Tanguturi Prakasam Panthulu was born on 23 August 1872 to Subbamma and Gopalakrishnayya, a Telugu Niyogi brahmin family in the village of Vinodarayunipalem, 20 km from Ongole in the then Madras presidency (now Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh). His father Gopalakrishnayya was a village headman. He migrated to Nellore district and was working in the Venkatagiri estate, earning Rs.8 a month. Prakasam Panthulu had his primary education at Nayudupeta. In 1880 when Prakasam Panthulu was very young, his father died and the burden of maintaining the family consisting of three young children fell on his mother. She started running a boarding house at Ongole, a profession that was looked down upon at the time.
In Ongole Prakasam’s Mathematics teacher, Immaneni Hanumantha Rao Naidu played a very important part in shaping the career of Prakasam. When Hanumantha Rao Naidu left Ongole for Rajahmundry to join his new post, Prakasam followed him and continued his studies there. Rajahmundry in those days was a platform for eminent artists and scholars and a centre of many socio-political movements on the banks of Godavari. Stage dramas were actively performed in Rajahmundry and influenced by it Prakasam acted in Gayopakhyanam a popular stage drama written by Chilakamarti Lakshmi Narasimham in 1890 along with his teacher.
Legal profession
He was interested in becoming a lawyer since childhood, but Prakasam failed his matriculation examination as his attention got diverted to acting in Telugu dramas ( he acted mostly female roles). However, he managed to go to Madras and become a second-grade pleader. Second grade pleaders could only practice in subordinate courts. Returning to Rajamahendravaram, he eventually became a successful lawyer. He was elected as Municipal Councillor in 1900 and Municipal Chairman of Rajamahendravaram in 1903 when he was 31 years old.
During one of his professional visits to Madras on a court case, a barrister was impressed with his legal acumen and suggested that he become a barrister. Before leaving for England in 1904, Prakasam made a promise to his mother that he would abstain from eating non-vegetarian food, smoking and drinking. In England, he joined the Royal India Society and worked for the election of Dadabhai Naoroji to the House of Commons. After completing the barrister course with a certificate of honour in London, Prakasam relocated to Madras high court in 1907. He became the first Telugu Barrister to make a mark in the Madras High Court; until then, most of the successful lawyers were either Anglicans or Tamilians. He dealt with both civil and criminal cases. From 1907 to 1921, he continued his dedicated service in the legal profession and had a lucrative practice. During this period he edited the journal Law Times.
He went to England twice to argue cases before the Privy Council. Prakasam was known for arguing successfully for his clients in several complex criminal cases in Madras High Court. It is said that when Prakasam used to argue the case in the court the then British Judges used to listen with rapt attention. This author vividly recollects his paternal grandmother telling stories in his childhood about how few famous criminal cases were successfully won by Prakasam and some of them were jointly taken up by Prakasam along with the author’s paternal grandfather’s cousin late. Bachu Jagannath Das who was a practicing lawyer in Madras High Court and elevated to the bench of Orissa High Court in 1948, later went on to become the second Chief Justice of Orissa High Court (1951), Supreme Court Judge (1953-1958) and Chairman of second pay commission (1960).
Participation in freedom struggle
In 1907 Prakasam presided over Bipin Chandra Pal’s lectures at Madras when others were afraid to come forward, since the British government considered Pal’s speeches to border on sedition. The library movement started in India in 1910 and played a significant role in promoting literacy, education, and dissemination of knowledge throughout the country. The Andhra Library movement began in 1914, Prakasam contributed significantly to publications like Madras Law Times, Praja Patrika, and Swarajya. Tanguturi was passionate about introducing village libraries to promote literacy and knowledge among the rural population. He firmly believed that Journalism and the Library Movement could be used for education and the political awareness of the masses.
Prakasam started attending the Congress Party sessions regularly after the Lucknow Pact and signed the Satyagraha pledge in October 1921. He gave up his lucrative law practice. On 29th October, 1921 he started and was the working editor of a newspaper Swarajya (meaning self-rule). The paper was published simultaneously in English, Telugu and Tamil.
He was elected the general secretary of the Congress Party in December 1921 at the Ahmedabad session. Whenever there was unrest or riot across the country, he tried to be there so as to comfort people. He visited Punjab during Akali Satyagraha and the Hindu-Muslim riots in Multan. He toured Kerala during the Moplah rebellion despite a ban on visitors from outside the area and had his property at Ooty attached by the government as a consequence. In 1922, during the non-cooperation movement, he organised a demonstration by 30,000 Congress volunteers at Guntur. In 1926, he was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly on a Congress Party ticket. Prakasam’s hour long passionate speech during the Budget discussion on Gandhiji’s demand for abolition of salt-tax is one of the memorable speeches ever made in the annals of that Assembly.
Prakasam concluded his famous speech saying thus: “I hold it, Sir, relying upon the authority of some of the greatest jurists and constitutional lawyers of Great Britain, who refused to administer bad laws when they were called upon to administer them, that it is the duty of every patriotic citizen to ask the Government to revoke such a bad law. If they do not do it, then I consider it will be the duty of every one to break such an oppressive law.”
Andhra Kesari (Lion of Andhra)
When Simon commission visited Madras on 3 February 1928, Prakasam Panthulu gave the slogan “Go back Simon Commission”, heading the demonstration. When Prakasam went to see the body of one person (whose name incidentally happens to be Parthasarathi) who died in this agitation British soldiers threatened to shoot if they (the demonstrators) moved an inch forward. Enraged Prakasam Panthulu baring his chest came forward challenging them to shoot him. This made the British soldiers dumb struck. This exemplary courage earned him the title “Andhra Kesari” (the Lion of Andhra). Thereafter, Prakasam popularly came to be known as “Andhra Kesari”. The name Andhra Kesari was so popular, when this author’s uncle was born (1938) the author’s maternal grandfather, who was a freedom fighter, named him as Goteti Andhra Kesari!
In 1937, Congress Party contested the provincial elections and achieved majority in Madras province, among others. Though Prakasam was in the running for Prime Minister’s post, he made way for Rajaji, who returned to active politics as per the wishes of the Congress Working Committee. Prakasam became the revenue minister in Rajaji’s cabinet. Under Prakasam’s Chairmanship “Zamindari Enquiry Committee” in Madras prepared a report which became the precursor of the Government’s efforts to abolish the Zamindari system in the country.
Prakasam was arrested and jailed for more than three years for participating in the Quit India movement of 1942. After his release in 1945, he toured South India to get back in touch with the masses. Tanguturi Prakasam Panthulu endured multiple imprisonments (Madras, Vellore, Bellari jails) in his pursuit of a free and sovereign India.
In 1946, after the Congress’ victory in elections in Madras Presidency, Prakasam became the Chief minister on 30 April 1946. As the Chief Minister, he abolished all foreign textile factories and left only the Khadi mills to operate. He remained in office for eleven months and later relinquished his post on 23 rd March, 1947. His government was short-lived and lasted only for 11 months due to internal differences with the Congress party leaders.
Prakasam visited Hyderabad State in 1948, while the Nizam was still in power, although Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru warned against doing so because of concern for his personal safety. He met Qasim Rizvi, the leader of the Razakars, and warned him about “pushing his luck too far”.
Champion of the masses
He championed Press freedom as a reputed journalist and carried out crucial reforms for the development of Rural people. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, Tanguturi pioneered reforms to uplift Dalits, handloom workers, and downtrodden sections of society. He believed that villages must be nurtured towards self-sufficiency and self-governance.
In the early 1950s, Tanguturi came up with the Firka development concept for rural development. The prime objectives of this concept were to improve the standard of living of the rural folk and to develop the rural economy through self-employment and community building. This concept was implemented in Madras presidency and focused on several areas, including agriculture, rural infrastructure and cottage Industries. Firka development concept was successful as it brought positive changes to the lives of rural people in Madras presidency. It became a vanguard of the community development programme launched throughout India in 1952. Prakasam fought for the cause of Indian working class and suggested that they should have a Labour Party and labour research department on the lines of the British working-class movement.
A man of principles, grit and determination
Prakasam was a man of grit and determination. He stood by his principles. However, his concern for the unity of the Congress Party he adopted flexibility as an accommodative leader. He was one of the few who tried for a reconciliation between Gandhiji and the Swarajists and later between the Gandhians and the Socialists in the Congress Party. He firmly believed that only through united action the freedom could be achieved. For the sake of achieving unity, he did not hesitate to oppose even Gandhiji.
First CM of Andhra State
Meanwhile, in December 1952, Potti Sreeramulu died fasting for the cause of a separate state for the Telugu-speaking people. In 1952, Prakasam formed the Hyderabad State Praja Party (Hyderabad State People’s party) and ensured that all the sitting ministers of the Congress Party were defeated. However, Praja party could not come into power by its own and the coalition that he put together collapsed even before a show of strength could be contemplated.
On 1 October 1953, the state of Andhra was created and Prakasam was unanimous choice for the first Chief minister of the new state. He was not only the party’s choice, but the people’s choice too. As CM his 13 month administration from Kurnool (which was the then capital of Andhra State) witnessed the launching of a major irrigation project- the Nagarjunasagar, a Barriage -cum- Regulator on River Krishna at Vijayawada, which is now called the Prakasam Barriage, a High Court for the State, and a new University at Tirupati ( Sri Venkateswara University) However, due to opposition from the communists and withdrawal of support from the socialists, his government fell after a year. Mid-term elections were held in 1955 to the Andhra State and by that time Prakasam had almost retired from active politics.
On 1 November 1956, Telugu-speaking parts of the erstwhile Hyderabad State were merged with Andhra State to form Andhra Pradesh. Marathi-speaking parts (Aurangabad region) of the Hyderabad state were merged with Bombay State (which later split into Gujarat and Maharashtra) and Kannada-speaking parts (Gulbarga region) were merged with Mysore State. Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, a future President of India and a staunch follower of Prakasam, became the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. Prakasam was active in touring the state promoting harijan issues (dalit issues). On one such visit to a harijanwada near Ongole, he suffered from severe sunstroke. He was admitted to a Hyderabad hospital and died there on 20 May 1957.
Prakasam was a multifaceted personality, covering literature and education, fostering a culture of enlightenment. India Postal Department released a commemorative stamp in the honour of Prakasam in 1972 in his birth centenary year. Andhra Kesari Prakasam Panthulu’s 7`8“ Statue in Parliament house was unveiled by K. R. Narayanan, President of India on 5 May 2000.
Prakasam’s autobiography is titled Naa Jeevitha Yatra (My Life’s Journey). The film Andhra Kesari was the first Biopic Movies on Chief Ministers, which was directed by Vijayachander (grandson of Prakasam Panthulu and Telugu film actor), It was released on 1 November 1983, the Andhra Pradesh Formation Day and received the state Nandi Special Jury Award.
Reference:
- https://cmsadmin.amritmahotsav.nic.in/unsung-heroes-detail.htm?2885
- Andhra Kesari Tanguturi Prakasam, Lok Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi, May, 2000.
- https://www.constitutionofindia.net/members/t-prakasam/
