Maroju Veeranna

Maroju Veeranna wrote the famous Telugu book Indialo Em Cheyali (What is go to be done in India) that comes close to V. I. Lenin’s What is to be done, in the Indian context. Veranna analysed the nature of Indian Political and told his cadre/supporters that the histories of castes and villages have to be written and the Dalit, Adivasi, Backward Classes, Women and religious minorities have to be organised under one platform. He organised Ambedkar Jatara (Festival) in the districts of Telangana. Bahujan Nayak Manyavar Kanshiram organised Bahujan Mela, Ambedkar Mela and Periyar Mela, in various parts of India. In India Kanshiram, and Veeranna organised the Dalit, Adivasi, Backward Classes, Women and religious minorities for the above mentioned mela’s that gave the aforementioned communities a sense of history and belonging. Kanshiram successfully transformed the said mela’s for his Bahujan Political.

Veeranna observed that so far there isn’t any Communist Party in India that has understood the ‘Indian Political’ and argued that Communist Parties in India must adhere to Phule and Ambedkar’s Philosophy and Praxis.

Veeranna played a key role in the Telangana movement with ‘Suryapet Declaration’ that argued for a Bahujan Telangana. Veeranna brought the Dalit, Adivasi, Backward Classes, Women and religious minorities questions to the Telangana movement and argued that without solving their question, there is no point in achieving statehood status for Telangana.

It is widely said by the Telugu region activists of the 1990’s and 2000’s that it is after Veeranna proposal of writing the histories of caste and villages that Prof. Kancha Ilaiah got influenced and wrote the book Why I am not a Hindu (1996). This book brought name and fame to Ilaiah, at the regional, national and international. If not for this book, Kancha would have been just another academic in and around Osmania University, Basheerbagh Press Club, Sundarayya Vignana Kendram and other Telugu activist-intellectual spaces.

For raising the Bahujan agenda Veeranna was assassinated by the N. Chandrababu Naidu led TDP government of (undivided) Andhra Pradesh in 1999.

Johar to Veeranna ( 01 Jan 1962 to 16 May 1999) on his death anniversary.