He spent ten and a half years in a Chhattisgarh jail!
She spent twelve years!
38 unproven cases against him, 159 against her!
- Raghava
Some people’s lives are a source of wonder. They are filled with endless sorrow. They do not think about what tomorrow will bring. They do not live for themselves. They do not even fear for their lives. They simply do not care about the police, cases, or courts. They live only for the people. Even in old age, they survive solely through their own hard labor.
He was a first-generation Naxalbari leader from Chittoor district. As a student, he played an active role in the revolutionary movement starting from 1969. He spent the entire Emergency period in jail. Even before the Emergency, he experienced prison life. He was arrested in Chhattisgarh, and 38 cases were filed against him. Not a single charge was proven. Now aged 78, D. Chandra Sekhar Reddy, alias Jayapal had to spend ten and a half years in prison before he was released as not guilty, eight years ago.
His partner, sixty years old C. Venkata Lakshmi, alias Nirmalakka’s story is not different. In 1989 she disappeared at her native place Srikalahasthi, and later surfaced in the People’s War squads. Eighteen years later, she was arrested in Chhattisgarh, and 159 cases were filed against her. Not a single crime was proven in any of those cases. Nevertheless, she had spent twelve years in prison before she got released six years ago.
Having spent the most crucial years of their lives for the revolutionary movement, the couple—Chandra Sekhar Reddy and Venkata Lakshmi live a simple independent life in their old age.
As soon as I stepped into the small house in Korlagunta, Tirupati, I saw two sewing machines. In the shelves were new fabrics for saree falls, blouse pieces to be stitched, and sarees. For five years now, both have been making a living by tailoring clothes.
I have often seen them both at meetings and gatherings in Tirupati. When asked for a brief interview, Chandra Sekhar Reddy replied very humbly, “We are busy with work all day. Can you come at seven in the evening?” My conversation with them on March 15th Sunday night went like this.
“How did you actually enter this revolutionary movement?”
Chandra Sekhar Reddy began to explain…
“Ours is Ailavari Palle in the Iirala Mandal of Chittoor district. I come from an agricultural family. I was studying at Oriental College, Tirupati. Singamaneni Narayana (a famous Telugu writer) was my classmate; he was older than me. Some of my relatives were in the CPI and CPI(M), and I learned a bit from them. Around 1969-70, we invited the Digambara Kavulu (Naked Poets) to our college. Jwalamukhi, Nikhileswar, and Cherabandaraju stayed in our room. Singamaneni Narayana was also with us.
The tremors of the Naxalbari movement eventually reached me. Under the leadership of Charu Majumdar, the ‘All India Coordination Committee of Revolutionaries’ was formed.
A person named Narayana Rao used to bring us the Liberation magazine. By reading Liberation, we learned about the news of the Naxalbari movement. C.K. Narayana Reddy and Mahadevan approached me about starting a Student Federation in Chittoor district. At a meeting held in Tirupati’s Balaji Bhavan, Sri Sri (the legendary revolutionary poet), Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao, and Venu, along with Mahadevan, spoke. This meeting took place before the official founding of the Radical Students Union (RSU).
From 1970 onwards, I became fully immersed in party work. I was responsible for the Tirupati unit. Surendra used to look after the entire district. Mahadevan was the convener of Chittoor District for the Coordination Committee. Along with Mahadevan, the district committee included C.K. Narayana Reddy, myself, Purushottam from Eswalapuram, and Sivaramireddy from Ammagunta.
Vajravelu Chetty and Koneti Venkataswami belonged to the Tarimela Nagi Reddy faction. However, Vajravelu Chetty’s son, Ranganath, joined the Charu Majumdar faction.
We held a meeting in Gadanki and organized a conference near Kottapeta. Those were the days when Charu Majumdar’s ‘Annihilation of Class Enemies’ program was in full swing. Personally, I did not directly participate in any action. The police arrested Oriental College students Nagaraju, Hameed, and Chandra Sekhar Rao.”
In the Chittoor District Jail, Naxalite prisoners were provoked; when they rose in rebellion, shots were fired, leading to the incident at Ammagunta.
They captured Nagaraju in Ammagunta and shot him dead in the name of an ‘encounter’ near Vedallacheruvu. In 1974, they arrested me and Surendra Reddy in the Pallam conspiracy case and the Tirupati conspiracy case. There used to be two squads in Chittoor district. Ours was the Eastern squad; there was another squad in the West.
We used to form as squads and travel through the villages. We conducted surveys in the forests. We intended to carry out monetary raids, but we never did. We were arrested simply for moving as a squad, even without having committed any action. With the declaration of the Emergency in 1975, I was arrested again. Along with me, Krishnaswami, Tripuraneni Madhusudana Rao, Shailakumar, Surendra, Karunakar Reddy, Bhuman and others were arrested. After the Emergency was lifted, we were all released.
After the Emergency
After the Emergency, I stayed in Madanapalle, organizing meetings and gatherings. It was during that time I got married. I even had a son. Later, my wife and son became distant from me. Following the Emergency, I stayed home and looked after Jana Natya Mandali (cultural wing) programs. Together with Mangali Kishtappa (Reddappa), I started the Rythu Coolie Sangham (Peasant-Laborer Association) and mobilized people regarding their issues. Even before the Emergency, I had established contact with Kondapalli Seetharamaiah. I was arrested right after returning from one of Kondapalli’s classes.
In Tamballapalle and Chowdasamudram regions, struggles would break out between the landlords (pettandarlu) and the people. At that time, they wouldn’t even allow our meetings to take place. The people killed a person named Reddappa, who was associated with the Reddy community of Tamballapalle. Consequently, the repression increased. Because TDP MLC Umashankar Reddy was supportive of us, the landlords killed him in the name of the Rythu Coolie Sangham. Attacks on villages were happening. An atmosphere of war had enveloped the region.”
As repression intensified in Madanapalle region, I relocated to Srikalahasti area. I was engaged in organizing students. Markandeyulu, the commander of the Kalangi Dalam, also joined the party through my efforts. Subsequently, the police killed him in a so-called ‘encounter.’ I remained in Chittoor district until 1989. While I was still in Chittoor district, Gnana Prasuna—who was then a second-year B.Sc. student at SPBW College in Tirupati—joined the party. In the December, Venkatalakshmi (Chandrasekhar Reddy’s life partner) and her younger sister, Geetha Devi, also joined the party.
Venkata Lakshmi and I handled ‘Tech’ (Technical) responsibilities for the People’s War Central Committee across various states for five years,. ‘Tech’ responsibilities meant maintaining ‘dens’ (safe houses), working as couriers, and making necessary arrangements for the Central Committee. Later, I moved into Dandakaranya. As a Divisional Committee member in Dandakaranya, I used to take political classes to the people there. I would listen to the news and tell it to the Telugu people in Telugu and to the Hindi people in Hindi.
I spent thirteen years in Chhattisgarh, from 1994 to 2007. My health deteriorated.
After undergoing treatment at CMC Hospital, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, I returned. Due to a lack of proper arrangements for our return to Chhattisgarh, the police—acting on information from informants—arrested Venkatalakshmi and me in Raipur and imprisoned us.
Thirty-eight cases were filed against me. After ten and a half years, I was released from Raipur Jail in December 2017. Since being released, the party did not bother about me, and I too did not bother to contact. The current developments are very painful,” said Chandra Sekhar Reddy with a deep sigh.
Chandra Sekhar Reddy neither regretted his half-century of revolutionary life nor did he boast of being a hero or a warrior anywhere. No matter how much he grew in his understanding of society, he appeared humble. He was never seen shouting about his revolutionary life into microphones like a cawing crow.
Four Gondi Languages: Venkata Lakshmi
His life partner, C. Venkata Lakshmi was sitting right next to Chandra Sekhar Reddy. Her revolutionary life followed a different path. While 38 cases were filed against Chandra Sekhar Reddy, 158 cases were filed against Venkata Lakshmi. This alone helps one understand the perspective through which the government viewed her. When asked, “How did your revolutionary life progress?” she shared her story. In her own words:
“I am from Srikalahasti. I joined the People’s War when I was studying 2nd year B.Sc. in December 1989. My sister, Geetha Devi also joined along with me. Jnana Prasuna had joined three months before us. I married Chandra Sekhar Reddy. My sister married Subba Rao, who hailed from Machilipatnam. Subba Rao was a ‘Tech’ organizer; in the early nineties, the police killed him in a so-called ‘encounter.’
I went to Dandakaranya along with Chandra Sekhar Reddy. I served as a squad member, a squad commander, and an Area Committee person-in-charge. Eventually, I also served as a member of the Divisional Committee. I mostly did field work. For some time, Chandra Sekhar Reddy worked in the ‘Press’ located within the forest, away from the field.
I went to the Dandakaranya region in 1994. Every thirty kilometers, the dialect of the Gondi language changes. I used to conduct political classes. To teach politics to the tribal people, I learned four Gondi languages:Maria Gondi, spoken in the Abujhmadh region, Muria Gondi, spoken in the plains, Halbi, spoken in North Bastar, Chhattisgarhi, spoken in the Chhattisgarh region. Along with these four languages, I also learned Hindi.”
“Compared to our region, the tribals of Chhattisgarh are politically very conscious. They have a great deal of awareness regarding national and international politics. The People’s War (now the Maoist Party) had to work very hard to create that awareness; It had developed consciousness among them immensely. We would put up tents only when it rained; otherwise, we lived in the open air in the forest. In winter, the cold was extreme. In summer, the heat was intense. Water was unavailable during the summer. Police search operations were frequent.
In the evenings, a bird in the forest screeches strangely. We wouldn’t know why it was screeching, but they (the tribals) knew. Because they believed we would do something for them, they trusted us. Trusting us, they faced intense repression. The people there made far greater sacrifices than we did. They fed us rice while they themselves drank only ganji (gruel). I worked among those innocent people in Chhattisgarh from 1994 to 2007. Now, there is no struggle there; they have turned it into a tourist destination.
Back then, there were only single-teacher schools and ashram-like schools. Although there were no landlords there, there were dominant figures like the Patel and the Sarpanch. We introduced cooperative farming. The Forest Department used to levy a tax on the axe. They even taxed the plough. We fought against these for forest rights. The party made many sacrifices to reach that stage. It hurts to remember those sacrifices. We do not wish to comment on the current developments.”
Cases and torture
“Police arrested me and Chandra Sekhar Reddy at the Raipur bus stand. While they didn’t trouble Chandra Sekhar Reddy much, the female police officers beat me and subjected me to torture. I was held in the Raipur, Dantewada, and Jagdalpur jails in Chhattisgarh. I spent the longest time in the Jagdalpur jail.
Initially, forty cases were filed against me. One by one, they kept increasing until they reached a total of 159 cases. For a year after the arrest, they kept taking us to court. To transport us, a large police force was required, so we never knew on which day they would actually take us. While being transported to and from the court, five times exchange of fire occurred between our people and the police. No one died, but one of our men was injured. Gunfights between the People’s War squads and the police were frequent.
The food in jail was terrible. In the morning, it was rice and watery dal, or else roti. They would take us to the courts, six days a week. It took ten and a half years for all the cases against Chandra Sekhar Reddy to be dismissed. It took twelve years for all the cases against me to be struck down. Consequently, I was released from Jagdalpur jail in April 2019. My mother had come to see me only once. That was in the year 2000.
Now, I stitch dresses and blouses for eight to nine hours a day. From waking up at 5:30 AM until going to bed at 10:30 PM, I am constantly working on these tailoring tasks,” she explained.
When asked, “How have you settled down now?” Chandra Sekhar Reddy replied, “As soon as I was released in December 2017, my son took me to Madanapalle. He kept me with him for six months, then brought me to Tirupati and gave me one lakh rupees. With the help of friends, I established myself. Selling a piece of land brought in two lakh rupees. Karunakar Reddy helped us get a ration card and a house near Papanaidu peta. Lawyers like Satyanarayana and Balla Ravindra also assisted us. I also stitch falls for sarees and do zig-zag stitching. We do not wish to comment on the current state of the party,” they clarified.
In this country, many have laid down their lives for revolution. Countless people live with revolutionary commitment, making immense sacrifices. For those who have made their lives a sacrifice, the couple Chandra Sekhar Reddy and Venkata Lakshmi are a model. At a time when developments like ‘encounters,’ repression, surrenders, and arrests under the name ‘Kagaar’ (Operation Kagaar) are happening against Maoists, only the future will tell where these events will lead.
Originally published in “The Fedaral Telangana”
Translated from Telugu by K. Padma
