83 yr-old reminisces the struggle forTelangana Statehood

The struggle of Telangana peasants against the Nizam’s dictatorial regime is a central chapter in contemporary history. There were a number of warriors who fought against the atrocities of feudalists. Them were many women commanders whose names still remain unsung. Among them is 83-year-old Mallu Swarajyam who was a key member of the Telangana armed struggle.

She worked in the ‘Dalam’ (a basic unit of fighters) and carried a reward of Rs 10,000 on her head. Swarajyam was influenced by Gorky’s ’Mother’, which she read at the age of 10. Swarajyam was born into a semi- feudal family near Surayapet in Nalgonda district.

Her stint in public life began at the age of 11 when, in response to a call given by the Andhra Mahasabha to end bonded labour (Vetti), she defied the family norm and distributed rice to bonded labourers hailing from different castes and communities. “My own uncles were against me giving rice to bonded laborers. But I was firm that they deserved their share. And my gesture set a precedent in the entire area where bonded laborers started demanding pay for their work,” she said.

The name Swarajyam is in deference to the wishes of several of her relatives who were participating in the Bombay’s Satyagraha movement, in response to a call given by Mahatma Gandhi, as part of the struggle to attain ‘Swaraj’ (self-rule) from the British. “In the state of Telangana there were only two regimes---the British and the Nizam’s royal administration, where there was absence of freedom of speech in royal administration, but not in British regime,” she added.

Explaining the heinous social conditions of the Telangana public under the Nizam’s regime, Swarajyam explained, “When ‘dora’ (aristocrat) entered the village everybody had to look down. If rumaalu (scarf) was on the head, we needed to place it in front of his legs and take it away. We were not even allowed to sit outside the home. His words were like ordinance.”

Remembering a painful experience during the Telangana struggle, Swarajyam said, “A women sitting in front of her house was breast-feeding her baby. I was there to meet her. Suddenly the cops came and I hid in her house. All of a sudden she left her baby aside and stopped the cops from entering her house and asked them to leave.

The cops assumed that she was Mallu Swarajyam and took her to the station and tortured her brutally. Meanwhile I tried to rescue the baby who was hungry but it died soon after. The baby’s mother came back home late, unable to walk, as there were scars in the body.”

“Immediately I ran towards her, fell on her feet and said ‘You rescued me. But I couldn’t rescue your child’. The mother however gathered courage and responded, ‘Why do you cry for a small baby? Look at your mother how she is surviving even though she lost a daughter like you’. I had Goosebumps and it was the first time I was in tears,” she said.

Articulating her opinion on the current status of Telangana, Swarajyam says, “The Movement is not over yet. It has only begun. The difference is that the glory of Telangana cannot be achieved by weapons. Voice is the supreme weapon to shake the government.”

By:Ch Sandeep Manohar