting with the workers every evening saying, “Educate your children. Send them to school. Go and write ‘Knowledge is Power’ on the walls of your huts.” I have never forgotten that. There were so many children orphaned by police encounters bereft of an education. I wanted to provide a good education – English education – to the children of the poor.

The PWG dissolved the Jana Natya Mandali and started the Praja Kala Mandali. I became a one-man cultural army from 1995 onwards, when I was suspended for singing a couple of cinema songs for which I was paid a paltry sum; for setting up a school for poor children (Dalit children and children of comrades killed in encounters); for taking flowers to Paritala Ravi’s funeral. I offered flowers to LK Advani on the stage at an all-party meeting for a separate Telangana. Advani called out to me and asked whether I had forgotten him. This was a public stage. I do not believe in being offensive personally on a public platform. I did not seek his favours or go to his house. This was a public courtesy. I was suspended for all these reasons. So I resigned. The disgrace of this suspension has disempowered me, harmed me profoundly. My dedication, my song, my wife, my children were all destroyed by this disgrace.

On April 1, 1997, the police brought a crowd to attack me. They went to Kannabiran’s house first and then came to mine. My wife, Vimala, warned me and I escaped from the back. They did not find me at home. On April 6, they came back and shot me. I survived and recovered. One bullet stayed in me, it was too near the spine to remove. It still troubles me when I am tired or it’s cold. For a whole year after that I was in Delhi for medical treatment.

I have toured the whole country. West Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra, for the Dangs, and the Narmada Bachao Andolan. I was part of different groups.

In 1998, I came to the Telangana Maha Sabha. I dedicated myself to the Telangana movement. I was part of the Ambedkarite-Phuleite movement. I wanted the Telangana Praja Front to become a political force.

Till 2016 there was a heated debate within the Party on caste/class discrimination. I wanted Ambedkarite-Phuleite ideas in the Party. But the Party insisted that they were Marxist-Leninist-Maoist.

Now I am a one-man cultural army. I added a blue flag under my red flag and began to go to the people. I work with mass organisations in Telangana, like a thread weaving flowers together. I have not joined the Bahujan Left Party, I will be a bridge between parties. My slogan is: Save the Constitution, Save India. Long Live Secularism. This is the change. The Red flag should back the Blue flag.

Yes, we have got a separate Telangana. But who rules today? Whose hands has it fallen into? We can’t get a democratic Telangana. A Bahujan Telangana. We need to be a political force. It is only when there is a divorce that the truth spills out onto the streets. Until the land issue is resolved you cannot get rid of Naxalism. As long as there are rytu coolies labouring for survival, Naxalism will flourish. Development has to come from the ground…

Now I am 70 years old. For the first time in my life I cast my vote along with Vimala in the General Election in 2018. One man, one vote! That is the principle. It is not ideological compromise but adapting politically. I will continue my journey singing of the Constitution, of civil rights and of human rights in the language of the people.

As long as I have a voice…

Excerpted with permission from My Life Is a Song: Gaddar’s Anthems for the Revolution, translated from the Telugu by Vasanth Kannabiran, Speaking Tiger Books.