Martial Arts, Posts and Leadership

The initial strategy of the Communists joining Congress organizations in order to represent their views and influence policies also continued with Women's causes as well. In accordance with this policy, Ammamma and a few others from the Communist Party Women's organization approached and sought membership in the Ladies Club of Guntur headed by Konda Parvati, the daughter of a leader Konda Venkatappaiah. Initially, the move was welcomed and they participated in some activities, however, they were politely asked to leave as they were communists. An interesting story Ammamma recalls is that Konda Parvati wanted to get married, but Gandhi told her not to do so because it would hurt her father! I wish I knew more details.

Later, Ammamma got a chance to visit Bombay again. This time, she, along with Malladi Vijayalakshmi were nominated by the Party to attend the All India Women's Conference (AIWC) there. Ammamma and Vijayalakshmi travelled first to Secunderabad, where they were received by a comrade S V K Prasad and taken to another comrade's house. This man was Iyengar and his wife was the sister (popularly called as Didi, but Ammamma forgot the original name) of Putchalapalli Sundarayya's wife Leela. Both the sisters were Maharashtrians and were the daughters of a lady (again popularly called as Tai) and who was responsible for the community kitchen and other arrangements for the party. There were several such marriages between men and women of the party, who truly believed that India was one whole and showed that they stood by the principle of a united India and Indianness. This would indeed appear in stark contrast to today's day and age of fractured regionalism motivated purely for political gain.

Anyway, Ammamma and Vijayalakshmi were then put on the Bombay train and after that they were on their own. They found out the address of the party office in Bombay and reached there safely. Again, if today such young people from the back of beyond of rural India, that too from another language speaking state, or speaking Hindi with an accent and/or literal Hindi, then god knows how they would have been hard put to stay without being cheated at least for a long taxi ride at the very minimum. Sometimes I wonder what freedom is all about. Like Rabindranath Tagore said - where the mind is without fear - kind of a society, or a highly sharpened and alert mind always watchful of any sleight in speech or action? By becoming smarter are we liberated, considering the increasingly inebriated and perverted society? However, there also existed another kind of India - Udayam's elder sister suffered a lot. she was the wife of an Inspector of Police named Chandramouli and he used beat up his wife black and blue. Once he beat up his pregnant wife and later showed evidence that she climbed a ladder and fell from it. Udayam revolted against this man, but to what avail, I do not know. Hope that poor soul got some relief and solace. Sorry about my distractions, but I feel that these are significant for capturing the societal fabric.

This Conference was not particularly eventful in Ammamma's memory, except for the fact that she could witness the felicitation of Vijayalakshmi Pandit - Nehru's sister and Sarojini Naidu (she was called the Nightingale of India for the poetry she wrote - I remember 'Bangle Sellers are we' for some reason. She was famous in Hyderabad as she had married Jayasurya, a famous homeopathy pioneer and, incidentally, Hyderabad Central University took birth initially in a building called Golden Threshold in Nampally, which was her house and which she donated for the setting up of the University). Ammamma was happy that though in a way Sarojini Naidu belonged to Hyderabad, she had not seen her before. She was also a fan of Vijayalakshmi Pandit's personality. She was an imposingly beautiful handsome woman (oxymoron?), and Ammamma was very happy to see her in person and found that pictures did little justice to the regal bearing of Vijayalakshmi Pandit. (At a later date, Ammamma was to be disappointed that her idol chose to be the Ambassador to capitalist Washington over communist Moscow!).

When they came back, Ammamma was trained first in Guntur in politics, history and geography. Later her training shifted to Vijayawada for more intensive training by veterans and also including Karra Saamu (a lathi wielding self defence/assault exercise regimen). Can you imagine, in the forties, people like Ammamma wore khaki shorts and shirts and did these exercises in a parade in the heart of conservative Vijayawada! I believe that Chandra Rajeswara Rao was teaching the women all the steps of the exercise and after the first day demo, he said that Ammamma would now be the Trainer for the rest of the team! She must have been a great learner of martial skills.

Around this time, Vijayawada was selected to host the resoundingly successful Farmer Grand Meet (Rythu Maha Sabha). Ammamma was the Assistant Commander of the Women's Volunteer Force. Manikonda Suryavati was the Commander. I wish Ammamma had pursued a military career or a police one, she would have been so courageous and imposing! In fact, military was a career option that she seriously considered and was selected, but chickened out from final enrolment as she did not like the idea of being away in far off places with too many movements in between and being away from action (while actually engaging in action on the war front!). She was clearly for the masses and she gave up wanting to work in the military. However, her preference for the martial skills was evident in the zeal with which she recited/taught poetry in schools in later years (more interesting details on this to come in future blogs).

(I would like to put a few dates in perspective here to set the sequence right. I would have to do this often I guess. Probably after I first document the complete history of Ammamma, I will rewrite it with corrections and additions. Ammamma's formal political indoctrination would have been in late 1942. Between 1942 and 43, she attended the two conferences in Bombay. She was the District Women's Secretary in 1943 and in the same year, she was elected as the Working Committee Member in the first AP State Women's Mahasabha at Kancherlapalem (Guntur district)In 1944-45, she was an active member of the Fifth Column (interesting episode - described later in this blog). The picketing of the ITC/ILTD office was around 1946-47).

The II World War was distant for Indians till the Japanese joined the war towards the end and started their conquest of the east. The moment they dropped bombs in Vizag and Madras, people were petrified. That was when the Fifth Column preparations began and Ammamma whole heartedly participated in the training for self defence, organization of the fifth column, air raid precautions, first aid etc. However, the threat of a war receded fast with the defeat of Japan and Germany and the victory of the Allied Forces.

The problem with this blog of mine is that most of Ammamma's pictures have not been preserved well. I remember one of hers playing the harmonium which I saw in her second sister's house in Ravivaripalem. I will try and see if we can get some pictures from somewhere. I am however happy that there is one that is available in a paper clipping of which I am now posting a scanned image below.Ammamma is in the row immediately behind the seated people - fifth from the left.