Life in Jail and Livelihood Issues, Freedom won and Repression gained

I have decided that giving missing pieces of earlier posts is cooling down the tempo. I am going to fill them up in edits of the individual posts, except for facts that would excite you. So here are a few of those missing ones in italics and then I continue with the saga of Ammamma, which now takes on a more adventurous track.

1. When she went to Benares to give her Matric Exams in March 1942, she was given a tour of the famed institution by a comrade called Chakradhar. It was a mecca for higher learning and many Andhras went there for studies - but then Andhras are known to be educational fortune finders everywhere! They also take up pioneering courses in every field - they dare and recognize livelihood through education much before anyone else does I think. Anyway, Ammamma also wanted to meet S V Phule who was a known leader and was in Benares, but could not.

2. In the Bombay conference, she actually stayed at S A Dange's house (a very famous Communist leader, and some people in AP, as usual, named their children Dange!). She was intrigued by the fact that Dange addressed his wife as Tai, which in Marathi meant Mother.

3. The women's movement in Communist Party took shape when the leadership decided on taking the movement to the masses by active creation of youth, women and farmer associations. This led to the setting up of the first political school for women, whose picture I included in the last post. Tatayya at this time, started working for Visalandhra also

4. The district level capmpaigning started vigorously and Ammamma was particularly active in Guntur, Sattenapalli, Narasaraopeta and Vinukonda. For the Taluka Mahasabha meeting, Ammamma and Udayam went on foot creating awareness and mobilizing crowds in many villages - they used to cover 20 miles in a day! It was quite an experience. Ammamma remembers writing two songs for the meeting, which were sung by two girls.

5. At the Vijayawada Mahasabha, Ammamma enacted the role of Greta Garbo in a play directed by Dr Raja Rao, in which the worker is ultimately given the miraculous invention of a scientist by refusing it to all celebrities. Hanumantha Rao advised Ammamma and some others to detach themselves from cultural activities of the Praja Natya Mandali and other cultural teams and concentrate on village development and creating revolution.

6. During early days in Guntur, Ammamma and Tatayya stayed in a small rented two room house. For some time, they had a couple staying with them. The man used to work in the Agriculture department and the girl was preparing for her bar exams. This lady went on to become the first woman judge of AP High Court! Her name is Justice Amareswari and Ammamma interviewed her for a magazine called Mahila around 1974 I think.


In 1948, B T Ranadive passed a resolution in the Communist Party and called for Armed Struggle. This gave fillip to the already active movement in Telangana against the atrocities of feudalism of Jagirdars and Deshmukhs and turned violent. There was an immediate and a brutal crackdown in one of the worst repressions on communists in Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere in the country. There was a fear psychosis. Tatayya was arrested and sent first to Rayavellore Central Jail and later moved to Cuddalore Central Jail (Tamil Nadu). Many leaders went underground and the searches made the lives of many families horrendous as the police went berserk in their homes. A fledgling magazine called Andhra Vanita, published by Andhra Mahila Sangham was closed down. AMS took out a rally of 400 women in protest, defying the ban on the procession. Police used teargas at Gandhinagar Junction to disperse the crowd and rounded up about 70-80 people. Ammamma and 15 others were slapped with cases and lodged at Nandigama sub jail (40 km from Vijayawada). The sub jail was unused to such activity, small as it was and the accused were made to sit in the corridor. Among her co comrades were Dr Atchamamba, one 16 day old nursing mother and Mamidipalli Anasuya, whose husband was later killed underground. All these were remanded to 15 days in the open air jail of Nandigama.

Out of jail and no food or money, and without Tatayya also to support her, and the party literally closed down (in the party, they used to get Rs 50 per month and meals for Rs 12 -15 from the communal kitchen and a room to stay), Ammamma was hard put to find livelihood. The only person from her own family, Satyam Mamayya who could help, was underground fearing arrest. Tatayya was away for more than two years in jail and came out only in 1951 after the ban on Communist Party was lifted. Tatayya's family also refused to help her. She then found out that her Matric in English will actually not get her a job for reasons that were heavily loaded - there were many educated people in Guntur even in those days, she was a woman and she was a communist on top of that. (Yes! First this Telugu medium girl learns for Hindi Matric in Allahabad and then back in Guntur, prepares for Matric in English! Remarkable linguistic adaptability! I am indeed very happy that all three of you have inherited this gene girls - you express things so beautifully and logically. I only wish that you would also develop a love for Telugu literature and speaking as much as you have learnt English. It would a true tribute to Ammamma and Tatayya's linguistic prowess). She found however, that there were few Hindi teachers and it was still in demand. So she appeared for Hindi certificate exams of the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha called Rashtrabhasha (equivalent of mid school level), even though she had a higher command of Hindi, she had to get the minimum certificates first. Incidentally, did you know girls? Ammamma made me appear for Prathmik, Madhyamika and Rashtrabhasha when we were in Madras and I could not understand why I had to appear for these exams. Maapi was not subjected to this fortunately.

Kerala sojourn

While still searching for a job, she started applying for other courses as well. She even applied to a 6 month certificate course in Thrissoor in Kerala at the Wireless & Telegraph Institute and got admission! She now needed money. It was here that Tatayya's mentor Mallayya came to her help. He went to Tatayya's home and convinced them to help her financially for this course and they gave her Rs 400. With that money, Ammamma embarks upon her Kerala visit, this time unaided by anyone. She finds accommodation at the local YWCA and becomes friends with Suseela, who was studying BA and a communist and very much in love with A K Gopalan, a famous Communist leader, then lodged in Cuddalore jail. I don't know what prompted Ammamma, but she used to insist on becoming his pen pal by pencilling in a couple of lines in every letter that Suseela wrote to Gopalan. She ended up going to Cuddalore jail twice to see Tatayya and on the first occasion, demanded that she be allowed to meet A K Gopalan also. He also threatened protest if he was not allowed to meet her. Permission was then granted and she was happy to meet in person, the person she admired so much. On the second visit, she secreted a letter from him and passed it on to another courier in Madras Mint Street, called Vasireddi Seeta Devi (a very famous writer of fiction and non-fiction later).

While pursuing her course, she used to frequent the People's Publishing House which was next door and became friends with the local AISF boys and girls, who also came to know about her arrest history when summons came for her to appear in the case at Tenali. She became their hero and accepted an invite from them for flag hoisting at their AISF meeting. She did it and and also gave an anti government speech. She also met SFI leaders like Krishna Pillai (died of snake bite when underground) and Vasudevan Nair (later joined Congress).

After finishing her course, while Ammamma was returning to Guntur, police searched her suitcase at Shoranam station, but found nothing.

Jobs, jobs everywhere, but not for a communist!

On the strength of her certificate, she applied for a post in Railways. She was selected for the post of a Passenger Guide - a job whose main purpose was to facilitate women travelling in the women's compartment and not allow any males in that - and was posted at Vijayawada, for a princely salary of Rs 500! However, police clearance required for a government job exposed her jail record and the appointment letter was withdrawn.

She moved back to Bhattiprolu as Tatayya's father now said that as long as she was far away, he would send her rice and other food stuff somehow. She took a small room on rent in a weaver's house and they were happy that her teaching was very good and helping their children as well. In her free time, she embarked upon completing her translation of the book on Chinese Women and which soon got published. Police used to keep coming and checking her room for any subversive material and the landlord got scared and asked her to move out. She had no option but to go to Vellatur again and take up residence there, even though her staying so close to China Pulivarru was not liked by Tatayya's brother in law. She became a very popular Hindi teacher in Vellatur. She was however, still under surveillance on suspicion of being a courier and other subversive activities like spreading communist thought/rebellion etc. Once, she was returning home with four friends (one of them pregnant), after watching the cinema Keelu Gurram and the group was arrested and lodged in Repalle sub jail. The others were let off. Satyam Mamayya came to her rescue and tried to arrange for bail. She was given conditional bail in which she had to report daily attendance at Taluka Office. Later she was tried and a Tenali court sentenced her to 6 months Simple Imprisonment. She was sent to Rayavellore Central Jail.

Keeping the spirit up!

As soon as she entered the jail, Ammamma asked for a jail manual. She was not given one. In the jail, she was joined by a girl from Tamil Nadu and together they agitated for several things. They asked for the provision of papers and magazines, separation of political prisoners from ordinary criminals, permission to meet detenues (Manikonda Suryavati was also in the same jail, but not allowed to meet them), better food (it was horrible) and many others. These two girls wrote slogans on the prison walls and when pen and paper were taken away, they made a paste of neem tree leaves and used the twigs as a brushes and wrote anti government slogans on the walls. Jail life was indeed an experience. They were given a container for their morning ablutions and nature calls, which had to be carried to the wall and kept there for scavengers to take them and empty them. Male prisoners used to be on the other side of the wall and I believe that some prisoners on both sides would ingeniously use the opportunity for passing on messages. One major problem for Ammamma was her thick and extremely long hair which could not be washed well with the rationed soapnuts that the jail used to provide. She would trade some of the food and other things for more soapnuts to cleanse her hair. Detenues were allowed their own cooking and they used to send coffee through normal prisoners who hid the hot glass bottles under their sarees (near the stomach!) and bring it to these girls. The Telugu teacher also used to help them out by secreting mangoes for them.

After their rebellion and slogan shouting, they were punished with solitary confinement and were not let out even during the day. So they went on a hunger strike. The jail authorities then relented and rescinded their solitary confinement and shifted them to another block. Here they were made to work as punishment and Ammamma learnt to make nawar (weaving a long narrow strip of tough yarn, which was then used for framing cots). Even though they were under simple imprisonment and were not expected to do labour, they were put to work because they rebelled. Ammamma was even given 15 days remission of sentence for being good! Ammamma took everything in her stride in the jail but the only thing that broke her heart was the pitiful wailing of women on the death row. She also sensed the chilling routine of the gallows through the sounds. The same rebellion for better facilities in the Cuddalore jail where Tatayya was lodged, had serious consequences - there was firing and resulted in the death of several prisoners.

After her release, it was job hunting time again. She applied for and got a job as a sub editor of Andhra Mahila - a magazine of Andhra Mahila Sabha for Rs 150. When, however, she reached Madras to take up the job, she was politely given one month's salary and asked to leave because she was a communist. Ammamma had taken a taxi from the station in anticipation of a good job, but now she used the opportunity to visit Tatayya in Cuddalore jail. A K Gopalan was livid that Ammamma was refused a job - he asked her to meet lawyers Rao & Rao in Madras and file a case against Andhra Mahila Sabha, but Ammamma desisted from doing so. Incidentally, do you know girls - in the same jail was lodged Kavuri Kutumba Rao, a friend and admirer of Tatayya. (He later became a very successful real estate man and named a part of Madhapur as Kavuri Hills! It was his love for Tatayya that let me buy a plot in his estate at a lower rate. I believe he used to beg Tatayya to buy plots and remind him that he had two daughters to look after - but Tatayya refused to invest in things that he did not believe should be invested individually. Incidentally also, he is the brother of Ranakka's father, and you know how Ranakka is related to us through Rangannayya).

She had no option but to go back to Repalle. She took a house near Satyam Tatayya's house (they themselves were struggling) and started tuitions. Incidentally, she asked her elder brother for some rice, which he said he did not have. She then sold her mangala sutram (actually it was a small piece of gold without the chain) for Rs 4 and started life once again. Her tuitions were very popular and the local school teachers used to come and beg her to send students to their school during inspection time. One of the KCP Industries (Velagapudi) family child was also attending her classes. Her elder brother now sent Chittatha for studies, her second sister sent her elder daughter Charumati, the third brother sent his third son(he stayed with Suryavati Athayya, while the rest stayed with Ammamma) and Ammamma gladly looked after them and taught them - with nary a trace of any antagonism. A communist leader's brother's son Kantamaneni from Pallekona village was a boarder with her. She started enjoying teaching and thus her vocation came to her by default. She now started making a home - her first possession was a 'nawar mancham' - a frame woven cot - and a few utensils and other things which signalled the beginning of her domesticity.