NON-BRAHMAN MOVEMENT IN ANDHRA

A Study ofthe Nature of Protest against Brahmanical Order in Andhra during Colonial Times

Kondaveeti Chinnaya Suri Nagarjuna University

Dr.Garigipati Rudrayya Chowdary Endowment Lecture -7

25th February 2000 Ramacbandmpuram

East Godavari District, AP

'NON-BRAHMAN MOVEMENT IN ANDHRA A Study of the Nature of Protest against DrahmanicaJ Order In Andhraduring Colonial Times

. Given the l:Iniqu~ ,:,atureof Indian satiety, where people have been stratifl~d for ~ges Into riqid e~dogamo.us groups hierarchically arranged with dlfferentlal.status determined by birth, known as varna vyavastha, loosely translated Into English as caste system, much of its social history from ancient to. modern times, can beviewed as the history of struggles against th~se socialmequahties .. Alongside the attempts by the ~e~emonic groups With self-ascribed supenor status to enforce the veme-jsti regime we also find attempts by those jatis that were accorded a lower or inferior place to contest, resist and redefine these ascriptive statuses. Even during the periods when the members of the lower castes seem to have given outward consent to the manifold social stratification and when there was an apparent social stability of the brahmanical social order the struggles of resistance had been continuing, although in an implicit, unorganised and unsystematic manner. Inequalities would be accepted by those who are regarded inferior in so far as they are considered necessary and advantageous to everyone, not by those who are in a privileged position, but by those who are treated unequal. However, the problem is that inequalities that were accepted to be rational at a given point of time, ceases to be rational with the changes in social relations, and the earlier order appears to be irrational and oppressive and hence repugnant to those who now demand better treatment. At such critical times new social philosophies blossom and divergent worldviews clash with each other; often struggles for new order take the form of a buoyant assertion of new thinking and systematic movements forcing a revision or redefinition of the given social relationships. In India such of these movements might not have airned at the annihilation of caste system or were not successful in uprootin~ !he caste regime eventhoughthey have that objective, nevertheless modified the social relations in a way that diluted the caste inequalities or to some extent accommodated the rising aspirations of the newly awakened sections of the society.

* I am highly thankful to my friend Sri N.Anjaiah, Lecturer. Centre for the Study ~f Scientific Socialism. Naaariuna University. with whom I have been jointly working on this theme for some time. I have drawn heavily from the paper I have earJier prepared. with his help, for presentation in a Seminar at Madras University. J am also grateful to Prof.K.Seshadri. formerly Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Prof.C. YRaghavulu. Vice-Chancellor ofNagarjuna University, Dr.A.Murah of University of Hyder~bad, Prof.P.Rama Lakshmi of Naaariuna University and Prof.G.K. Prasad of Madras Univer:.ii~· [01 ihcil UJllulicuis itllJ sll~~:.iivIlS Jurill!; lJIy discussious wiul un;UJ.

2

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

It is difficult to find out the exact reasons for the solidification of caste system in ancient tim~s in India alone, alth~u9~ some amount o~ racial plurality,· social inequality and occupational division had been a universal feature of all civilisations. Some attribute it to the need for division of labour in an agrarian society. They have conceptualised caste as a system of interdependence and reciprocity. Castes are closed groups, each specialising in a given .socially necessary occup~tio.n .. But how this mutual separateness and Interdependence was maintained has been differently viewed. Some others view the caste syste~ as the. deliberate creation of the clever brahmans in order to consolidate their self-ascribed superiority into dor:ninance and I~ad a comfortable life wi~hout any need to engage in productive labour .. Wnters and researchers with a Marxtan perspective have seen caste ~anously as an e~reme form of class n~ldlty, an ideological system that reinforces the basic structure of production relations or as the part of the infrastructure, as the form in which classes

appear in Indian society. 1 . . .

That the varna system had for long suppressed freedom of action and restricted the scope for individual initiative and that its rules were contrary to modern rule of law, denied access to education, property and self-esteem to . large sections of society was stressed by all those who took a critical view of Indian society. However, the apparent ossification of caste system at a given a point of time notwithstanding, we find, if we take .a longitudinal view of social change in India, that the caste relations were in a constant flux as evident from the fluctuating fortunes of certain castes or members of castes. This is often attributed to the changes in production relations. But such a change cannot be automatic. It was a result of conscious effort on the part of the members of the 'inferior' castes to challenge the varna ideology of superordination and subordination. We clearly see the claim of some communities to superiority and special privileges due Simply to birth being challenged in ancient, medieval,modern and comemporsry (post-modern!) times. Thus a critical study of the protest agai~st brahman ism and caste ideology becomes a necessary component 10 any account of social history of any part of Hindu India.

It is With this perspective an attempt is made here to view the nonbrah_man .movement in Andhra during the colomal.tirnes .. Iti~ seen a~ me continuation of the centuries old struggle for SOCial equahty In OPPOSition to brahmanical ideology. It was a protest against brahmanical cultural supew:iority. his exclusive claim to Vedic rituals, monopoly in education and domination in employment, professions. and politics. It showed us how Irrational and oppressive the vama system turned out to be under the tater coIoniat period. and how it became an impediment to SOCial progress, . ~ the progress of the then lower castes. tt altered the terms and

re 0( poi1lcai discourse, broadened the area of political participation ... contributed to further the process of democratisation, as we under-

stood theee tarma today. .' ..

Different Perspectives . 3

It is, however, puzzling to find that detailed and critical studies of nonbrahman movement In Andhra ~re wanting, a.lthough the struggle against brahman hegemony was asold In ~ndh~~ regl~n as anywhere else .. Often the non-brahman moyement was Identified with the movements in Tamil and Maharashtra regions. True, the non-brahman movement in Andhra ~ot dissipated atter 1930s due t.o a variety of factors, unlike its counterpart In Tamil region which was sustained and assumed a militant form in 1940s which took to political arena after Independece. But this should not be the reason for the neglect of the study of non-bra/lman movement in Andhra In fact, what had happened in the Andhra after 19305, such as the emer~ genee of a new band of Congress leaders from sudra communities, of the growth of rationalist, humanist, atheist. and communist movements in the region, the emergence of Telugu Desam party in 1980's, and the increasing assertion of the backward and dalit communities in recent times can be traced to the non-brahman movement in this region.

One may rise a few questions in relation to non-brahman movement in Andhra: How to understand this movement? What were the factors and socio-economic conditions that gave birth to non-brahman movement in Andhra? What was the specific character and nature of non-brahman movement in Andhra and how it can be distinguished from such movements in other parts of south India? What were the objectives of this movement and how were they articulated by the leaders/representatives of the communities involved in it? What were the weaknesses or limitations or inner contradictions of this movement? And finally, whatwas its impact on Andhra society and politics?

I. Non-Brahman Movement: A Review of Different Perspectives

Studies on non-brahman movement in South India pose certain problems of perspective and approach. The foremost problem is that the nonbrahman movement is usually taken for granted by many scholars with a sense which is limited to the politics of Justice party, of the rural and urban magnates, especially located in Madras, of caste associations and of the Dravida Kazhagam. Thus the Cambridge historians, Wash brook and Baker, who set out the political history of South India during the first half of the twentieth century, viewed non-brahman movement as product of the policies of the colonial government and a result of clique rivalries and ambitions of non-brahman politicians. They denied any continuity between the anti-brahman protest in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the non-brahman movement as it emerged after 1912,2 Washbrook argued that it was the caste leaders who created the non-brahman movement and in their ambitions lie its causes. It belonged only to the Western educated - a campaign by professionals and publicists who were 'out' to put themselves 'in'. According to him, "its origins need not ~e sought deeply in the cultural history of South India; they lie much more In the, very novel types of government and politics which developed under the British In the ear1y years of the present century." J

4

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

In his criticism of the approach of the Cambridge historians on South India, Ranjit Guha termed it as 'neo-colonialist historiography' - the old colonial argument 'rejuvenated by a new formula of power'. How can one maintain that these ancient antagonisms. he asks, "did not have apoliticat existence prior to the creation of the publicist and administrative categories" of the raj? Guha says: "For, insofar as conflicts like those mentioned above exi~ted in pre-coloni.~llndia as a matter _of undeniable fact and they were confllcts.between entities related as dortunant and subordinate, their ~ political character was. atfirmed as a~ art~ulatiofl of dominance/subordination." The caste conflicts In a new situation cannot be studied in a meaningful way without relating the contemporary processes to what had gone before in ideation and social practice. Politics as designed by the neocolonialist historiography could be kept neatly elitist and collaborationist. Guha rejects this approach. He says:

This approach seems to be monistic, reductionist tactic to impoverish politics by an arbitrary expurgation of its mass content and by narrowing it down merely to an interaction. between the colonizers and a very small minority of the Indian population made up of the elite. It is monistic because it is designed to contain all of. politics within a single elitist domain .... With the subaltern domain surgically removed from its system, all initiative other than what emanates from the colonizer and their collaborators strictly ruled out, all elements of resistance meticulously expelled from its political processes.'

The studies of Wash brook and Baker, no doubt, represent a painstaking work. But the problem is that they were too preoccupied with the intrigues, manipulations, factional fighting and the battles for place at the .. power centres. This led them to a simplistic view of non-brahman politics as the Urat race between collaborators handpicked by the raj from the elite strata- often bent upon to . misuse' the British institutions and offices for their advantage. They viewed the social and cultural conflicts and protest against caste disabilities as subservient to the clique rivalries and ambitions of ~Iiticians. They refuse to relate the anti-brahman protest of the nineteenth century, the protest movement of the so-called sudra castes in the cultural arena and the non-brahman politics in the twentieth century.

Non-brahman movement. is often looked at as a movement against brahman domination in education employment and politico-administrative power. with a demand for a proPer share in them. This is not possible without a struggle against brahmanical order and its ideology. We shall, therefore, rather see non-brahman movement as essentially rooted in protest against brahmanical order, a protest for self-respect, dignity, and equality of status, which for the sake of brevity I call it 'anti-brahman protest'. ~.s such the focus of this essay wiH· be on the nature and content of annbIahman protest, not"much on the non-brahman movement. as it is con-1IIunaItv L81derstood. with its demand for more share in empk)yment and ..... of the govemment, which, no doubt. were Important, and the Justice party poIftIca. In fact, anti-brahman protest in Andhra has a long

Different Perspectives 5

history -rnore than a century before ·the· formation of the South Indian Liberal Federation (SILF). This protest was led not always by· self-seeking potentates or the persons who were schooled in western values and educational institutions. Nor can It be viewed merely a result of the machinations of the British rulers to weaken the Congress nationalist movement or .

. a response to the stimulus provided by the British administrators to garner

support among non-brahmans. .. . ..

No doubt, the colonial Institutions, the liberal Ideas ot the British and the governmental policies gave a fillip and new essence to the anti-brahman protest in the early decades of the 20th century; The nature. form and outcome of anti-brahman protest had always been affected by external factors - by the Muslim rule earlier, but more so by British colonialism. But . it cannot be treated as a mere consequence of the British tactic of 'divide and rule'. It was always there smoldering and the intermittent raging of flames could be seen throughout nineteenth century. The dynamics of contradictions internal to the brahmanical social order were equally important causes for the anti;.brahman protest. The British policies could be actually seen as a response to the changing social relations and the rise of new aspirations. To attribute the whole process of protest to British tactics amounts to turning jhe social process upside down and of seeing the effects as causes. It is also an affront to those who, with all sincerity of purpose, endeavoured for the upliftment of the non-brahman communities and waged an unrelenting cultural attack on the moribund and irrational' varna vyavasths, without craving for patronage and poUtical position. Thus the struggles waged by non-brahmansat the ideational level against brahman supremacy shall be treated with-sufficient care.

The significant social reform activity and anti·brahman protest, which Andhra experienced during the nineteenth century, had implications to the forms and essence of anti-brahman prote~t in the ~entieth century. A~ was acknowtedged by the advocates of anti-brahman Ism , they drew mspiration form those who endeavoured earlier to secure a higher social status and cultural rights to non-brahmans. The inability or refusal to see the historical continuities, to relate the contemporary processes to what had gone before in ideation and social practice prevents us from arriving at a meaningful understanding of the non-brahman movement, if not distorts the very understanding itself. Similarly, to view every protest/movement as a result of a well-calculated strategy and machinations of self-seeking top elites in the concerned strata also does not help us much. It is natural that the advanced elements of given social strata tend to be the articulators of its grievances, emotions and protest. They acceierate the process of awakening and are the organisers, although in the process they strive to secure their own interests. Butonly insofar their Interests overlap with the aspirations of the larger group/caste they can become leaders. There is al~ays a symbiotic refatlon between the leaders and the led in both the dominant and the subordinate groups in any activity against each other. These leaders can be said to be qua leaders insofar this live connection between the

two Is not snapped.. .. .

6

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

Eugene Irshick and Marguerite Barnett take a broader view of the nonbrahman movement. Irshick seeks to relate the emergence of the movement to the growth of literacy among e high non-brahman castes. He explains that the brahman - non-brahman polarisation was produced by cultural revivalism. He says:

Any attempt to modernise an underdeveloped country and to create an educated and politically aware electorate is bound to create a movement of this kind. The friction that existed between the brahman and non-brahman in the 1920's is a typical by-product of the demand for more political, economiC and educational opportunities by backward groups. Th passing of old order and the establishment of a modern society are bound to undermine relations based on ascription and the position in society, which those ascriptive rights imply. The development of the non-brahman movement was on~ cg the ways in which this transformation manifested itself in mod-

ern India. .

In her study of cultural nationalism in South India, Barnett pointed out that while the backward state of non-brahmans, the need for their uplift and brahman dominance of administrative posts and politics were mentioned as reasons for non-brahman antipathy towards brahman it is often neglected that the emotional issues based on the status of sudrahood as forced on non-brahmans by brahman elites and its concomitant insult to one's dignity, psychic injury were equally important in forging non-brahman identity and fosterinq non-brahman confrontation with brenmens"

One more problem that often arises in the analysis of non-brahman movements is related to the question whether a social movement making caste identity as the basis to organise collective thinking and action would not lead to social disunity and reinforce the caste divisions? Do not the caste associations, appeals for caste solidarities for political objectives, etc. promote casteism? ·Is it not the selfish leaders who foster caste ~, a 'false consciousness' to fulfil their ends and promote their vested interests? Can we consider a movement launched in the name of upliftment of one caste or group of castes against another caste a just one? Some of these questions do really bother us today when at least notionally many of us would agree that caste should not be the criteria for judging the worth of any person and that caste need not be the organising consideration or cementing factor in social relations and political mobilisation. However, we.get some answers to these questions if we posit them in the time in which the movements on the basis of caste identities had emerged. Fur~, we have to ask the question as to what casteism means. Casteism Implies a belief in the superiority of one's own caste and the inferiority of ather castes, an expectation that the inferior castes must show to him the customary deference and attempts to exercise speCial privileges, impose cuIwaI and ritual dominance over others; it implies adverse sodal dis-

over other castes treating them low and inferior. Casteist ideoIogy .... to persuade ~pIe of an castes as If these caste inequalities ... natural or 8a'1dtoned by God and that any violation of these rules leads

Dif-::erent Perspectives 7

.. to s!lCial imbala~~, !3 rupture or disharmony, which is harmful to both th . .

soaety and the IndIvidual concerned. '. . ~

, . .

·As ~~ SC?dety had beer:' organised for long On caste divisions and .the ~aJ identityo( a person IS often known by hislher caste, the otest a~atnst caste s~tem Invanably makes.caste as an oganiSing car

SInce caste furnished a goo~ ~egree C?f, homogeneity in the prod~~ process, ~lturaJ mooes, sooaJ Interaction and community life in terms of food!. m~e, eating, dress, behaviour,- etc. it becomes a means for mobilisation. Any ~~st movemenlwhich opposes and fights against the manufactured supenorny of a cast~ or castes and struggles for equal treat- , ment cannot then be tanned castiest; on the contrary they are anti-caste. They have to be seen as s~gles to extricate from the false consciousness begot by .the caste Ideor09Y. An appeal to caste identities as a means t00!9antse members of disadvantaged groups against oppressive caste system cannot be tenned as casteism. Any attempt to portray them as casteist is intellectual mischief. A noted leader of rationalist movement in Andhra.:Ravipudi Venkatadri observed:

In a. social syst_em' when men are divided into castes and when rights are deflfled accordmg to the castes, all such struggles, though carried out in the name of caste, were not caste struggles. They were, -in fact, struggles . for human rights. If some attempt to daim that they are superior to others such struggles become casteist But when someone daim that they shall not be treated inferiors and struggle for self-respect, they do not become casteist."

Struggles against brahmanical order contain inner contradictions because the varna-jati system ;s a complex one. In a society where the vamas and jatis are arranged in a hierarchical order like a ladder what had happened and is happening is that a caste which questions the supremacy of a higher caste would like to assert its own superiority over the castes furt~er below. The members of these castes want to elevate themselves, aspre freedom from upper caste dominance and equafity with those above t~em. But often most of them are disindined or show aversion to the claim of lower caste people for an extension of the sam~ principl~ of equality.for them too. This is true of all the struggles of the intermediary castes situ~ ated between the highest, the brahman~ v~rrya, ~ndthe lowest, the panchamB vama. This repulsion towards dlscnmlnatlon at one level and a desire to safeguard dominance at another level have been the hallma~s of most of the caste movements. This does not prevent us from calling ~ protest movement as progressive at a given point of time. To the extent ~ challenges the supremacy of the self-styled higher castes, d~nstructs It and ae.rs the false consciousness.jt is anti-caste, prog~sslve and even radical to Is times. We must recognise that a conservative ~men~ exists embrionically in it. But to blow this element out of proportion, dlSnr ganlng the context Is of no use. Such movements of non-brahman uP(h" CIIItes unfold a process which would not stop there but would ena~e e cat .. down theltne to demand for better status on the sam~ principles. ~. since this protest ,topped at a point and this conservative element .'

8

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

has become the domin~nt one later, to read the present into the past and du~ ~ protest of the Intermediary castes in the past as reactiona is

· ~.ieve that the non-brahman movement has to be v~ in .

Refated. to this i~ the, third problem of juxtaposing the non-brahman ~nt and nationalism. Most of the nationalist historians and the ~ who ~ contemporary ~ ~ non-brahman movement tended to VIeW it as antHlational or at teast In disharmony with nationalist inter~ as ~ ~brahman .mov~ment raised certain uncomfortable questions about nation and nationalism. Any casual examination of brahman-

- non-brahman discourse would show that the two groups understOOd the meaning of the term 'swaraf differently. We should examine the standpoint of the articulators of anti-brahman protest who visualised swaraj in different terms than that of mainstream.miJitant nationalists. We must try to ~ their notion of swaraj in their own tenns - swaraj as self-rule and freedom. not in terms imposed by the brahman Congress nationalists .

. A nation isacoUective with a WIll to live together, afratemal feeling and goodwill. H must have a meaning to everyinc!~duaf and one must be able to relate it to his feelings and interests. But it IS often made abstract and absoII de when the dominant dasses present it as a general idea to further ~1Ierests in conflict with domestic or extema' 'enemy'. Thus the eo.- ass nationafists,who were mostly the brahman efites. were ~ happy wt.= the non-brahman elites issued their own n:-anifesto, .demandlng social reconstructiOn first and equality of opportunities for their develop!llent .

This tifesto greatly influenced the thinking of the ~brahman elites at .

. ma1 aha"'_' alternative perspective of swaraj. Did not the brahman

· • and GI...-.. r and the Crown loyalty for more than a~n~ry eIjtes served the on::~ the British rule as providentia~ gift?

· .. obedient 88fV8!ll8 that large number of those radical national-

~ I any imJ)O!tant 18 the !::es ~e and more they treated the British as were soa8andl consefVthe British imperialists naturally sought to promote

oppressor enemy." ;ties asa countervailing force to the

. persons from ~brah,,!8n C?Ommun ent The more the rulers gave ac-

btahman domin8ted nationalist ~vem . ent and power; "the more th~ casto non-bnJhmans to education. emplOym leaders demanded swaraJ.

~~~=:sc~=~:~'::~;V:::;;C,

..,1IId India 88 Bharat mats. chained. g~gg eerate' swaraj' would result non-btahman leaders understood f!1at:td j~pede whateV«~ress 1.lBlllhmentof ~~; ~~'onial dispensation at that time.

~were me ng U h drive away the BritiSh

~ ... ..-onIng was Slm=: why ~~~ !t~~tlon and em~. ........ .... were~~:m, :J:,nand, above8H~ them tocom~ ndv. brahman never had sh Old blBhm8ns of .

. ....DeCt which I .-.-._ and unclean fellOWS·

them • sucJraS. n,,,, """ .

Social Background 9

the land ever made any conscious attempt to put an end to the caste discrimination and renounce their superiority feeling and insolent attitude towards other castes? Did not they organise the vemesnmms dhanna movement ~enit hadatready acquired a repugnant meaning? If swaraj and brahmerncalorder could go together for the brahman dominated Congress and leaders of Home Rule movement, antl-brahmanlsrn and patrio- - tism could perfectly go t~Qether for the non-brahman leaders. A proper understanding of the position of the leaders of non-brahman movement requires us to take into consideration the urge for equality, education and employment among non-brahmans and the way they perceived theneed to break the brahman hold on the society before swaraj was demanded. - Otherwise we end up in a sordidposition where Mahatma Phule, Dr.T. M. Nair, Penyar, Raghavayya, and others Will appear to be anti-national While those who adhered to the brahmanicat culture as patriots.

Some writers, who claim to be Marxist, sought to analyse the nonbrahman movement but only judged the movement from the perspective of nationalist ideology.· They did not make any attempt to distinguish between the anti-brahman protest and Justice politics and within the nonbrahman movement between the phase of-the movement fired by the idea to reconstruct the social relations and the phase of degenerated politics of the Justice party. For instance late P. Rama Murthi, the well-known CPM leader, dismissed the non-brahman movement as separatist and anti-national. 8 Similarly N. Ram declares that the South Indian UberalFederation was "a creature of the British, isolated from everything national, democratic and enlightened" with its politics of -groveling beforeJhe raj. "9 It played an -anti-national role" under the signboard of non-:-brahman move. ment, he says. As DipteshChakrabartysaid the nationalist Marxist effort to set Uf' colonialism' as anoverarching explanatory construct for ~II problems 0 popular politics in India is a mystifying ideological exerose: By deriving consciousness from a set of narrowly defined' objective historical forces', it ends up in bending Marxism to serve the cause of liberal bourgeois nationalism. By blaming all the 'uncomfortable' aspects of popular mentality such as 'casteism' mainly on colonialism, this popular brand of Marxism operates with categories specific to nationalist thouqht. .It leaves unquestioned one of the most important ideological categones In recent South Asian history - namely, the' nation'. 10 ..

Having explained the perspective, let me seek to find some answers to questions raised above through a study of the causes and nature of protest against brahmanical order in Andhra.

II. Social Background of Anti~rahmanProtest: Caste Structure and Social Change in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Andhra .

Although anti-brahman protest began much earlier and the brahman - non-brahman discourse was more vigorous In Andhra than anywhere eJ~e in the South there has not been much study on ·Its genesis and SOCIal context.11 Its social base and nature was somewhat different as compared

10

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

to the way it emerged in Tamil region and southern Maharashtra. For this purpose an account of the specific features. of Andhra society and the sodo-econo~ic changes duri!1gthe nineteenth century becomes necessary. The main focus here will be on the Krishna-Godavari delta region which gave birth to the anti-brahman protest and nourished it.

The caste structure in Andhra region. especially in the central coastal districts. was somewhat d~erent from the. on~s that prevailed in other parts of the south. 12 Andhra which forms a major hnk between the northern and southern parts of India has a caste structure that closely resembles to the abstract and classical model of Hindu hierarchy with the four-fold division: brahmana. kshatriya, vaisya and sudra, along with a large proportion of panchamas. It is not clear whether rajus of Andhra are comparable to the kshatriyas of the Gangetic belt, but they consider themselves to be kshatriya and are so regarded by many. They are numerically in considerable numbers in the northern and central circars. Similarly, it is not certain whether the komatis of Andhra, the traditional trading community in the Telugu speaking region, are on par With the vaisyas of the Aryan varna system. But they wear the sacred thread and regard themselves- to be of vaisya varna. vaisya gentlemen were among the first few to question the ritual supremacy of brahmans during the ninetieth century. One does not find these non-brahman twice born (dwija) castes in other parts of South India.

·'n the deltaic region of Andhra, surrounding the mouths of the Godavari and the Krishna, we find some dominant cultivating castes - reddi, kamma, velama and kapu (te/ega and ba/ija including) - with more or less equal socio-economic status. These castes were labelled as sudra by brahmans and later. when these castes found the term offensive and remonstrated, . sat-sudra. They have been1he most important social groups in terms of . numerical strength and land control in the modem period. 13 They consider themselves to be the descendants of the rulers of the Telugu area and often trace their genealogical links with the bygone kingdoms. Though their main occupation has been cultivation by seventeenth century they cherish the idea that they bekmg to martial races and were warriors by profession in the olden days. There is also a widespread belief that all .these caste groups one time belonged to the same root or base ~rom which they had branched off· in recent times. Most of the hereditary zamindars under the British rule were from these castes. It was members of these castes who raised the banner of revolt against brahmanism dl!~ng the twentieth century and were the mainstay of the Justice Party politlcs .

. One explanation given to the assertion of the peasant castes in the twa dIeth century was that these castemen who held a respectable position during the medieval period found the brahman. after the advent of the BIIIIh RUle extending his supremacy from the cultural, ritual and literary .,._.. to 'the apherea of politics; administration and other professions. . ".... members of peasant communities, who enjoyed a relatively -...pectabIi potItIon In the villages ~urlng earlier times, were confronted

Social Background

11

~h the ':low ul?i~uitousand powerful brahm~,!s when they came to town With their traditional literary skills and adml~l~trative abilities, brahm8~s could qUIC?kly make use ~f the new opportunities available in the wake of the. establishment of English ~Ie. B~hm8ns, who hitherto had maintained a y,rtual monopoly on Sanskrit learning, were also the first to take to the allen langua.ge and established a near monopoly on English. In~tially, as the East India Company was In need of personnel to stabilise their rule in Andhra. it was brahmans who came forward to serve as contact persons go-betweens and dubashis (interpreters). They swamped the bureaucracy' whatever that was there, and later filled in professions, through which they patronised their own caste people. It was possible that the rapid upswing in the position of brahmans under the British rule had created a bitter atmosphere; to find the sa~e ol~ snobbish brahman courting the British and extending and reinforcing his dominance. As M.S.S. Pandian said the brahman exercised his hegemony in the 'political society' through the authority structure of the colonial state and the 'civil society' through his caste location."

Frykenberg, in his study of Guntur district, has shown that during the 1840s brahman officers and clerks, by their commanding influence from the Collector's establishment down the village level. organised networks, fostered collusive operation; all of them continuously received bribes, committed irregularities, put the cultivators to great hardships and enriched themselves with corrupt practices, deception and every other imaginable device. They did everything possible to organise and control the administrative process in their own interests. Frykenberg notes that the peasant communities, especially the leading landowners were harassed by the karanams (village accountants) and the clerks/officials in the revenue offices for bribes. Even when the aggrieved filed petitions, they wereof no use, since the higher-ups would be brahman administrators who had links with the personnel below. Frykenberg shows that the district officers. notably, the huzurstaff, were predqminantly brahmans. As the old zarnmdars crumbled and diSintegrated their establishments were supplanted by district officers. These officers inherited the perquisites and dignities which the zamindars had long enjoyed. Moreover, in the name of Government. . they were not only delegates of imperial authority but they were free from effective supervision and control. The aura of divinity and the borrowed glow of huzurfell upon them."

The British attempts to foster a countervaiunp force to brahmans ~nd curtail brahman control began in the 19th century Itself. F rykenberg writes that by 1840s the Britishers realised that brah,,?C!n !orces .were able to blunt Qovemment measures because of their faCIlity In f~r'!1lng com~lnalions, m controlling channels of communi~~ion and by hiding or fabncat~ ing vital information. As a remedy the Britishers installed regularfy appointed and paid village munsifs (headmen) as a counte~lse to brahmans. These munsifs in Andhra districts were mostly from the high caste groups

12

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

of reddi velama, kamma, kapu and raju. Baker mentioned that the MadrasGovemment in the year 1851 issued the first Government Order that applied caste considerations in recruitment to services. The aim was to curtail the tendency of some families to monopolise subordinate appointments and to divide the appointments in each district among several castes. Frykenberg observes that these measures diluted the brahman monopoly on the higher administrative apparatus and "released a sequence of revolu-

tionary changes which are still continuing today. "16 .

Another important factor in the analysis of the anti-brahman protest was the agrarian transformation in the Krishna-Godavari deltas after the construction of anicuts on Godavari near Rajahmundry (1850), Krishna at Vijayawada (1855) and Pennair at Nellore (1862-63). With the irrigation projects the lands in the ayacut areas were intersected with canals, con-

'verting the waters into money. Writing shortly after the construction of anicut on Godavari a British administrator observed that the gradual substitution of tiled houses for thatched, the better dress, and the more universal adoption of rice as an article of diet were all silent but certain indications of the improvement of the agricultural classes." Most of the land was brought under cultivation and the "bigryots came forward with darkhasts even at the end of the false, offering to pay the assessment for the whole year, though they could derive no benefit in that year."18 Introduction of steamers and railways (1890) afforded easy passage for transportation of commodities. During the end of nineteenth and early twentieth centuries these districts experienced agrarian prosperity, especially the large landowing sections of peasant castes, when the markets were extended, exports increased, prices of agricultural produce started rising, and the cultivation of commercial crops, especially cotton, tobacco and groundnut, had greatly increased." The development of rich and middle peasant classes in the Krishna-Godavari deltas profoundly influenced the socioeconomic structure of the region. The social consequences of economic dev~lop~ent were !ar-reaching.20 As trade increased the komati families ~ thiS regIOn grew rich, had extended family and financial networks operatlo.g for trade purposes and began to claim a heightened ritual status." Sance the middle of the nineteenth century English schools were established both by the missionaries and government admitting members from aI commu~ities. The literacy rate in these districts grew faster than anywhere ~Ise In the Madras presidency. Landlords and also peasant households ~ sufficient agrarian surplus be. gan to send. their sons to t~wns for ~. The delta (owns sustained the most active vemacular JournalISm. Broad territOrial networks of social and cultural connections were opened to a very large section of the rural population. Through regular lJ!ban contacts village families began to imitate the habits of townsmen, giving the deltas the appearance of a common regional life-style.

The contemporary British administrators, government records and rec.'lllVthe historians have obaeNed that the Krishna- Godavari tracts had an agrarian revolution ina manner quite unlike anY·9ther part

The Early Phase 1 3

of .the M~dras presidencx·. Washbr,?ok. and Baker had noted that the ~han~es In SOCl~1 ~nd political organlsatlo~ of Andhra that followed the, agranan revolution. were Immense. The villages had lost much of their

separateness; and In marked contrast tt;>· the villages· in the rest of the province, had ~ drawn Into close relation with the towns of the re ion The ~evel of tra~e I.n the tract .had ~sen considerably and the townsghad flol!nshed. While In th~ Tamil region ~adr~s city had by and large remained the .ce~tre of activf~ for the ~an:lIls,. in Andhra the rural rich moved to ,several dlstnct to\l_VOs which weresl~lIar In size and importance: Guntur, ViJayawada, Machilipatnam, Eluru, RaJahmundry, Kakinada etc. for their educational, literary, professional and political needs. These towns flourished on tra.de and processinq of agricultural produ~e (e.g., rice mills and tobacco Units). . The region came to becharactensed by its extensive pattern of rural -urban trade and by the mobility of its labour force. Washbrook writes:

In Andhra deltas.. economic freedom allowed the factor of independent moral ~nviction and political pers.uasiona m.uch. greater role in determining questions of authonty and obedience. Unlike In other parts of India, in Andhra deltas large numbers of people were ina position to know and to choose between several sources of authority and several courses of action. In the deltas, effective political authority passed increasingly to educated 'publicists' who were domiciled in the towns and whose equivalents elsewhere in

the presidency had no rural positions of any note. 22 . •

As a result of the socio-economic changes and the British rule the nature

of anti-brahman protest had changed, pushed new social groups to the forefront and gave it a different perspective and idiom from that ofthe antibrahman protest in the earlier centuries.

III. Anti-Brahman Protest,: The Early Phase

A proper understanding of the anti-brahman protest during the ni.neteenth and twentieth centuries should take into account the protest against brahmanism in the preceding periods. This is necessary for ~o.re~so~s: to recognise the fact that there was protest against caste ~Iscnmlnatlon even when the British influence was not significant and that It was precursor to the anti-brahman protest during the colonial era. The names of Vemana and Veerabrahmam have to be mentioned here. Uving and propagating their ideas during the 17 -18th centuries, they represented a pop~lar cultural protest against caste inequalities, perversions In Hindu religion and spurious claims of brahman supremacy.23 Today they are almost household names and have acquired a legendary status.

The poet-philosopher Vemana is well known for.his ~ungen~ att~ckS and bitter safireagainst Hindu orthodoxy, brahmamcall'!tuals, Irrattonal customs and moribund caste system. He was a ~ddl by caste. He. preached his Ideas predominantly among the non-literate groups. ~e ac.IOpted a aimple and appealing style Intelligible to the commC?r:ters. ':"5 poem were Hke·dynamites loaded with Incisive criticism and bl~lng satire about the abaurditfes. in the then prevailing social relations and ntual prac-

14

-. Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

tlces. Social life, as observed by Vemana, was full of abuses and religion had degenerated into hypocrisy. He attacked the social distinctions and inequalities based on birth saying. thatth~y ~ere ethically wrong.and ~ould sap the inherent strength of society. HIs Ideas mark the continuation of the ideological -critique of the previous Veerasaiva philosophy that called for a transgression of the traditional social order with its distinction of high and low castes. According to him it is worth, not birth, that should determine a man's position. He disapproved untouchability. He said: "Place one single plate before all people who inhabit the earth; make them eat side by side and bury the caste,"

Then came Potuluri Veerabrahmam, popularly known as Brahmam garu.

He belonged to kamsali caste, Unlike the usual practice of brahman saints seeking alms for livelihood, he continued his caste occupation of carpentry and smithy. He propagated his ideas of social reform through his verses

. composed in a simple style called kalagnana tatvalu (philosophical songs of Knowledge of Time). They were predictions about future linking them to the past and present. Veerabrahmam condemned the hierarchical system of castes. He said that one and all could gain the knowledge of the Vedas. He held philosophical discourses and preached that all were equal by birth; recognised- sudras as equal to brahmans in attaining brahmagnana. Untouchability and the Hindu notion of pollution came under severe criticism of Veerabrahmam. He said that all human bodies have the same blood and that untouchability was practiced only due to ignorance. He had among his disciples persons who belonged to different castes. and communities.

Thus both Vemana andVeerabrahmam had rejected caste hierarchy and displayed a growing penchant for protest in religious and social life. Their ideas could be regarded largely as a reflection of the resentment prevailed among the caste groups placed below in the hierarchy. Though we do not know the extent of their influence in reshaping the caste identities the fact remains that theirsw3s a challenge to the social distinctions imposed by the ideology of brahmanism under the seal of the religious texts. They were the forerunners of anti-brahman protest in colonial Andhra.

In colonial Andhra24 vaisyas were the flrsttc protest and challenge brahman's daim to exdusive privileges and also the tyranny of the brahman . clergy. Here I shall mention the name of Mamidi Venkaiah (1764-1835) who sought to overturn the rules of varna order as laid down by vaidiki brahmans.25 He could not tolerate the discrimination shown by brahman priests in performing these rituals in puranic tradition for vaisyas. He asked brahmans· to conduct the rituals and ceremonies in vaisya families as' per Vedaic tradition. Venkayya argued that since the vaisyas were also dwIjas they were eligible for getting their ceremonies performed In the languageofthe Vedas. When brahmansrefused to relent he ventured to defy the dictate of brahman priests and asserted his rights. asa dwija .. Since he waaa scholar he secretly condudedthe upsnayana (Initiation cer~ for his second son as per the Vedic rites. When this was known lJrahrri8n$ofthe ... got disturbed. Under the leadership of one Jaggappa

The Early Phase 15 they complained before the local magistrate that the kama tis had violated the traditional code of caste rituals.T~e magistrate ordered that the sacred thread worn by the b~y and also his panchasikhas be removed. Immediately Venkavya sent his son Into ~idlng and he too evaded the kotwa/. When a new magistrate came the v81sya magnates, however influenced

him not to implement the earlier order.· '

Later the vaisya notables grew firm in their resolve to achieve equal rights and wanted to openly perform the upanayana ceremony .with vaisya priests. ButwheneverVenkayya tried to perform the upanayanaceremony the angry brahman priests interfered, disrupted the ceremony and demolished the sacred fire. It was the quarrel that took place at the time of the upanayana ceremony of the son of Namburi Venkata Dasu, a leading vaisya, which became a celebrated legal dispute. Mamidi Venkayya was the priest again. But as soon as the ceremony began brahmans in a large number anaeked the house of Venkata Dasu, for whose son the upanayana ceremonywas being conducted. They climbed on to the housetop, broke the tiles and unleashed a rain of stones on vaisyas. Vaisyas too had retaliated fiercely. They threw boiling oil on the aggressive brahman hordes. In the melee several members on either side were injured. Both sides went to

. court. Those who lost the case at a lower level appealed in the higher court. Finally, the district court, in its decree on 20 June 1818, recognised the right of vaisyas to get their ceremonies performed as per the Vedic procedure, but denied the right of vaisyasto perform ceremonies ontheir own. This was a sort of compromise between the contending claims of brahmansand vaisyas.26

Meanwhile Venkayya, in searcn ot more support tor hiS activities Shitt~d his residence to Machilipatnam. where the vaisyanotables honoured him and extended full support. The brahman priests who were unhappy With the court decree mentioned above and were not prepared to allow anyone to perform vaisya ceremonies invoking Vedic hymns again appealed in the Adalatcourt, Machilipatnam in November 1819. The brahman pnests met under the banner of Vidwanmahasabha, in 1825 and resolved "to perform aU ceremonies of komatis only in the language of the Puranas (puranoktam)." After a protracted legal battle the case went for several appeals and finally to the Privy Council. The verdict came in 1845, one decade ~fter the death ofVenkayya, which went against vaisyas. Actually by that t.lme brahmans and vaisyas had arrived at a compromise -. The brahman priests agre~d ~o perform the ceremonies of komatis in Vedic language and the komstis did not insist on their right to perform ceremonies on their own.

We must keep in mind that Mamidi Venka~a and others launched this protest movement at a time when brahmansexclusive privileges w~re nn.MlLIl'IAred to be sacrosanct and in conformity with the Hindu way of "f~.

va/f ~t. their claim for Vedic rituals and for performing their ctc*,~_ witb ~sts from within the caste had laid down the. broad ••• ~, th latec anti-brahman protest in Andhra. In donning the , chanting the Veda mantras, Venkayya not only challeng~

16

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

the brahman hagiocracy but also showed the lI'!ay tor .swasangha paurohityam adopted by the. peasant castes later. In twen~leth century. What Venkayya did in early nineteenth century continued to Influence the cultural protest movement of non·brahmans later. One may here wonder as to how Venkayya can be regarded as a forerunner of anb-brahmamsm when his effort was to claim "8 right for Vedic rituals an~.when he did not think of a similar right for other non-brahman communities. In the given historical limitations. the vaisya effort represented an attempt to challenge brahmans' special privileges and also to 'sanskritise' their caste. To demand equal treatment and a struggle against discrimination was very much radical for their times.

Around the same time, kamsa/as were engaged in a similar dispute.

Calling themselves viswabrahmans, they claimed brahmana status and showed several evidences to prove their claim. There were nearly seventy legal disputes during nineteenth century on whether viswabrahmans were dwijas and whether they can perform ceremonies on their own in accordance with the Vedic rituals and whether they have a right to learn Vedas. let us examine one such important case to appreciate the problem." In Sudurperi village of Chittoor district a controversy arose between Marga Sahayachari, a viswabrahman scholar and Panchangam Gundayya, a brahman priest. Sahayachari argued that viswabrahmans were dwijas, have a right to perform their marriages and other life cycle ceremonies in the language of Vedas by a priest from among the caste. Gundayya argued that viswabrahmans were much inferior in varna order and, therefore, had no such rights. When Sahayachari conducted a vlswebrenmen marriage· as a priest, the local brahmans led by Gundayya raided thepandal,and abused and beat those who came to witness the marriage .. A case then was filed in the Magistrate's court. The court imposed a fine on brahmans forthe~ence of abusing and beating the kamsa/as at the marriage venue. Later v!swabrahmans made an appeal to the Adalat Court seeking compensation for damages. The verdict came on December 5, 1818. Apart from the direction that viswabrahmans be paid RS.55 as compensation for the loss they ~ered, the court ruled: "The plaintiffs (viswabrahmans) can perfonn all their ceremonies and functions with Vedic language, etc., as per the procedure they have at present. In these matters the defendants (brahmans) shalt not interfere." For us it is not important whether the kamsalas were brahmans as argued by them or ma/as (an untouchable cas~e) as argued by brahmans. What interests us is the vigorous protest against brahman effrontery and their. very claim of. exclusive ritual su::r~' The legal cases mentioned above involving the claims of vaisyas

and theVI8Wabrahmans reveal the changes in the outlook of non-brahmans

resultant caste confrontations on cuUural plane. .

,..,..~~man protest activity continued throughout the nineteenth ::-"'~l. •..... ~~_second half of the nineteenth century it also acquired

-- "".- ....... of a social reform. It was during this time Atmuri .... _- .. .matl. am (1845-1901) combined the two into one. His life and

The Early Phase 17

ideas present us an effort to revolt against brahman supremacy. to unite valsyas ~n tone with the n~ds of time and to Initiate social reform.~ Atmuri

. Lakshmlnaraslh.am. a multl-facete~ person~lIty. belonged to Machilipatnam.

He was an Enghsh educated promment valsya of the area. At a very young age he came. under the influenc~ of the ideas of Brahmo Samaj. In 1869 he was appointed as a teacher In a government school at Rajahmundry. There he encouraged the students to form a SOCiety to discuss the problems ~e te:> social customs. A~ his student in the school Veeresalingam was highly Influenced by Atmun. Later Veeresahngam wrote in his autobiography: "Atmuri Lakshminarsimham was my guru. He treated me like a priyashisya. He used to inculcate in me the ideas of Brahmo Samaj."29 He was a member of the secret society set up to perform widow marriages. He supported the undertaking of sea-voyages by Hindus.

Atmuri was greatly pained at the exclusion of vaisyas from the study of the Vedas. Having felt that it was a sin on the part of a Hindu not to study the Vedas, he collected the four Vedas and studied them. He had also set up a Vedic school for vaisya boys. He maintained that women and sudras . could also learn. the Vedas. The Sringeri peethadhipati sent a Srimuknem (decree) to Atmuri in November 1894 declaring that the vaisyas have no authority to adopt orland perform Vedic rituals. This dispute went on for a year between the peetham and Atmuri. In 1897 he organised a yagna on a large scale under his own supervision at his residence in Machilipatnam. Several vaisyas who by that time became Vedic scholars occupied the place of priests. Some brahman priests also took part. His biographer shows how solemnly Atmuri took the whole affair. As a result of performing this yagna he received the title somayaji. His contemporaries and admirers called him respectfully as Atmuri Lakshminarasimha Somayaji.

He had also organised a large personal library which included the Vedic literature and the shastras. which he effectively used to disprove the arguments of the orthodox brahmans. With a view "to frustrate Atmuri's attempts and to humiliate the vaisyas some 'evil-minded' brahmans.set the library on fire" and Brahman pleaders played several tricks to deceive hl~ and disturb his mind, we are told. Atmuri toured important c~ntres In. Madras presidency, organised meetings in Kanyakaparameswan (komall deity) temples and addressed the kometis. HIS biographer reports that some brahman crooks even made plans to kill Atmuri as they were envi-, ous of his scholarship. In 1899. a monthly magazine. K8nY8k~p8ra,!,eswan was launched under his stewardship. In Madras CIty, he allied With other educated komatis and initiated a press war. He launched another monthly VedBtthaprakasika from Madras in 1901 but he died shortly afterwards on

June 13,1901. . .

A&muri was among the first few English educated persons to question brahman pr. macy. He adopted the titles, which norn:'a!'y adorn _ Somayaji, Deekshitulu, etc., and under hIS Influen~ __ "~I'VI'IJ_ tMhlW"hed brahmanle titles to their names such as Sh8stn. Atya, Acharaya to show that they had studied the Vedas and Shastras.

18

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

Atmuri also studied law and became a Munsif Magis~rate .. He wa~ recognised as a . leader by the valsyas of ~ot <:>nly the .Knshna-Goda~an delta but also far wider regions. He had Instilled a kind of caste pnde among the vaisyas and caused a dent at. b'!lhman arrogance. One may wonder why Atmuri wanted to adopt VedIC ntuals even though he was an English educated man and a social reformer. At a time when the English education was a coveted thing, why did he run after the claim to recite the Vedas? This may appear funny to us, but probably for those living a century ago such a thing gave social respect or was seen to be necessary to brea'. the brahman monopoly in ritual matters and defeat the brahman contrivance of ascribing a lower varna status to others.

One important aspect that distinguishes Andhra from the rest of the South was the significant social and cultural reform thinking and activity in the nineteenth and ear1y twentieth centuries." There has been a wides r- read impression jhat it was only brahmans who spearheaded social reform in Andhra. But that is not true. Atmuri was a vaisya. Before Atmuri, Swamineni Muddunarasimham (1792-1856) outlined a comprehensive plan for social reform in his book Hitasuchini (a guide to good life). He was a ve/ama by caste. He denounced the child marriages and proposed widow marriages. Atmuri and Veeresalingam later carried out his ideas. Raghupati Venkataratnam Naidu was a great social reformer and Brahmo leader. He was a felaga (kapu) by caste hailing from Machilipatnam. He was considered to be a great scholar. endeavoured throughout his life.to end caste discrimination and the plight of the dancing girls (nautch-women). He was respectfully referred to as Brahmarshi. He influenced several young minds and involved them in reform work. The fact that this great social reformer joined the.telaga association and later the SILF when it was founded shows how disillusioned he must be and how he thought about brahman

domination and the need to uplift non-brahmans. ..

The social reform movement had brought about introspection among brahmans in their moribund customs and practices, in diluting the brahman ~xy and ret~inking a~ut the segregation o~ castes. Social refo~mers like Kandukun Veeresahn~am and Raghupatl Velikataratnam Naldu caused a mental transformation. It was this that distinguished Andhra from the restof Madras presidency. Irshick observed that in Tamil districts ~ ~ ~ champions of social reform of equal status in society. 31 If ~ ~ set the tone of anti-brahmanism in Tamil Nadu which was ChIiII'8deI ised by some amount of bitterness, it was Hindu reformism. which set the tone of ~brahmanism in Andhra, which was characterised by ~~formist zeal and spirited, if not spiritual, rivalry than bitterness. =k tc;»o sa~ th~ the -types of issues over religious reform and

....... -, which split the Intellectual society on the banks of the Godavari _..._ .... ooWIteUigibie to educated Tamil SOCiety along the Cauveri.-32

tenor of the twentieth century anti-brahman protest in

~... a deal inftuenced by the social reform activity of the .

twentieth centuries in which some enlightened

Twentieth Century

19

brahmans played·.~ signifi~nt role.33 T~is partly explains the reasonwhy the non-brahman . Ideology In Andhra did not acquire. so much virulence, how the leaders of the anti-brahman protest could maintain amicable relations with persons from brahman community, and could work together with the Congress brahman leaders: In fact there were also several brahmans who sympathised with the ceuse.of the non-brahman movement, extended support to the claims of non-brahman castes for equality and status and some at political level hobnobbed with the Justice Party. It was indeed these brahmans who were critical of the hostile brahman reaction to the non-brahman movement.

IV. Protest against Brahmanical Order during Twentieth Century

It has been pointed out earlier that komatis and viswabrahmans were the first to protest against brahman dominance and ritual supremacy in Andhra during the nineteenth century: They were also the first to form caste associations in the first decade of the twentieth century." . They were followed· by the formation of several other caste associations between 1907 and 1913, notably the AdiVelama Sreyobhi Vardhini Sangham in 1907; Kamma Jana Mahasabha in 1910, Reddi Mahasabha and Kapu Association, in, the year 1913.35 GenerallyspeakinQ I the aims Of. these caste assooanoos were to encourage English education among their boys and girls, to provide financia1 supportto the poorer students from the caste. to construct hostels for the caste students; to oppose pre-puberty marri8ges. discourage dowry, encourage widow marriages, etc.; to strive to p mote unity and a spirit of camaraderie among the caste people; to make an effort for the development of its members through improved agricuttural practices, cooperative and credit-societies; and to strive for a proper share in public employment. But we need not assume that these caste associations involved large masses or had a, mass appeal. They were organisd independently of one another by the caste elites whom Wash brook would call the 'publicists'. There was no regular functionin~ nor were there any attempts to mobilise different strata within the caste. Though they were all non-brahman castes there was no co-ordinated activity among these caste associations. Only after the formation of the South Indian liberal Federation (SILF) the non-brahman regional conferences were ~ised in different towns of Andhra districts in 1917.37 The understandIng which underlined the formation of these caste associations was expressed by the famous Teh.igu poet, Duvvuri Rami Reddy, who was a JuSticite for some time, that "caste associations are like limbs and if they are strong the body wiH be strong; to strive for the development of one caste does not mean to hate other castes."38 A growing desire ~o ~equire education and employment, the fields where brahmans were reigning supreme brought these caste people into confrontation with the brahmans.

. Since much has been written about the nature and intricacies of the caste 88SOCiation8 and the politics .of the Justice party. let us focus more on the antt-bnthman protest in the cultural arena. But sincathls was or-

20

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

ganically related to thenon-brahman movement and Justice politics we shall deal ~ith th~ latter wh.ere and ~hen it beco~e.s. necessary .. For this purpose this section descnbes the Ideas and activities of three persons Suryadevara Raghavayya, Tripuraneni Ramaswamy and Duggirala Ragavachandraiah, who were all kammas and who may be considered as the chief articulators of anti-brahman protest. The ideas of R. Venkataratnam Naidu could be very significant in this context, which is worthy of a sepa-

rate study. .

The anti-brahman protest in the second decade of the twentieth centurywas carried on by some enlightened members of peasant communities, especially from kammas, who grew intolerant towards brahman arrogance and discrimination, carried on the anti-brahman protest in the second decade of the twentieth century. Suryadevara Raghavayya was one

. such person who gave shape to this kind of thinking in Krishna-Guntur region. He· was drawn into it when a controversy arose in .1915 between brahmans and non-brahmans in his native village Kolluru, near Tenali of Guntur District. Here brahmans had maintained, as usual, that kammas had no right to study or hear the Vedas, becausekammas were suores= Although there was nothing new in such a stance the fact that it provoked kammas, that they insisted on their kshatriya status and that brahmans had to 'defend' their monopoly on Vedicleaming vis-a-vis the sudras now reveal the changes in the perception of kammas. Even before the Kolluru dispute, the rumblings of anti-brahman protest among kammas were loud enough. Brahmans of Krishna district, in the name of Kunapuli Punnayya Shastri, gave a registered notice to some kammas barring them from the study of Vedas. When the case was taken to court the judge, who was a brahman, got enraged when the defendants, in reply to a query, stated their caste as kammavaru (the usage varu in Telugu denotes respect and

_ high s~~s). He imposed a penalty of twenty rupees, ten for kamma and an additional ten for varu. SoOn after the first conference of Kammajana Mahasabha in 1910, brahmans of Kautavaram village (Krishna dt.) met and resolved that kammas should not use the title 'Chowdary'. To counter this kammas began to argue that they were kshatriyasand not sudras as branded by brahmans. In April 1911 Tripuraneni Ramaswamy C~owdary published an .article in Andhra Patrika giving an outline of the history of kammas depicting them as: warriors, as men who regard '~onour' m~re important than life.40 In the Sanskrit College- at AmritaJuru In Guntur district the non-brahman students were not allowed to be present when brahman teachers and students discussed the Vedas. These bOys were asked to go out during the discourses o~ Vedas on the ground that sudras

not hear the Vedas. These recurnng events made non-brahmans,

. ~ they began to entertain the feeling of self-respect, to feel

_.IIed. In KOppoIUviIage near Ongola town one Singamaneni Ramayya __ ·...,·that #(ammas are kshatrlyas and performed an yagna. He as•• _"'ltIia· ........... rne .. of RamayaJt.4'

. backaround the effort of Raghavayya has to be seen.· AI·

........... hie formal education was not much, through self-study he acquired

Twentieth Century 21

reasonable scholarship both in Telugu and Sanskrit. He refuted the arguments th~t !he sudra~ should not acquire ~ealth and education, that they were Ineligible for high offices. He castigated the rules laid down in Manusmruti and Sukraniti. He felt that the brahman, in the guise of priest occupied the driving seat of the chariot of non-brahman life, created the shastras in a way suitable to his parasitic life and make them his whip and rode roughshod over non-brahmans keeping the latter under the dust of ignorance. The first task, therefore, was to pull down the evil-minded

brahman from the driver's seat. Raghavayya further says: ..

The brahman had bent the ~on-brahm8n mind a.t a tender age in a way .: favourable to him and made It dependent upon him. He stood like a massive vicious tree: The non-brahman plant could not grow under its shade. Not only that. Since the plant was attached for a long time to this tree the plant is also poisoned. Non-brahmans therefore, shall clean their minds of this poison. They shall wipe out this evil if they want to acquire mental freedom and honour. They shall get rid of the feeling that they are inferior and low in intellect and that brahmans are high born and superior.

He felt that one important means to destroy the brahmanical supremacy

. was to develop swasangha paurohityam (performance of marriage and other life cycle rituals by a priest from one's own caste). So far non-brahmans were dependent upon brahmans for religious and ritual purposes the brahman domination would continue, he felt. He was highly critical of the non- . brahman elites who still clung to the notion that onlybrahmans must perform the rituals. Freedom and progress of non-brahmans is possible by

eeing their mind from slavery to brahmans, not merely through employment and political positions ..

·A public debate was organised between brahmans and kammas in KoIluru during August 16-19, 1924 on the question whether kammas were .kshatriyas. Suryadevara Raghavayya, Tripuraneni Ramaswamy and Duggirala Raghavachandraiah represented kammas. Brahman pundits led by the achatyas from Pushagiri peetham had argued that kammas were not ~shatriyas. The protagonists of kammas argued that the people be- . Iongmg to kamma,reddi, ve/ama, kapuand balija castes were kshat!"lYa~. They quoted extensively from the scriptures, itihasas and showed rustoncal evidences to prove their claim to be kshatriyas. They went into etymology of caste names to relate their kshatriya ancestry. They further argued:

The ancestors of kamma, reddi. velama, kapu and baJija castes h~d al-

.. ways foUowed the kshatra dharma. They were the rulers of South India and different parts of it. such as the Chodas. Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Kakatiyas, etc. If we were sudras .how could brahmans lived in our kingdoms/rule. 8ince the shastras do not allow brahmans to live under the reign of sudras?

. SInce brahmans lived under the reign of our caste men, occupied positions In their courts, received agraharams (village grants) from them and served them ww cannot be anything but kshatriyas. We eire also not sudras be._ the dhatrnll prescribed for the sudras is to render service to others. SInce our ca .. people never served others we could never be sudres:"

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

22

They did not agree tobe called as sat-sudras. T~ey said that the treacher- , ous brahmans while enjoying the agaraharams given by the rulers from the . peasant castes, were ascribing inferiority_and. lowliness to these castes, called themsat-sudras, sankara (cross-bred or confused). vamas,savama Hindus etc; Today, for some of us.these contentions and kshatriya daims may appear to be amusing, but the fact that such a wel.l-p~blicised debate took place and the way kamma leaders mustered their WIts and scholar- . ship to argue out the orthodox brahmans cannot be underestimated.

One important leader of anti-brahman protest to be studied was Tripuraneni Ramaswamy.· Born in a kamma·landlord family in Angaluru (Krishna district) he blossomed into a poet and dramatist at a very early age. He was a gt?od scholar in Telug~, Sa.nskrit and ~nglis.h. Th~~gh studied 1aw in Dublin for three years he remained rooted In lndian tradItIon and culture.. He spent his whole life in opposing religious orthodoxy, brahmanical order and promoting rational thinking. Though some brahmans humiliated him as a sudra poet, his literary works gave a new interpretation to the stories of epics and puranas, cast them in a new critical light, .lampoon the illogicality of the brahmanical versions of God and religion and provide a historical view Qf the social oppression since ancient times. His early writings were characterised by unconventional views. In 1910 he wrote Karempudi Kathanam which depicts the valour of the heroes of the feuding factions in Palnadu region in which controversies arise on the questions of caste inequalities and inter-caste dining. His play Sambuka Vatha (the murder of Sambuka) written in 1920, questions brahman domination and criticises their hypocrisy. The . play was widely performed in those days. The play kicked up a great deal of controversy. Brahmans who read

. or witnessed the play felt disturbed and launched attacks which were "full of abuse inspired by ill-will unmentionably mean. "43 His Sutapuranam (~927) reconstructs the mythological stories to show how political oppression and social stratification were deftly designed as social institutions, cultural ethos and philosophical precepts. His play Khooni (murder) was based on a reinterpretation of the story of king Vena, who was believed to be a Buddhist and who refused to accept the authority of the Vedas.

Ra~aswamy concentrated his energies mainly in the cultural arena To ~ hIS works he wrote long prefaces delving into the history of the Indian SOCIety, the social relations and-the caste or ethnic confrontations in an~ times and relating them to the contemporarysocio-cultural processes. ~oIiticaHy he was an independent, sided with the Justice Party in defendmg the OO!'-brahman interests and supported the Congress when the is==-'. Independence came. He had all the praise for the Russian . for the 'incredible' manges it brought about "in the social life and "" ••• duaI thinking.- He wrote that both the Czar and the God, who had ~ ~Isery and ~ to the RUSSians. were driven out. He com~.diverse elements of caste pride, anti-brahmanism. ·national-

. ISm, •• ""' ..... m and socialism.'"' .

. One· another leader of anti-brahman protest was. Duggirala

Twentieth Century . .

23

Ragha~achandraiah. He .w,as ~n AICC mernoerjn 1922 and was a strong

. Gandhlan. When he was Jailed In Cannanore dunng the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930 he was ill-treated and humiliated by the top Congress brahman leaders when he wanted to study the. Vedas and Upanishads along with them. Brahmans told him that if he studjed the Vedas he would be born as a tree or. a cruel animal in next life. Maharshi Bulusu Sambamurthy, the then President of the Andhra Provincial Congress Committee, told him that he would tose his health if he studied the Upanishads and advised him to play cards or some such other game for time pass. He asked a question: "if Vedas is the 'NOrd of God why a brahman should get moIcsha (deliverance) if he studiesit, and why a sudra should go to naraka (hell) if he studies it". He came to the conclusion that brahman leaders want to retain the monopoly of their knowledge and even under swaraj brahmans would remain like that, discriminating and humiliating non-

. brahmans. From a Congress non-cooperator he became a non-coopera- . . tor towards brahmans.

He argued that varna inequalities and disabilities were the creation of

. the deceitful brahman. "No one is a brahman by birth and the so-called sudra or a panchama can . bea brenmen', he said. He took the title sachchastri (a true brahman): He said that the contemporary brahman was a Mahapapi (a great sinner) because he was committing 18 sins in the for~ of reservation of privileges for himself and im~sing disabilities ~nd lowliness on the sudras, panchamas and women. Raqhavachandraiah laid it down that if a brahman wanted others to accept his leadership he . must openly declare that he did not believe tn exclusive brahmanicaJ rights and would not perpetrate the eighteen sins; should arrange interdining be-

tween brahmans and the so-called sudras andpanchamas in his house; should declare that the non-brahman boys have the liberty to marry-the brahman girts; and must lead the panchamas into the temples: Such a brahman alone could be regarded as nationalistand accepted asa people's representative, Raghavachandriah sakt He rejected brahmanical nationalism because it was based on preserving the. privileges enjoyed by brahmans.46 He was not allowed to move resolutions against castediscrimination at the annual conference of the Provincial Congress in 1931, presided over by.Prakasam Pantulu.:" Later in March 1932, ~havachandraiah along with some like-minded people founded Hindu National Congress. They thought that the time has come to wipe out the brahmanical poison from the Hindu social life. They were determmed to . wage an open battle against brahmanism and to uproot it.48

So far the ideas Of Raghavayya, Ramaswamy and Raghav~chandrajah

• presented in some detail. It is alsoperbaps proper to diSCUSS here blat""., reaction, which varied from willing support to strong hostilit)'. There btahtnans who not merely appreciated the non-brahman feelings but aupported the claims of non-brahmans - at social and political level. such brahman who provided moral and philosophical ground for th~ _tt-'iftn of non-brahman intermediary castes was G.B.S. Saraswatl

24 Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

Evaluation of the Issues

25

brahman assertion. 9rthodox brahmans were extremely hostile at the attempts of Saraswati. Swamy to bestow kshatriya.status on certain nonbrahman castes, making them to we~r sacred thread, and to preach that these ~stes could freely follow VedIC ritu~ls and study the Vedas. They" were disturbed that such attempts would violate and destroy the sanatana dh{Jfma. These brahmans repeatedly questioned the right of sudras to learn the Vedas. CheUapiUa Venkata Sastri, the guru of Ramaswamy. maintained that caste rules were necessary, non-brahmans should not study the Vedas, Swasangha paurohityam was not proper and that the kamma reddi, kapu, etc. castes were sudras.53 The editor of Srutidharma Sanjivinl a paper run with the objective ofdef.ending vamashrama dharma wrote (1921) that the "non-brahman movement is born out of intolerance to the intellectual capaclties of brahmans. Thi~ m~vement will be fruitful only when the brahman's Intellectual strength IS ruined. But that IS not going to happen." Non-brahman movement was seen by some as a result of the inner divisions and strife among brahmans. Thus calls were given to brahmans to ignore the sect differences and unite to withstand the onslaught of the non-brahman movement 54 Congress leader M. Ramachandra Rao opposed communal representation because he felt it would' tear the communities apart'." The Andhra Patrika came down heavilyon the demand for communal representation. It said (1920) that the theories of non-brahman leaders were born out of seif-interestorily. It challenged nonbrahman leaders to show equality towards the members of 10VII castes. 56 It ridiculed that brahmanophobia ofnon-brahmans had led to. friendship with the British.

V. Evaluation of the Issues in the Protest against Brahmanism

An analysis of the issues and ideas in the anti-brahma'! protest in Andhra in a comparative manner is necessary to understand Its specific-

. ity. One such issue of importance was forging a sense of separate I.d~ntity. In Tamilnadu non-brahman leaders sought to promot~ a Dravidian ide,,!titi. vis-a-vis the Arya!" N.orth and to present the Dravidian culture as anaent, secular and egahtanan as compared to the Aryan-brahman culture. In Andhra region we do not find any such attempt on the part of nonbrahman leaders, both at cultural and political domains, to forge such an . identity as the basis for a separate nation. All they looked .for ~as a Unguistic identity as basis for a separate state. YVhile the Tamil militants could put forward a demand for a separate Dravidanad to free them from. the danger of possible brahman raj. Telugus. at larQe did not approve. su~h a stand. The Dravidian-Aryan dichotomy did not Influence to any slQnlficant level the anti-brahman discourse in Andhra. T Ramaswamy declined

. EVR's proposal "for formation of united Dravidian organisation and atwa~ . pleaded for a single undivided India ... and he stressed the nee~ for one ~

.., of his regional identity with the awareness of national hen- .

AIeo In Andhra the language issue did not acquire the dimensions and

26

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

nature as it did in Tamilnadu. Andhra had experienced a literary.mov~.ment to use popular Telugu or. the langua~e as ~pok~n by the ~ople Inwn~~g to that of using textual or literary version of It which was highly Sanskntlsed and got distanced from the vast masses in the .medieval pe~od. This was mainly spearheaded by brahmans who used simple Telugu In their poetry and prose in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Veeresalingam , used mainly prose in his journals and magazines to popularise social reform. Gurazada Appa Rao wrote the famous drama Kanyasulkam (1892) castigating the pretensions of brahmans and declared that the caste and religious barriers would one day collapse. The literary revolution to bring written Telugu closer to the popular idiom was combined with the effort to propagate social reform. Telugu was not made a rival to Sanskrit. Most of the leaders and propagandists of non-brahman jdeology had considerable knowledge in Sanskrit and had an admiration for it. They believed that Sanskrit scholarship was essential for an enlightened life. Much of their effort and struggle in the early twentieth century was centred on the study of Sanskrit and the sacred texts of Hinduism in original. They aspired to excel brahmans in their Sanskrit scholarship and writing poetry in classical (marga kavitvam) style. For a long time Ramaswamy was an opponent of using gramyam (popular Telugu) and defended grandhika (textual) as the only proper medium to express. Justice party leaders were also no exception to this. P. Ramarayaningar had an M.A. in Sanskrit from Madras University. The zamindarsand big landlords, who dominated the, Justice Party in Andhra, were the patrons of Sanskrit and marga Kavifa. Only towards last years of his life Ramaswamy wanted to give up Sanskrit

and marga kavita and shifted to prosody. 58 '

, Secondly, the attack on brahman ism did notimply a defiance or antipa'thy to brahmanic sacred texts. The leaders of non-brahman protest in Andhra had often invoked the authority of the scriptures to show that anyone can study the Vedas and sastras, can attain brahmanhood and that caste cannot be ascribed to birth. With great zeal they tried to study the Ve~as and U~ishads. The grouse of Ramaswamy and others was that whil~ the anCientrishis believed that books of Vedic religion had to be studied by every Hindu the later brahmans conspired to deny such a right to non:brahmans. He said: "I am opposed to varnashrama dharma because it.bars me f!~~ the study of the Vedas". He distinguished between ~ ~~~~d smntl literature. He accepted the authority of the srutis but VVlIUUlKOtN the smritis which he felt are contrived to impose the dominance and authority of brahmans over the rest.

. ~None of the anti-btahm. an protestors were opposed to Hinduism.

wanted the revival of sanatana Hinduism by removing all the s and perversions introduced later by brahmans. He criticised ~m8ns who regarded it dishonourable to be in the fold of I'8IlgfIDn by treating It as the property of brahmans. -It does not bring ~r..,.. ... ct If we destroy Hinduism, bum the Vedas and other religious ~ marriage, etc. rituals as one liked". he said. According

Eyahl8tjon of the 'SSIIAS 27

to him destruction of':ii~duism would ~ring disastrous consequences. The best thing was to 'eliminate all the vlpradharmas which have become untav,ourable to non-brahm~ns and revive the. Sana-lana- Hindu religion. Dugg,rala Ragh~vachandralah wanted every Hindu. to practice brahmana ' dharma. He said matno one was brahman bJ birth and the so-called sudra or a panchama could be a sat-brahman. ' Ramaswamy accepted the principles of Arya Samaj.' He took up in mid 1920s suddhi programme to reconvert Christians especially the panchamas, into Hindu fold and made

, some of themleam Sanskrit. He was elected president ot Andhra Hindu Mahasabha in 192~, in which position he continued for 14 years. Raghupati, Venkataratnam Naidu, though a Brahmo from 1885, was deeply religious, While Phule, Periyar and Ambedkar launched bitter attacks on Hindu scrip- , tures and reliQion. the non-brahman leaders in Andhra tended to be conservative in this matter,

, The struggle against caste discrimination in Andhra did not take anticaste orientation as it did in Tamilnadu and Maharashtra. Most of these leaders were pro-caste and aspired for an elevated social status. Tripuranenl. KattamanchiRamalinga Reddy, R. Venkata RatnamNaidu and all most all leaders of the Justice Party were ,actively associated with their caste organisations. Ramaswamy from his youth till the end entertained caste pride. He presided over the 8th Kammajana Maha,sabha held in July 1922 at Tanguturu in Guntur district. He went all the way to the Justice Party' conference at Tanjore in 1932 to support the leadership of Boilini Muniswamy, Who was an activeteader of Kammajana Mahasabha, He was working on the history of kammas whenhe died.eo Cattamanchi ' Ramalings Reddy,Madire<:tdi Venkataratnam Naidu and R Venkataratnam Naiduwere active in their caste associations. The leaders of the protest eschewed any'explicit ideology. much less any class ideology. Only in

late 30s did Ramaswamyveer towards socialism." , , '

" .

The relations between non-brahman leaders and brahman pundits or Congress brahman leaders in Andhra were not so much strained. Ramaswamy always held hi~ guru, Venkata Sastri,il'1. high esteem despite, 'the fad that he was humiliated as a loW caste man ~by the latter In 1912. Those who kneW him well say that he Was opposed to brahmanism ~nd

not to,brahmans as iooividuals.62 Although DuggiralaRaghavachandralah was deeply hurt by the treatment meted out to him by the brahman Congress leaders showed high regard to Kasinadhuni Nageswara Rao and Bulusu Sambamoorthy. Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy cou~d. summon, the 8eNices of a brahman historian to write the'historyof reddl kln~dom. 83 v. Chekkarai Chetti, a Madras resident TeluQu Christian,. stated In 1919 that -u,e relations between brahmans and non-brahmans In TeJugu areas are more cordial and harmonious than in the South. "84 As Rudotphs rightly PQinted out that the Telugu brahmans have escaped the experience of the Tamil brahmens bea;u 188 of the history of the Telugu lirlj)uist!C ~n:ta. 86 !elugus "

,'were the first to become aware of a distinct regional-llngulstlc Iden~lty early In the twentieth oentury~ From 1909 they waged a vrgorous campaagn for a

28 Non-Brahrnan Movement in Andhra

separate state. which was essentially led by Telugu brahman ISiwyerswho . were also the Congress leaders.·· The Telugu b~hman lawyer~. whq could not compete with the Tamil brahman lawyers In th~. profession, thought that a separate· state would open up better oppo~unltles f~r the"~ and e~d .the Tamilien dominance .. But t~ey projected this as Tamil dominance In

. general as being harmful to the Interests of the Telugus as such ·and successfully mobilised all other non-brahman castes. 66 The non-brahman protest and campaign for separate state ran parallel to each other for some time Thus the Andhra movement had somewhat glossed over the brahman ,. non-brahman divide or pushed It to a secondary place. While the Dravidian. movementwas largely identified With non-brahmans inTamilnadu, the Andhra movement was all-inclusive and it retained the same character in 1950s also. This forging ofa common cause for Andhra might have influenced

. the nature of anti-brahman protest inAndhra.

As far as the issue of swaraj was concerned there were clearly two tendencie~ among the non-brahman leaders. One view was that since the

. brahman domination was widespread in education. employment and political arenaswaraj at the given time would be a rule by brahmans. It was better then not to have swaraj· and ask for a larger share in a responsible. government under the British rule. Some others said that instead of say-

. ing no to swaraj it is better to ask for special representation and reduce the brahman dominance. Some extremists in this tendency went to the extent of saying that the .alienrule must go regardless of the present brahman domination because the kammas, . reddis, etc. were warrior castes, they should not tolerate subjugation and it was their duty to fight for swaraj. We can say that the second tendency, more than first. one, was prevalent in .

Andhra. . . .. .

Ramaswamy's reaction, while tie was in Britain, to the SfLF's resotutions in 1917 shows this. He got infuriated with the resolutions and public postures of the Madras Justice leaders that India was not for independence. He wrote (Oct. 1917) that as a non-brahman he would demand 'ndependence:~ut at the same time Ramaswamy made an appeal to ::~~s to cultivate an attitude of fraternity and liberality towards others.

. . .

O! brahman brothers! please open. your eyes at least now. Take a look at the changes the wor1d is u,ndergoing. Do not try to boast off any more that you have come out of God s face. Esdlew those customs and the code of con=. that hurt the feeling~ and seIf-resp8ct of aM other castes.· Some castes .c-.;.~ Ioaeof ~ ~ the country has to progress. Delay not till you are .......... nr_. your domination and. power by the use of force. "67

=: lnhthe mans and non-brahmans to work hand in hand to expel the

. ~. Soon after he came back from Dublin he presided

ov.- the ~ of non-btahmans in Congress in Vijayawada on 11 No. ~ Ra~swamy later supported the Justice party of non-br8hman nghts. he remained an ardent nationalist OUlHIa fatnQUS song Veeragandham stirred. up patriotic fervour

Evaluation of the Issues 29

among the Tel~gus. duri':lg the Civil Disobedience Movement. in 1930's. This song wa~ Invanably InvC?ked at all the Congress meetings. Earlier the non-cooperatlon movement In 1 ~22 was much more successful in Andhra than it was further South. In this the brahman leaders of Congress and local peasant leaders could work unitedly. Rama~wamy pleaded that progressive b_rahmans wh.o were Interested In the uphftment of non-brahmans be drawn Into the Justice party and be allowed to contest in the elections as its candidates.

An article. written by ~ne Yadava."i Kanakadurgayya Naidu sums up this kind of view .. He said that the dispute between brahmans and nonbrahmans. was like a dispute between brothers. who should unite when they were in conflict with an outsider. Members of every caste must endeavour to uplift their caste. But their activities must not endanger the nation's goals. People of all castes were the sons of Deshamata and hence should not hate each other,he said.s9ln fact the non-zamindari

. political leaders of Justice partyfrom Andhra were more nationalistic. K.v.

Reddy Naidu who made a fervent plea (in 1917) to the British to protect non-brahmans from brahman oppression saying "any good government by brahmans isno substitute for self-government by non-brahmans", became, by 1924, a supporter of swaraj. He became critical of the Justice Party. which, according to him, had been too absorbed in attacks against brahmans. He said: "We must agree to be not merely passive and verbal supporters of swarajbut active parncipatorsm all constitutional agitations to hasten its grant." He felt that the Justice party should take on a more national outlook. 70 C.R. Reddy said in 1922: "In a way we are all national-

ists."71 .

There was also the other tendency, which stressed on the need to end the brahman oppression than swaraj. Suryadevara Ra~havayya argued that brahman tyranny was far more oppressive than Bntish tyranny. According to him the British tyranny was confined to the political dornaln, whereas the brahman tyranny prevails in the social and religious domains. They had already extended their power in government administration. Once

. they get political power they would employ all, tricks to depress nonbrahmans. Raghavayya, however, clarified that he was not opposed to swaraj. He was opposed to the argument that the single goal of Indians was to achieve independence. According to him, swarajand social equality had to be achieved simultaneously which would enhance self-esteem,' ensure mental freedom and eliminate low status ascribed to non-brahmans. He thought that the aim of the non-brahman movement was to end the brahman fraud. to provide equal opportunity and status to everyone in all ma~ers and achieve political power in such a way that ensures a just

SOCIal order. .'

Another important issue in the anti-brahman protest was the attitude of the forward sudra castes to those who were below them in the caste hierarchy. especially the so-called untouchable castes. The anti-brahman protest in Andhra was mostly confined to the interests and feelinqs of the

30

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

forward sudra castes and stopped at that. Although some '?~ those who

•. h ... "" ""P',...,,, ...... ,.,,, .... ,, .• "~,...,.. •• "+,.. •• """"""''''''killn' """"""',., "",-r" "' .... i" •• I"'.~,.I .h~ anL:-..,ra, ,ma, , ",.,. u .. ~~~ \"IV'IVYI n .... \iju \AI .... V'"''''III::.tIJI ..... ' UI ,,.,. 1-" uL.

~i~'t;;;j'th~' ~~tional equality of all castes, largely there were no serious efforts to include the da/it quesnon under the rubric of anti-branmanisrn. They were more interest~d In claiming the status of dWlja (I~.the case.of komafis) or kshatriya(In the case of peasant communities). With sW8sangha paurohityam· the kamma brahmans sprang up. We have already pointed out that they had praise for sanafana dharma and wanted to revive the pristine and original Hinduism which was allegedly distorted and spoiled by the selfish brahmans. While. in southe~ M~h~ras~tra the protest began with a militant outburst against caste discrtminatlon as such, and in Tamilnadu, especially during the Self-Respect Movement, it focused primarily on the groups low in the caste hierarchy. Given the specific nature of caste polarisation in the deltaic districts of Andhra the forward sudra castes could not, perhaps did not want to, bring the panchamas in the struggle against brahmanism. We find among the elites of the dominant peasant communities a kind of caste pride and a self-cultivated feeling of high status, which in turn reflected in the nature of anti-brahman discourse, which may be cnaractenseo as 'democratic conservatism'. While Phule, Ambedkar and Periyar thought in terms of caste annihilation, the non-brahman leaders in Andhra talked of only annihilation of the brahmanical cultural dominance and stood for equality of all castes.

The same results of British rule and 'agrarian revolution' which gave rise to the anti-brahman protest between brahmans and other upper caste Hindus also threw up the question of relations between the dominant peasant communities and the da/its, by the beginning of the twentieth century. There were widespread tensions between the two. The two major panchama castes were ma/as and madigas, who were mostly agricultural labourers. 72 Largely owing to the work of Christian missionaries and the government these depressed $lroups became aware of their social and political rights and began to realise the inequality of their economic as well as ritual statuS.13 In)g~tion, urbanisation, and modem transport and communications had their Impact on the social orientations and attitudes, including the panchE!mas. The British policy of equality before law and the provision of educational opPOrtunit~s in the government-aided schools created a sense of new equallty.74 Dunng the second decade of the twentieth century we also find ~e forging of horizontal caste solidarity among the dalit groups. ~ grOWing aw~ren~ss ca,:" b~ seen in the first Andhra Panchama manasabha organised In 1917 In ViJayawada.75 Unnava Lakshminarayana's famous novel, ~aI8pa/li (1922) vividly portrays the suffering of the da/its in the Andhra sOCIety and the atrocities of landlords."

AIao~ conservative btahmans highlighted the dilemma of anti-brahman protest a view to attack the non-brahman assertion they contra posed • with ~uestion of treatment meted out by the forward sudras to low cat_. · IIVI reproached and chalenged the non-brahman zealots to first pr.ace equality toward. the Panchamas and then talk of equality be-

Evaluation of the Issues 31

tween brahmans and non-brahf11ans. n There were also some among the leaders of non-brahman assertion who raised these questions. Writing in 1918 Kanakadurgayya Naidu asked:

Are non-brahmans not causing several hardships to the castes below them, while-resenting the brahmanical tyranny? What kind of justice is this? For the inequalities in social life, the upper non-brahman castes are answerable to the low castes as much as brahmans are answerable to non-brahmans_ All non-brahman castes must destroy all caste inequalities among them. Otherwise the non-brahman movement will go waste."

Duggirala Raghavachadraiah, no doubt, argued for equality of all castes, induding the panchamas. He said that a panchama has a right to study the Vedas, practice brahmana dharma and become a sat-brahman. But such a proposition was virtually meaningless to a panchama. It was N.G. Ranga, the well-known peasant leader from Andhra, who had putforward some framework for caste-class reconciliation and harmony between the Harijans and the peasant castes. He wrote the novel Harijana Nayakudu (1933) where he stressed the need for amity between peasant castes and Harijans,because both lived on land. He shows that dissatisfaction and anger among the Harijans was prevalent in several delta villages about . their miserable conditions and upper caste oppression. He pleads that the Harijans be allowed to study in schools, use wells together and worship in temples and that the peasant castes must help the Harijans to come Up.79 But Rangawas too absorbed in his anti-zamindari movement and power politics he did hardly anything in this direction.

On the whole it can be said that the leaders from peasant communities who protested against brahman dominance in the cultural arena and in education and politics were indifferent towards the question of lower castes. Here the problem of social stratification based on birth and class antagonism based on extreme inequalities in land control got intertwined. They were largely radical vis-a-vis brahman supremacy and conservative vis-avis panchamas. This dual nature of anti-brahman protest was seen in the ear1y decades of the twentieth century itself. This could be the reason why the conServative brahman critics in the 1920s called the anti-brahman protest narrow and casteist, while some dalit intellectuals of our times also tend to characterise it as narrow and castiest. It is in this context an objective evaluation of the anti-brahman protest in Andhra during the colonial rule in a dialectical manner would give us some clues to understand the present day caste confrontations. The anti-brahman protest or the non-brahman movement in its victory over brahman domination gave birth to its rival, the upsurge of da/it castes against the domina~ion of the forward $udra castes. The dalit protest may be seen as antithetical to the 80CIaI order that has evolved as a result of the ascendancy of the nonbrahman upper castes. With this the locus of struggle against caste disCI"tmInaIIon. especially In rural areas, has shifted from one between the bnIt""." and the ~hman to one between sudra castes which largely conb'oIlMd and poiltlcai power and the dalits. The breakdown of brahman

32

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

dominance was rather peaceful as brahmans ~uldeasily severtheir land

ction and migrate to towns for a better life, .tn the case of upper eonne I asant castes a large proportion of them ~r~ m!ddle and small ' sudra pets who. are totally dependent on landfor their livelihood and have

peasan . ., tarmi As lt wewit d

few alternative channels to give up. arming. a re~u w.e WI nesse

several attacks on dali~s in recent year~ and also the ~aht resistance. The dalit -non-dalit conflict In aw~y IS a con~lnuatlon of anti-brahman protest of

. early twentieth century, but ItS resolution wo~ld ~ ,much '!l0r~ tortuous and impregnated with .violen~ as the caste dlscnmln~tion In this con~ext is interrelated to class Inequ~hties .. How_ to vie"!" the daht struggles against upper caste domi~anc!3 and. Integrate them ~Ithstruggles forreconstruction of social relations IS an Important question,

The anti-brahman protestgot dissipated in Andhra in later 1930s wnereas it took a militant form in Tamil region with the Self-Respect Movement and later the launching of Dr~vida ~zhag~m. One i":lportant reason was the growth of a militant antl-colontal-antl-zarnmdart peasant movement In Andhra. As the Justice party leadership came mostly from the zamindars, oersons from peasant families with a nationalist fervour provided leadership to the anti-zamindari struggles. Ranga, who had been identified and patronised by the Justicites in the 1920s was gradually drawn into the Congress in the early 19305. Congress also co-opted and accommodated several leaders from non-brahman communities during this period. It was this category of newty emerged leaders from peasant communities, some of whom were highly educated.Iaterreplaced the brahman leadership in the political arena soon after Independence. We can say that by the time ~flndependence the leadership of all political parties got non-brahmanised; I.e. the leadership has effectively passed into thehands of the elites of the non-brahman forward sudra peasant communities. Another important factor was the growth of communist movement in late 30s and 40s, which swept away the brahman-nan-brahman dichotomy by replacing it with that of direct class conflict. The communists began working among the agriculturallabol;lfers in mid 30s who were mostly the dalitsand then took over the leadership of peasant movement from the hands of Congress leaders. The em~gence of a strong communist movement with militant anti-zamindari and antl-I~ndlord stance made the rhetoric of anti-brahman protest look pale and Irrelevant. For. the communists, who thought and operated in a class framework, the a~ti-bnJhman movement did not have much meaning and they went beyond Its framework. One reason why in Tamil Nadu the n~brahman protest could transform into a militant political form was the

a nee of such a strong communist movement there. While in Andhra some of those ~o started as members of anti-brahman protest movement a~ as ration.~lists laterjolned the Communists, a few who could not :1r&eich with the politi~ and economic radicalism drifted towards Royism,

was unknown In the Tamil region.

~ conclusion it can be said that anti-brahman protest in Andhra brought some salient changes in Andhra society. It facilitated the dilution of

Notes and References 33

the monopoly of brahmans in social, cultural and political arena. It accelerated the process greater political participation and democratisation and broadening the base of government by striking at the foundations of the old order, rejecting the age-old brahman dominance and modifying the attitudes of the higher and lower castes towards each other. It enabled the sudra communities to get rid of low self-esteem and instilled some amount of self-respect among them. To this extent its progressive and democratic character has to be appreciated. The anti-brahman protest was not a struggle for the annihilation of caste as such. Many of the leaders of the protest took pride in their caste identity as they were interested to elevate their caste status and, as part of it, their own status. Thus, it was, in the main, a struggle against a specific variety of caste ideology and domination, l.e. of brahmans over forward non-brahmans. As the elites of the peasant castes got more and more entrenched, the anti-brahman protest lost much of its initial idealism and could not continue the protest to its logical end. The dialectics of anti~brahman protest was such that no sooner the fprward non-brahman castes began exercising political and social power, the assertion of other castes further low in caste hierarchy began to stare in their face. The political and social processes in post-colonial Andhra hastened such a conflict between the now dominant sudra communities on the one hand and the lower sudra and da/it communities on the other. Attempts are being made by the very same communities, who had opposed and fought brahmanical order during the colonial times, to resolve the conflict and tensions With other castes below through accommodation and physical coercion. The resolution of it, however, lies in the, realisation that the lower castes will not be content with a theoretical admission of equality but a corresponding change in thesocio-economic and political

structure. . , ' ,

: Notes and References:

1. Partha Chatterjee, ·Caste and Subaltern Consciousness", Subaltern Studies VI, (ed.), by Ranjit Guha, Oxford Univ. Press, Delhi, 1992, p.175.

2. Waehbrook says that 'there was not much antagonism between brahmans and non-brahmsnsbefore 1912. He said: "The non-brahman movement from ,1912 was new political development and not the continuation by other means of a supposed two thousand years politico-cultural feud .. ~ D.A. W .. hbrook. The Emergence of Provincial Politics: The Madras Prestdency, 187()"1920, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1976, p.274

3. Ibid, p.287.

4. Ranjit Guha, -Dominance Without Hegemony and Its Historiography", Sub: aItein Studies VI, (ed.), by Ranjit Guha, Oxford University Press, Deihl, 1982, pp. 210-309, pa8Sim~

.... F. IrShick. PolItIcs end Social Conflict In South ,In~ia: . The Non: btihmanltlovement and Tamil Separatism, 1916-1929, University of CahfomiaPraa, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969. pp. xii-xiii.

34

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

6. Marguerite Ross Barne~. pThe POplit!CSOt' CUN/turs~ ... Nation1a9/7·s6m in22South

India. Princeton University resa, nnce on, ewolCrsey, ,.p..

\

7. Ravipudi Venkatadri, "MaCmh~di ,ven1k9a9yya: 'A1stnJ20ggle for Human Rights-. in

Adugu Zadalu(Telugu). Ira a, 15. pp. - '.' '. . .

8. P. Rama Murthi, The Freedo7 m Struggle and the Dravidian Movement. Ori- .

ent Longman, Delhi. 198. . ..

9. N.Ram, "Dravidian Movement in Its pre-iFndbepe19n7dgence P3hases", Economic and Political Weekly, Annual Number, e. ,pp. 77-402: and also see his "Pre-History and History of the DMKn, Social Scientist, Vo.6, No.5, Dec. 1977, pp.59-91.

10. Diptesh Chakrabarthy, -Discussion-, in Subaltern Studies IV{ed.), by Ranjit Guha. Oxford University press, Delhi. 1985,P. 373.

11. There have been a few attempts to study this problem so far: 1. A. Murali, "Brahmanetarodyamamu - Oka Pariseelana", Proceedings of the Andhra Pradesh History Congress, Kavali, 1977, pp.121-32; C. Varahala Rao, . ·Brahmanetarodyamamu·,in Andhralo Nirasanodyamalu, ViJayawada, 1981; G.Sudarshan Reddy, Caste Associations and Social Change in Andhra, M.Phil. Diss., OsmaniaUniversity, Hyderabad, 1986; S. Inna Reddy, "Non-brahman Movement in Andhra: 1916-1939·, Ithihas, Vol. 18. No.2, July-December 1992,pp.103-11; and V. Ramakrishna, "A Background to . the Emergence of Caste Consciousness in Coastal Andhra Pradesh". in . Sekhar Bandopadhay and Suranjan Das, (ed.), Caste and Communal Politics in South Asia,K.B.Bagchi &'Company, Calcutta, 1993, pp.99-118.

12. Barnett wrote that in South India' there are no Kshatriyas or vaisyas and so .all castes are either brahman, Sudra or untouchable, Marguerite Ross . Barnett. op.cit., p.16. Rudolphs say that the brahmans in the South have tended to be more separated from the rest of the society than brahmans in the North due to the relative absence of twice born castes, other than brahmans, in the southern region. They observed that this discontinuous social hierarchy seems to have fostered the political mobilisation of castes 'ower in the ritual hierarchy. Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India, Orient Longman, Delhi. 1969, pp. 76-78.

13. Frykenberg writes that even before the introduction of the Company rule, the ~eadmen, .who were called pedda raiytu, reddi, kaput etc, controlled the ~lllage affairs. Often these belong to the 'yeomen-warriors' - the former wamor castes who became farmer-warrior castes, and who were later called by brahmans as satsudras. There were less privileged and poorer members of the ryot community in each village. Though these poorer ryots were not happy with the extortion and control by headmen or leaders, the f~ remained that they were the members of the high caste group in each VIllage .. Nilamani Mukherjee and Robert Eric Frykenber~, "The Ryotwan System and Social Organisation in the Madras Presldency", in R.E. =:;wa, (ed.), L8I1CI' Control and Social Structure in Indian History,

18nohar, Delhi, 1979; pp. 239-40. .

14. TlM.8.S. Pandian, -Notes on the Transformation of Dravidian Ideology:

1 ' c. 1800-1MO", SocIal Scientist, Vot.22, Nos. 5-6, May-June,

..... 104 ..

Notes and References

35 15. Robert Eric Frykenberg, GU'.1tu~ District, 1788-1848: A History of Local Influence and Central Authoflty In South India Clarendon Press Oxf rd

1965. " 0, .

16. RE. Fryke~berg, "Traditional Pr<?c~ssesof Power in South India: A Historical ~nalysis of Local 'r:'fluen!=e , In Frykenberg, (ed.), Land Control and Social Struc!ure ''.1)nd,an History, Manohar. Delhi. 1979. p.229; R.E. Fryken~e~g. Traditional Process of Power: Land Control in the Districts of Andhra , In VK. Sawa, (ed.). Aspects of Deccan History Institute of Asian

Studies, Hyderabad, 1975. pp.95-112. ' .

17. Morris. Henry, Descriptive and Historical Account of the Godavari District

London, 1978, p.87. '

18. S. Nathamuni Mudaliyar, "Changes in the Godavari District since the Construction of the A~icut", in S:R. Aiyangar. Memorandum on the Progress of the Madras Presidency dunng the Last Forty Years of British Administration, Government Press, Madras, 1893, Appendix.

19. G.N. Rao, "Agrarian Relations in Coastal Andhra under Early British Rule", Social Scientist, vol.6, No.1, Aug. 1977, pp.19-29; "Canal Irrigiation and Agrarian Change in Colonial Andhra: A Study of Godavari District c. 1850- 1890", Indian Economic and Social History Review, 21,1(1988), pp.25-60.

20. N.G.Ranga, Economic Organisation of Indian Villages, vol.2, Kitab Mahal, Bombay, 1929, p.89.

21. D.A. Washbrook, -The Development of Caste Organisation in South India. 1880 t,=, 1925", !~ C.J. 8~k~!' and D.A. Washbrook, South India: Po!itice! Institutions and Political Change, 1880-1940, Macmillan, Delhi, 1975. pp.152-53.

22. Wash brook. The Emergence ... , op.cit., p.1B2.

23. V. Ramakrishna, Construction of Colonial Culture and Ideology, Presidential Address, Indian History Congress, 56th Session, Dece~~er 1995, Calcutta, pp. 28-30; A. Murali, Cultural-Ideological Treditions and Legitimisation Process in Andhra: Twelfth to Eighteenth Centimes. G. Rudrayya Chowdary Endowment Lecture-2, Dec. 1994. Ramachandrapuram, E.G. Dist., A.P.

24. The Circars of Andhra came under the control of the East India Company in 1769 Guntur in 1788 and the Ceded districts in 1801. Thus by 1802 all the Telug'u speaking areas, except those under the Hyderabad Nizam's rule. became part of Madras presidency.

25. The biography of Venkayya was written by Grandhi Venkata Subb.araya Sharma (not a brahman. but a vaisya), Panditaraya Venkatarya Jeevltamu,

Guntur, 1929. .

as. Ibid., p.74.

21. Chittor Zilla Ada/stu Court Teerpu. Chennapatnam, 1924. pp.51-63.

21 AIIhouah there aeem to be several biographies of Atr:n~ri.. I. co~ld get.o,:,IY ~. nrandhi Venkata SUDDaraya Gupta. Atmu!", ':-BKsnmm8rBSlmn.; ~.,: HllIlJIogIaphyandLectures, VBISYBAssOCIBtion, ~ezwada, 192 .

of the biographical account of Atmuri is drawn from It. .

36 Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

Kandukuri Veeresalingam, Swe~Y8aharitr8 SangrahamiJ (Telugu), National

29, Book Trust, New Delhi, 1972, p.71.. ,

For a detailed account see, V. Ramakrishna, Social Reform in Andhra,

30. Vikas, New Oelhi, 1983. , , .

31. Irshic:k, op~cit., p.24,

32. Wash brook , op.cit., p.13.

~J. N.u. Kanga, "Ight fOr I-reeclOm,::J. c.;hand & ce.. uemr, 1968, P,;jU.

34 The v;swabrahmans founded'their Vlswakarma KulOddharna Sangham in . 1903 They held their first conference In Machllipatnam In 1908, They ublished a monthly named Pra~hin;. The. komatis found their asso~iation,Arya Vaisya Mahasabha, In ~907. Earlier ~he valsyasran ,a magazine Va;syaPatrika under the auspices of Atmun Lakshmlnaraslmnam.

35. The first Adi Velama Mahasabha was held C?n March 2~, 1907. Madireddy.

Venkataratnam Naidu was elected President. Adl Vel am a S~yobhl Vardhani.Sangham " Diamond Jubilee C8'e~r8tions. 1915-1975, S.~uve"ir Vljayawada, 1975. In the same year the first Gowda (whose tradl~lonal ocCupation Is toddy-tapping) Mahasabha was heid at Chauapalll, Krishna district. S. lnna Reddy, "NOn-Brahman Movement in Andhra, 1916-1939", Ithihas, vol.18, No.2, July-Oec:ember1992, p.104. The first Kamma Jana Mahasabha was held in 1910 at Kautavaram, Krishna District. Reddis

, organised their first Mahasabha in 1913 at Cuddalore, while the Kapu asSOCiation was formed in the same year in a meeting at MachHipatnam. Andh!,!, Patrika, April 16, 1913; G. Nageswara Rao, Chenna Kes8vaswamy

: H8nJ4na Archakulu, Uppuluru, 1986, p.202. .. ,

36. Rudolphs argued that in India one attack on tradition and old order came from the modem middle classes, as formerly in eighteenth century Europe. ,The other challenge came from the caste associations through their successful assertion of prlvlle9.e and rights. Caste associations frequently un~rtook to upgrade the position of the caste in the social hierarchy. But as liberal and democratic ideas penetrated to wider sections they began to press for places in the new administrative and educational institutions . and ,for PQtiti~1 ~presentation. But in some of their postulates Rudolphs'

attach excessIVe Importance to caste associations as they say that it is the caste associati~!" which brings ·political democracy to Indian villages through the famlhar and accepted Institution of caste" and "which links the mass el,ectorate to the new democratic political processes and makes them comprehensible in traditional terms to a population still largely politicali~illiterate." Llyod l. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, "The Po-

Role of India's Caste Associations", Pacina Affairs. Vol.33 (March ~980), pp.5-22. Quite contrary to Rudolphs' ideas, we have Baker and ~.who deny any such democratic and mass character of the

&aadations marching fQr the rights of caste members. They view caste aasodation. as the lnstruments forged by ambitious persons to aecur. their Interests. Thus Washbrook says: "The' development of caste ~ of ".neral.~enomenon owed most to two new extemal facto~ nltlea,. e publICIst and the government ~atronage ,of caste commu-

,.... ~ :a.rik~r' "The Development of Caste Organisation in South PoIItioaIInetIIutIon ,n C.J. Baker and O.A. Washbrook. South India:

107llP.112. • and PoIItlca' Change, 1880-1940, Macmillan. Delhi,

Notes and References

37

37. The first .ev.er r:t0n-brahman ~onference held in Andhra region was that of Godavan dlstricts was held In October 1917. For details of the conferences, see, O.P.Ralhan, Non-brahman Movements, Anmol Publications New Delhi, 1998, pp.253-298; B.Kesavanarayana, Political and Social Fac~

tors. in Andhra, 19()()...1956 .. Navodaya, Vijayawada, 1976, p.300-2. .

38. K. Surendra, Tripuraneni Ramaswami : Rachana/u-Bhavaviplavamu

Vijayawada, 1987, p.40. '

39. Suryadevara Raghavayya Chowdary, Brahmanetara Udyam& Tatvamu.

Kolluru, 1936, p.284. . .

40. Tripuraneni Ramaswamy Chowdary, "Kammavaru", Andhra Patrika An-

nual Number. April 12, 1911, pp.113-15. ..' .

41. PS. Acharya. Krunvanto Viswamaryam, Martha, W.G.dt.. 1932, p.t.

42. Sury~devara Raghavayya Chowdary, Brahmanetara Vijayamu, Ryotu press.

Tenah,1925 p.29. . . .

43. Ramaswamy said this in is preface ·to the second edition of $ambuka Vatha.

44. All works of Ramaswamy are available. Translations of his long prefaces to his major works are also available; for details of his biography see G. Nageswara Rao, A Renaissance in South India: Prefaces of Kaviraju Tripuraneni Ramaswamy Chowdary, Kaviraju Sahitya Vihar. Gudivada, 1994;· for his biography see, G. Venkatasubbaiah, Kaviraju Jeevitamu~Sahityamu. Desi Kavita Mandali, Vijayawada, 1970; K. Surendra, Kaviraju Tripuraneni Ramaswamy Rachanalu - Bhava Viplavamu, Vijayawada, 1987; For commentary on his life, works, and ideas, see Hetuvadi, Tripuraneni centennary issue. VOlA, Nos.S-6, Jan. 1986; and Kaviraju Sanmana Sanchika,

Gudivada, 1942. .

45. He listed the sins of a brahman as following: (1)to claim himself to be the God on earth and reserve the right to perform karmas which are means to attain high social status and moksha; (2) to reserve the right to be saluted; all people of other castes must salute to his feet; (3.4.5,6,) to deprive the rights of the kshatriya, vaisya, sudra and panchama persons to be saluted by a brahman; (7) to reserve for himself the titles showing supremacy such as Brahmasri. Acharya, Achari, Shastri, Sharma, Ayyanagar. etc; (8) to call others with words having mean and low connotations such as dasu; (9) to regard the sudrs and panchamaas unseeable; (10) to regard~em as polluting and untouchable; (11) to make God as his reserved subject saying "I purify the God with my mantra"; (12) to forbid the sudras f~om entering the garbha gudi (sanctum sanctorum) and depriving him the nght to perform puja (worship); (13) to deny thepanchamas even the nght to e~ter the temples; (14) to treat Vedas as his permanent wealth and speaalty reserving for him:(15) to prohibit religious meditation for the sudras and panchamas; (16) to have the right to marry the girls from the ~our vamas but not allowing ·membersof other varnas to marry brahman gl~s; (17) to prescribe punishments according to the varna; and (18) to depnve

WQtnen the freedom and rights which he, as a man, can have and _.c.... See h~ wor'k; Asthadasa Mahapapiysgu brahmanunito Sah_ayya . Monarpumu (T.lugu) CNon-cooperate with the Great Sinner ",.,.",." Who commits EIghteen Sins), Radhakrishna & Co., Bezawad.a.

1933.· .

38 . Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

46. See appendix-1 to his book ..

His resolutions were: (1 ) the so-called panchamas shall have the right to enter .sanctum. Senctorum, (2) mter-caste f"!1arriages must be freely allowed, and (3) all Hindus In Independent India shall have equal rights and no discrimination shall be shown towards the so-called sudras and panehamas. Ibid., p,466.

48 .. The aims of the party were: to get complete Independence to the country to eradicate the evil results of brahman's sins and rules and to ensure the right for all. to enter temples and sanct~m sanctorum, to encourage interc~s~e ma.mages, to abolish untouchability and unseea~ility and to ensure similar fights to women as men; to remove the disunity caused by brahmanism and build single Hindu nationality and to promote fraternal feelings among the followers of all religions: and to get resevations in legislatures to the so-called panchamas and other non-brahmans. See appendix-1.

Born in 1878 in Mallavaram (near Chandragiri in Chittor district) Chadalavada Ramakrishnayya became a scholar in Vedas, Shastras and logic. He took to sanyasa at a very early age and took the name of Gopala Sachchidananda Brahmendra Saraswati K. V. Ramana Reddy. "Paramahamsa G.S.B. Saraswati Swamy", in Bhereti, Dec. 1981.

Important of these writing were Sankaracharya vicnesttutemu .. Nuzella, 1917; Dushtashtaka Charitramu ... Nuziveedu, 1918; Pranavardha Vicharamu. Amudalalanka, (N.D.) Kshatrakuladarsa .. Amudalalanka, (N.D); Prachchanna Rajakula Nirnayamu, Edpugallu. Krishna dt. ,1919:

Dushtashtaka Jyestha Bhrata, Nuziveedu. 1919.

51. Velagaleti Rangayya, "Andhra Brahmanulu: Vari Bhavishyattu", Andhra Patrika, April 10, 1912.

52: Sripada Subrahmanya Sastri, "Justice Pakshamu: Shuta. Vartamana, Bhavishyattulu", Samadarsini, Ugadi Special issue, 1928-29.

53. P.S.Acharya, Kula Kattubatlu, Edpugallu. 1949.

54. SrimatSakalagama Saragrahi Srimadbodhananda Yatindrulu, Brahmans Swarupakathanam, Rajatha press, Tenali, 1927.

55. Irshick. op. cit., p. 69.

56. -It is strange that brahmanophobia has enveloped K. V. Re.ddY Nai~u. n In a sarcastic tone it said that his viJlagers know how man~ times Naidu had rendered services in the panchama homes. Andhra Patnka. May 12, 1920

57. G.Nageawara Rao. op.cit., p.11.

58. A few months before hia death he said: I took to the style of classical pOk~,t,ry to only prove that we non-brahmans can match brahmans in literary SIS. OUr people have proved their abilities in writing poetry. Now we have to change our language and style .: K. Surendra, op. cit.. p.66.

58. Raghavachandraiah. op.cH., Introduction.

80. By 1938 a htstory of kemma. with arguments that they were Ks~atriyas ,*i'tle C)Ut. K. Shav_vya Chowdary, Pracheenandhra Kshatrtyulagu ·KMntnavarl. Charltramu. Sangam Jagarlamudi, 1939.

47.

49.

50.

Notes and References

39

61. Gopichand, the famous literary figure and the eldest son of Ramas

- says that the latter h~d brought about class-consciousness amo~a~~ subrod.lnated castes In Andhra and paved the foundations for a ~,

. revolution. A large nU'!l~er of Ram.aswami's desciples later became ~~~ lowers. of M.N. ~~y and J~I~ed the rationalist movement. Gopichand, uClass ~~.nsclousness In Ka,vlraJu Sanmana Sanchika, Gudivada, 1942, pp.72-

62. Unnava Lakshminarayana says that T. Ramaswamy did not hate

brahmans. .

63. N.lnnaiah, Andhra Pradeshlo Kula Rajakeeyalu, Prajaswamya Publica-

tions, Hyderabad, 1985, p.25. .

64. Irshick, op.cit., p.177.

65. Rudolphs, op.cit., p.78.

66. Prof. K.Seshadri pointed out this to me.

67. G. Nageswara Rao. op.cit., p.21.

68. This was held on the same day as that of the regional non-brahman conference of Circars in the same town presided by Thiagaraya Chetty. In the Congress non-brahman conference a resolution was passed for more representation for non-brahmans in the Legislature. In the SILF Conference P.T. Chetty declared that if the Home Rule were to be granted the entire administration would be dominated by brahmans and non-brahmans would suffer lmrnensely. B. Kesavamarayana. op. cit., p.301.

69. The fear that if we getswaraj it becomes the brahman rule was not warranted. he says. His arguments were: (1) If we got swaraj brahmans will be responsible for the wrongs they commit unlike under British rule. {2} Education is increasing day by day among non-brahmans. Like brahmans there are several educated non-brahmans who are becoming well-worsed with politics. They can be a match to brahmans. (3) Non~bra~mans are brave and strong. persons. Most of the kings who ruled this Hmdoodesa were non-brahmans. As their progeny it is improper for them to say no to swaraj. (4) It is impossible to revive Manusmriti and other dharma shestres which were codified when no such thing caned non-brahman opimon was considered. (5) It is impossible for the 15 lakh brahmans t~ rule.over 420 lakh non-brahmans. Government under swaraj is not p~$sJble Without the cooperation and support of non-brahmans. Yadavalh ~anakadurgayya ~aidu. -Br8hmanetarodyamamu:Jateeyata," in Andhra Patrika, May 1, 191 B,

Annual Number, pp. 1 02-09. .

70. Ir:shick, op.cit .• pp.260-61.

71. Baker, op.cit., p.81.

72. Accordi~ to the 1901 Census, there were 6,37,537 Malas and 2,60,953

Madigas m the coastal districts. .

73. Themisaionaries gave them protection when they were assaulted 8".d treated them with compassion. They set up Anglo-vernacular sch~S .n the Kriahna. Godavari. Guntur, and Nellore dls~cts in 18505. Odd.e ob.....ved: -The untouchables found in missionanes people who took a~ intiereM in their welfare and, who more than others. were prepared to ac

40

Non-Brahman Movement in Andhra

cept them as human beings. as equals as against the Hindu religious belief and practice of keeping untouchables underfoot and at the bottom of human scale. The Christianity promised new allies - alliance with the power and prestige ~f the white.maNn outside and ove:r a9ainst the traditional village system. G.A. addle. Christian Conversion In Telugu Country, 1860-1900: A Case Study of One Protestant Movement in the GodavaryKrishna Delta",IESHR. Vol. 12. No.1, pp.61-79.

74. The greatest British contribution to the destruction of the moribund old order and the regeneration of the Indian society was encouraging education among the low castes which were totally excluded from any kind of education ear1ier. It was a golden age for the untouchables who for the first time could walk into the portals of educational institutions. In 1857 the government proclaimed that "no boy be refused admission to a government school or college on the ground of caste." There were strong objections from caste Hindus for admission of untouchable boys into schools and difficulties cropped up in getting teachers as caste Hindus refused to teach them.

75. It was presided by Bhagya Reddy Varma. He opposed the word Panchama and the dele~ates unanimously declared the Conference as First AdiAndhra MahaJana Sabha. The Conference appealed for the provision of schools and drinking water wells in the Mala-Madiga localities and that the Adi-Andhras be nominated to provincial Legislature and local bodies. Thereafter the Adi-Andhra conferences were annually held - in Gudivada (1921), Eluru (1922). Gutnur (1924). Anatapur (1925). Venkatagiri (1926). etc. Resolutions were passed calling upon the Adi-Andhras to address each other respectfully, for reservation of jobs at least in the lower grades, and for higher wages for agricultural labourers. see Gail Omvedt. DaJits and #he Democratic Revolution, Sage, Delhi. 1994.

76 .. Unnava lakshminaraya, Ma/apal/i. Triveni Publishers. Machilipatnam. 1922.

77. Srutidharma Sanjivini, 15 Jan. 1921, Vol. 1 , No.18. It said: "Let these nonbrahmans introduce inter-dining and inter-marriages among the sudras, malas. madigas, etc. and demonstrate to the world how to be united and live like one community."

78. Kanakadurgayya Naidu, op.cit., p.109.

79. N.G. Ranga, Harijana Nayakudu. Kisan Publications, Guntur, 1933.

00000000

. Dr.Kondaveeti Chinriaya Suri took his Mas-

·ters Degree in Politicsiiom Andbra Uni~ty in 1978, .1ICt1l1l· B2 first class with distinction. During 1978-

. . he a r arch llow at Centre for Political

Studies, J tal Nehru University, New Delhi,

where he was :warded Ph.D. Degree for his work on 'Agrarian Movements in Andhra'. For about a year . \1V01'xeo as ~ in Politics, Government De-

Colleg RamIe, E.G. District and in 1985 he .

. joined tbe faculty of "-';una University .

. presented papers in several national

. one international·conference and also

....... les in · oumals.

- ....... &'I.~"!!' •• ~ ... - __ Mmc-

DJl]tl..lllOUIIlPQlltIC8, caste ques- . ... .n.t..... movements, lad raiHms, .

.... .-.n:.1"I. on policies.