Comrade GumudavelliRenuka (Midko)’s literature is a great contribution to Telugu literature, especially revolutionary literature. It was through Renuka’s stories that everyone came to know that “Midko” means “a firefly.” Today, these stories are no longer confined to Telugu speaking states but have crossed the linguistic and regional barriers in the country by being translated into multiple Indian languages. They are even crossing national boundaries and gaining a global readership.
However, Renuka—the author of these stories—remained incognito for three decades, hiding behind various pen names, without letting anyone know her true identity as a writer. On March 31, 2025, she was brutally killed by the State.
Renuka ranks among the finest of the writers who explored a wide range of genres with profound depth and intensity. Her stories are filled with emotion, while her essays are rich in analysis. She understood the uniqueness of each literary form and skilfully navigated through them.
Initially, Renuka started writing stories to express herself. She drew her themes from her surroundings, observations, and life experiences. From the beginning, she was driven by the realities of life. But she soon poured all her creativity and intellectual power into the revolution. So, she didn’t limit herself to just stories. She wrote stories, poems, book reviews, literary essays, analytical articles, social commentaries, field reports, interviews, biographies, and more. Some of these works are yet to be collected. So far two volumes of stories and one volume of field reports were brought out in Telugu.
Renuka was born (on October 14, 1970) in Kadavendi, a village in DevaruppalaMandal of Jangaon district, Telangana, a region known for its legacy of struggle. Kadavendi is a historically significant village—it’s the birthplace of DoddiKomarayya, the first martyr of the Telangana armed struggle.
Between 1946 and 1951, the people of Telangana rose in armed resistance against the local feudal landlords and oppressive overlords, backed by the Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan. The landlord VisunurDeshmukhRamachandra Reddy’s mother, JanakammaDorasani, who lived in Kadavendi, was notorious for her cruel treatment of the people—enforcing bonded labour, collecting illegal levies, and imposing all kinds of punishments and fines.
The Andhra Mahasabha was formed in Kadavendi, and under its leadership, the people resisted the tyranny of the landlords and abolished bonded labour. On July 4, 1946, people united against armed goons sent by Ramachandra Reddy, confronting them with sticks, sickles, and tools. DoddiKomarayya became a martyr in the resulting gunfire. His funeral procession was attended by thousands, and a memorial was erected in his honour in the village.
Three decades later, Renuka’s childhood was spent near that very memorial. Playing there, she learned of the nature of society. Perhaps she heard the stories of JanakammaDorasani’s atrocities and the heroic resistance of the people from her mother or grandmother.
Renuka’s parents—GumudavelliSomayya and Jayamma—were progressive thinkers. Her father was a teacher, and the family was influenced by revolutionary politics. Her parents did not raise her merely as a girl but treated her as their beloved child, with democratic values. Perhaps it was this nurturing that allowed her to write her early stories from a women’s perspective.
As a young adult, she couldn’t adjust to a marriage that elders hastily arranged. Unable to bear her husband’s harassment, she broke the marriage within two years. She took life into her own hands, with her family’s support. From there, her journey as Midko began.
Believing that “girls need education to stand on their own feet,” she completed her B.A. (as an external student). When she got admission for both an M.A. in Telugu and an L.L.B., she chose the latter, even though Tirupati was far away. By then, through friends of her revolutionary brother, she was already involved in revolutionary politics. In Tirupati, comrade Padma, who was working as an organizer in the urban revolutionary movement, sought out Renuka. That connection changed her life. She became a full-time worker in the women’s organisation. There, she also found friends with whom she could discuss literature.
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Between 1985 and 1990, under the oppressive regime of the Telugu Desam government, numerous fake encounters took place, and attacks and brutal killings by government-sponsored goons on human rights activists led to a complete halt of all artistic, literary, and cultural expression. Eventually, after its electoral defeat, the Congress government that came to power relaxed the repression. Across the state, progressive forces began mobilizing vigorously on many public issues.
This was the early 1990s — a time when the anti-liquor movement was erupting powerfully across undivided Andhra Pradesh. It was also a period when feminist politics had, for over a decade, entered Telugu literature as a strong challenge to patriarchy. Women’s organizations were forming across the state and actively fighting on various issues women were facing. Numerous progressive and women-centric magazines were being published. Even mainstream newspapers were compelled to start dedicated women’s pages.
Meanwhile, Dalit identity politics was beginning to spread its wings with consciousness and vigour. It was during this time — between 1989 and 1993 — that Nalupu (Black), a publication focused on socio-political issues and representing the voice of the people, was active. Renuka sent her first story to Nalupu. However, the magazine was on the verge of shutting down. Only a poem of hers was published in its final issue.
But the correspondence surrounding that story introduced her to Chakravenu, who was working as a sub-editor at Nalupu. His letter, praising her story, inspired her to write another one. Eventually, she sent her story to Aahwanam magazine. That story, titled ‘Bhaavukata’ published in 1994, received wide acclaim. It was Renuka’s first published story.
In March 1989, MahilaMaargam, a Marxist feminist journal, was launched under the editorship of AluriSatyavati. In 1992, it shifted to Tirupati under the editorship of Vishnupriya. The magazine ran primarily with the support of grassroots activists. Since Vishnupriya also led a women’s group called Mahila Shakti, her home naturally became a hub for many activists. Renuka made many friends there. Many discussions were held among the activists to understand the connections between women’s issues and broader social problems through a Marxist lens. Renuka actively participated in these discussions.
Mahila Shakti participated in several struggles related to women’s issues, including the anti-liquor movement, and Renuka was involved in all of them. Between 2002 and 2004, she served on the editorial board of MahilaMaargam and contributed many pieces to it — stories, reflections, reports, poems, essays, book reviews, and editorials.
After working in Tirupati for a decade, Renuka shifted her field of work to Visakhapatnam. There, she worked for some time in a women’s organization. In 1997, Renuka married Comrade Mahesh, a revolutionary leader living underground. Just two years later, in December 1999, Comrade Mahesh was martyred. That was an irreparable blow to her. In 2004, as repression intensified, she was compelled to choose an underground life. In 2005, she married Comrade Apparao, who was martyred in a fake encounter in 2010. Despite these personal tragedies, she endured them with resoluteness, recovered with the support of the people, and moved forward with determination.
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From the beginning, Renuka had her own voice. She wrote stories under many pen names. Due to her secret life as a revolutionary and the use of multiple pseudonyms, some confusion arose in compiling her works. Now, we have officially published 37 of her authenticated stories in two volumes in Telugu. The first volume includes 18 stories which explore different dimensions of women’s issues, highlighting invisible forms of discrimination. They critique the male gaze on women’s lives and challenge the fixed stereotypes in understanding women’s experiences. These stories open new windows even for women to see their own lives differently. They expose the cultural values and social constraints that condition women’s lives.
Reviewing this early phase, from her first story Bhaavukata, we can see Renuka’s evolution as a writer. Her growth reflects her deep observational power. From the start, she viewed life not just realistically but also critically. She never took things at face value. She didn’t accept what was visible as the whole truth — she sought to understand why life was the way it was. Especially in examining the values, beliefs, and norms that constrain women’s lives, she immersed herself in society, exploring its wide and complex cultural ideologies. She tried to depict reality critically in her writings.
Renuka has portrayed life in Telangana beautifully in many of her stories. The characters in her stories, their personalities, their language, and their culture—she writes about all of these in a very natural manner.
After she began writing about the revolutionary movement in the late 1990s, she penned 19 stories on the subject which appear in the second volume of stories in Telugu. We selected these 19 stories and translated them into English. Three of the 19 were included in Viyyukka – The Morning Star, the first volume in the English series. The current anthology, Midko – The Firefly, contains the remaining 16 stories.
For women to cross the boundaries imposed by society and enter the revolutionary movement was a significant socio-cultural development. It was extraordinary. Even after entering the movement, women continually evolved and played a creatively powerful role in shaping the movement as a force against patriarchy, the State, and ultimately the system itself. Renuka portrayed this revolutionary transformation through the lens of man – woman relationships.
Women’s entry into and participation in the revolutionary movement, and their political growth within it, could happen only because of their strong personalities. The fact that women acquired such firm and resolute identities was made possible by the revolutionary movement. Renuka vividly portrays this developmental process in many of her stories. At the same time, she honestly discusses the obstacles and limitations that still exist within the movement and the efforts women are making to overcome them.
What has the revolutionary movement done for women is not a standalone question. There’s also the question of what women—particularly those from Adivasi and working-class backgrounds, long subjected to oppression—have contributed to the movement after joining it. Only when both these questions are considered together can the discussion around “Women and the Revolutionary Movement” be complete. Renuka herself has personally understood this dynamic. That is why, when we read her stories about women in the revolutionary movement, we realize that while they learned much from the movement, they also brought subtle insights and deep perspectives to it.
Renuka’s stories always seek out even the slightest signs of regression in individuals or in the movement. She highlights them and encourages reflection on solutions. That is one of the essential qualities a writer must possess. By turning a problem into a story, she intensifies an experience we all share. She pays careful attention to every character she creates. Like an artist, with awareness of the surroundings, background, and culture of each character, she carves them out with intense concentration. Whether a character is progressive or one that enforces State violence, she portrays them honestly. The characters’ perspectives and the context from which they operate make us understand why they take certain stances. That is Renuka’s hallmark.
When she chooses themes from conflict-ridden regions, she never prematurely labels anyone as good or bad. The benefits, justice, and injustices involved in the conflict—and the characters’ attitudes toward them—shape their nature. The character may belong to Telangana, may be an Adivasi from Dandakaranya, or someone from Odisha or North Andhra. Selecting characters from various regions is another unique feature of Renuka’s stories. However, she doesn’t craft characters according to her whims; instead, she moulds them from their real-life contexts and consciousness. Her skill lies in writing about such serious matters with great ease. Perhaps this was possible only because of the clarity in her thoughts and her perspective on why she writes stories.
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She first worked underground in the Bansadhara region of Andhra-Odisha. There, along with organizational work, she also worked in the press division. In 2012, she entered Dandakaranya and worked in various capacities until 2025. Throughout her underground life, she wrote under many pen names. Taking inspiration from her comrade and sister-like companion Com. Midko (who worked under the name Sabitha), she adopted the name Midko and wrote some stories. She also wrote under the names Vijje, Ajitha, Asifa, Nirmala, and Zameen.
Just before she entered the Bansadhara region, Comrade Damayanti was martyred there. To include Bansadhara in her identity, she adopted the name B.D. Damayanti and wrote important revolutionary reports. Similarly, when Shwetha, who worked in the press division in Malkangiri, was martyred, she wrote under the name M.G. Shwetha to include Malkangiri in the name. By the time Comrade Renuka was martyred in March 2025, she had taken the name “Chaithe.”
In a 2011 article written under the name Damayanti, she wrote about two revolutionary Adivasi women’s organisation leaders — Kumili and Chaithe. Both of them were brutally tortured, raped, and murdered by state-sponsored goons. Chaithe was the KAMS leader in the Kanker district of Bastar. It was through the movement that she learned to read, write, and even learned to operate computers. She worked in the press division for nine years (2002–2011). What greater ideal could there be than continuing the legacy of such individuals — especially for those working in the press division! After joining the revolutionary movement, Renuka personally trained many Adivasi young women in computers.
She worked with dedication to the people for three decades. To capture and kill this comrade — helpless and unarmed due to illness — was a heinous act. Revolutionary salutes to Comrade Renuka, who stood by the people till the very end!
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