Volume 3, No. 6, June 2002

The Jana Natya Mandali (People’s Theatre Forum), the cultural wing of the CPI(ML)(PW) in A.P., was formed exactly thirty years ago , in May 1972. Its songs, theatre and dance have had a major impact on the cultural ethos of Andhra Pradesh, particularly amongst the oppressed sections. Its songs, particularly have affected lakhs of people attracting them towards revolutionary politics. So fearful has the government been of its impact, that a few years back it got its vigilante group to shoot its legendry singer, Gaddar, from point-blank range. Though he survived, he still has a bullet lodged in him.

The JNM set popular folk tunes and dance forms to revolutionary themes to give a potent mix, which attracted the masses in their millions. With the content bringing out the agony of the masses faced in their daily lives, the songs struck a cord in their hearts. Of late, hundreds of songs get written on martyrs, by those who knew them personally. Filled with emotion, these songs move its listener to tears and inspire them to continue on the path of their beloved comrades.

Prior to the formation of JNM, a forum called ‘Art Lovers’ was formed in 1969, by the film director B. Narsimharao (BN). They had a center in Old Alwal, in suburban Hyderabad, which was open to all. The criteria for joining the group was that the art must not support the government and must be pro-people. Songs, plays, stories, poems etc. generally had a democratic content. Most of its members, like Bhoopal, Sudarshan, Dashrat, Narsimha, Balialla, etc. were either from poor or middle-class background, all of whom were working. They would therefore meet every Sunday at the Art Lovers office.

Here they would discuss the songs and improve them. Every Sunday they would go to some nearby village on bicycles, with a mike attached, and sing the songs written, amongst the villagers. Then they would ask the peasants, whether they understood what was said in the songs/poems. Depending on these reactions they would analyse these songs/poems and change them accordingly. Often they would take programmes at dawn.

At this time the young Gummaddi Vittalrao was studying in Hyderabad. Originally he belonged to village Toopram in Medak district. Living in poverty, he was able to continue his studies only because of the assistance from his teacher. Yet, in the city he did programmes on family planning in order to pay for his education. He had a natural talent, and from the third standard onwards he was doing programmes, utilizing the traditional folk ‘Burra Katha’ form. Though he did programmes to earn, they were very popular amongst the people.

One day BN noticed Vittalrao and was impressed by his performance. He invited him to perform at a programme on Bhagat Singh’s anniversary. After this programme, Vittalrao began attending the Sunday meetings. BN also asked him to write and bring something along. At the next Sunday meet Vittal brought his first song — Aurroy Riksha (stop ricksha). BN suggested changes to link the song to their lives and their labour. With that, got produced the famous song:

This song, written in about 1971, became a massive hit, specifically amongst ricksha drivers. Anytime this song was sung the drivers would throw lots of money, so moved were they by its content.

Then Vittal came regularly to the Sunday meets. Numerous songs were written, mostly by Vittal. They printed their first songbook. It was entitled "GADDAR"; after the famous Gaddar Party of Punjab. Soon the people began to say that the "Gaddar people have come". The name stuck, and from then on Vittalrao is known as Gaddar. Meanwhile Gaddar came to know that BN was linked to the CPI (ML) and was closely associated with its leader — KS. Slowly Gaddar also came close to the Party.

The inauguration of the JNM took place with a programme at the Katchibhavan hall in Hyderabad. The plays, songs and dance were put on by Gaddar, Bhoopal, Ballaiah, Shankarkutty, Padma, Sandhya, Nirmala and a few others. For two years this group put on performances all over. Another unit of JNM was formed in Vishakapatnam, led by Vangapandu. At the time of its formation some of the liberal elements in Art Lovers did not join, as this was openly pro-M-L-M.

It was now 1975, the days of the Emergency. The entire team had gone to Guntur and was giving a programme on the Gujanna Gundla Street. A few days earlier the Madhav Mukherjee group had attacked a nearby police station and seized some weapons. Sandhya was singing that popular song against the police — it was a mixture of humour and abuse. Suddenly the police launched a vicious attack on the artists and lathi-charged the public. They singled out Sandhya for the worst beating. They were vicious and smashed everything in the vicinity. All were arrested and kept in lock-up for two months. When they were released they had no money to return to Hyderabad. So, they did a performance there, right in front of the jail, gathered money, and then returned. After returning they were not able to contact anyone, as they were all underground, including Gaddar and BN.

Gaddar had gone to Anantpur to give a training programme to cadres. But while in the house of Paritala Sriramalu, the host was killed by lumpen elements. He too thereby lost contact with the Party. It was then that he married and took a bank job. Soon he got exposed, was arrested and tortured for information. Later he was released on bail.

In 1977, the JNM was once again re-organised, and a central group of ten was formed, including Sanjeev, who was then working as a temporary worker with the RTC. A class was organised, where BN and some senior Party leaders spoke. The entire troupe then went on a two-month election boycott campaign. Such programmes were to be repeated again and again during each election. Five cassettes by the JNM have come out on this issue, which have been used by local organizers. The campaign consists of humorous street plays and equally humorous song/dance programmes. The programmes were extremely popular and thoroughly exposed the fraudulent democracy for what it really is. It ends by calling on the people to pick up arms to fight for a new society where there will be not only genuine democracy but also justice.

From 1977 to 1981 a group of four, inclusive of Gaddar and Sanjeev, toured the entire state arousing the masses for revolution. In 1980 Gaddar kept a General Body Meeting at his house in the Venkatapuram area of Hyderabad. At this meeting Sanjeev and Kumar became full-timers, and Gaddar also left his job.

In April 1981 they went to perform at the Indravelli meeting, which ended in a massacre of tribals by the police. It was then that Gaddar with the help of one Masterji (com. Ramulu) set the Indravelli ballet. As performance of this ballet required 25 people the Party sent young budding cultural activists from the districts — three from Karimnagar, 5 from Warangal, 3 from Medak, 7 from Hyderabad, plus the central group of four. These included four the women comrades Vidya (then Padma), Swarna, Sharda and Vanaja. The ballet was prepared professionally with music and light effects. Hall programmes, with tickets were held throughout the state. Nearly every single town in AP held this ballet, and at each function the hall was packed. The ballet pictures the growing armed agrarian movement, and the attitude of the state towards it.

From 1982 to 1985 regular teams would come from the districts for training at the Gaddar institute. These teams would then return and form local units of JNM. Such units were formed in Hyderabad, Guntur, Karimnager, Warangal, Mehboobnagar, Khammam, and Nellore. The one in Vishakapatnam, led by Vangapandu, continued. The Guntur group comprised Dharmanna (alias Divakar, who was recently martyred), Ramesh (Kiren) and Rajanna, who was also martyred in an ‘encounter’.

In 1983/84 the Party made an all-India programme for the JNM, to tour the entire country. By then, Gaddar, working with his counterpart from Mumbai, Vilas Gogre, had translated a number of his songs into Hindi. The central group now comprised six including Sanjeev, Vidya, Ramulu. In this all-India tour they covered 25,000 kms performing in streets, halls, slums, etc. Though it started with all, it was these three comrades that continued through the entire programme.

Then came the first round of police terror in AP, from 1985 to 1987. The Party sent the main JNM comrades out of the state. Four years were then spent outside AP performing and training other units, wherever the Party had an existence. Also the large pockets of Telugu workers in other states were focused on. So, for example, there was a training programme amongst the huge Telugu -worker population in Surat (Gujarat), setting up the Jan Sanskrit Natya Manch. Till today this is still an active body in the city, which has, in fact, grown in stature and capability. During this period comrades like Sanjeev, survived by working — sometimes doing manual labour in a mill, sometimes driving an auto.

In 1989, with little possibility of legal activity the Party shifted Sanjeev and Vidya (since married) to the guerrilla zone area of DK to help develop the cultural activity amongst tribals. But with the brief legal period in 1990, the legal opportunity was used, and a central ballet team was formed comprising Gaddar, Sanjeev, Divakar, Ramesh, Vidya and Kumari. Programmes were performed at the huge meetings that took place all over the state, ending with the over one million public meeting of the peasant organization at Warangal.

With the repression once again coming to the fore in 1991, all legal activity came to an end. Since then, the central JNM concentrated on all-India tours and preparing audio-visual cassettes. In 1996 all the leading comrades, Sanjeev, Divakar, Ramesh and Vidya, either became organizers of the Party or of its underground cultural front.

The revolutionary cultural movement in AP has played an enormous roll in building communist consciousness amongst the masses of the state. In a backward country like India, where a large section of the oppressed masses are illiterate, song, dance and theatre are important media to impact the consciousness of the masses. Together with this the movement has thrown up vast quantities of revolutionary poems, short stories, novels, etc. which have had penetrating effect on the intelligentsia. Overall, since Naxalbari, and more particularly since the Srikakulam uprising of the early 1970s, and the continuing revolutionary movement under the PW, Telugu society ha been churned with a revolutionary consciousness, not seen in any other state of India. Though the continuing armed struggle is the basic cause for this change, it is the vast revolutionary cultural movement in song, dance and literature that has cemented the new awakening into the hearts and minds of the people, that no amount of police brutalities has been able to crush.

Marx once said, "when revolutionary ideas grips the masses it becomes a motive force". It is this process that has been catalysed by the vibrant cultural movement in AP.

Its impact was so all encompassing, that the decade of the 1990s saw the production of a stream of main-line Telugu films built around the PW movement with JNM-type songs to add to its popularity. All these films were big hits giving crores of profits to its promoters. The trend started with ‘Erra Senyam’ (Red Army) in 1991/92; followed by Narayan Murty’s ‘Orray Ricksha’ in 1993/94; then ‘Freedom at midnight’, ‘Uru Manidir’ (this is our village) and some 10 other such films. Apparently one film, called ‘Lal Salam’ (Red salutes) was banned. Though presented in typically filimi style for the market, most portray the naxalites as Robinhood-type heroes.

To promote its cultural activity the JNM undertook a number of tasks that helped the cultural movement gain in depth and spread. From training camps, to the publication of lakhs of song books to the creation of millions of cassettes, JNM songs, kathas (a song-story type drama) and dances penetrated into the entire society, well beyond the organizational reach of the Party.

The JNM took three major training camps, besides tens of smaller training camps, not only in the various districts of AP, but also in other states. The three camps, each with 50 to 75 cultural activists, were held in 1978 (Hyderabad), 1982 (Nellore) and 1990 (Anantpur). These camps went on for a month each and taught singing forms, art of song writing, performance styles, voice control, street theatre, dance steps, and various aspects of revolutionary culture, which built on the natural talents of those attending. It was these trained artists that spread far and wide fusing the revolutionary cultural movement with the ongoing political, organizational and military movements.

Then, in its publications the JNM has printed 16 songbooks and 10 books of ‘Loggu Kathas’ — each of which has been printed in lakhs. Besides these, there have been four dance-drama booklets, four ballet booklets and seven booklets on literature forms. Four plays and four street plays were written and performed all over the state, but were not printed in booklets.

But, its widest reach has been got by the audio-visuals prepared by it. In 1987 one video and 5 audiocassettes were prepared. These were distributed widely, in thousands, but through the Party network. Two more videocassettes were prepared — one on martyr Kumari, in the ‘Raghal Jhanda’ form, and the other on election boycott in 1994. About 500 copies of these cassettes were distributed to all the districts.

But, the major impact has been by the 29 audiocassettes prepared during the 1990 to 1995 period. Prepared artistically in studios, the rights of these cassettes were sold to professional distributors for Rs.1 lakh per cassette. Lakhs of these cassettes have been sold, no doubt giving windfall profits to the distributors, but carrying the revolutionary message at a time even when the Party is banned. An example of its popularity was that at the 1990 Warangal peasant meet a truckload of cassettes brought by the distibutor was bought up within minutes. Of these 5 cassettes are on election boycott. Some of the other cassettes have been entitled: "your tears, my tears"; brother police; govt. hospital; on PV Narsimharao when he was PM; on martyr Jyoti; May Day; Advance Gun; Rule of the Gun; etc.

Since 1996 the entire JNM is basically functioning from the underground taking on different names (like the CNM in DK). In most districts of AP, NT, AOB & DK armed cultural units move in their area like a squad, performing and training village cultural activists. Where possible, in addition to the central district unit, village units are being set up. The impact has been so great that the police have set up their own cultural units to propagate their muck through video and audiocassettes. Their play ‘Bharati’ has been widely promoted. But, as it does not reflect on the people’s lives it has little impact. It only seeks to promote falsehoods about the PW and their cadre. While, revolutionary culture, as it reflects the agony in people’s lives and their emotional desires, it immediately wins the hearts of the people. No bullet can kill this revolutionary awakening, no jail can imprison the songs for freedom, no amount of false propaganda through the TV, newspaper, and by the police/TDP propaganda machine, can drown the haunting tunes of the new society being born.

Both Vidya and Sagar have been in touch with the Party from their early childhood. Vidya since 1980; Sagar since 1985. Both are from villages in Karimnagar which have a long history of support to the Party. Both are now commanders of JNM district squads in two districts of North Telangana.

Vidya comes from a poor, landless toddy tapper family. At that time there were hardly any women in the Party. The struggles on their economic demands and against the authority of the landlord had created a big impact on the village. The Indravalli ballet had also stirred the village. All were talking about the Party and singing JNM songs. In this environment Vidya began singing songs at public at meetings from 1982 itself. Songs against the notorious landlord, Keshav Reddy, who was annihilated that year, on Peddi Shankar, who was martyred in Gadchirolli, and many songs on women. At that time she was barely 15, and in that patriarchal environment, her confidence stood out. She had an uncle who encouraged her to go forward. So did the organizer. After the killing of Keshav Reddey in end 1981 there was massive police terror in the entire region. Police camps were established all over. The police came looking for her. She slept outside the house. After that the Party asked her if she would go for training to Hyderabad. It was then that she spent nearly two months, with 30 others, at one of Gaddar’s training camp. After the training the entire batch spent 3 months touring AP putting on hall programmes throughout the state. Since then she has been a full timer of the Party, working chiefly in the cultural front.

Sagar began singing with the campaign batches when he was just 10 years old. He soon became an organizer and then a full timer. But it was only when his close friend Hanumanna (from Eturnagaram) was martyred in 1989, that he wrote his first song and ‘Katha’. He then worked in the Kottaguddam area of Khammam, where the New Democracy (Prajapantha) group used all sorts of vile means to keep the PW out. It was his songs that attracted the people, particularly one he wrote against the Prajapantha. Since then he has written numerous songs, using local folk tunes like the ‘Sharda Kullu’. He would listen and record the folk songs of the people, and to those tunes he would put revolutionary themes and people’s issues.

The numerous cultural activists with the Party have similar histories.

Due to intensive police repression even most revolutionary cultural activity has gone underground. The police have not even spared the activists of the legal cultural front of the separate Telengana movement — Telangana Kala Samiti (TKS).

First they got their gangsters, Naem, Sammy Reddy, etc. to cut up alive Belli Lalita into 17 pieces. She was the first convener of the TKS. Then in December last year they brutally killed the talented artist, Illanna, in cold blood. Illanna was not only a brilliant singer but also a talented painter. On December 24th evening, the police in civil dress asked him to come under the pretext that money had been sanctioned for his heart problem. At 9 pm a failed attempt was made to blast a Hanamkonda police station, in which there was no damage. The police brutally tortured him. Saying, "you do good drawings", they broke his fingers one by one. They broke his foot and ribs. They finally shot him and declared: "killed in encounter". He was just 24, and the state secretary of the TKS.

But revolutionary and democratic culture lives on. The emotions of the people, expressed in song, poems, dance, cannot be stifled with bullets. It bursts forth in one form or another. Now organised in the underground JNM units together with a vast array of democratic legal cultural units revolutionary culture continues to flourish in AP.

In fitting tribute to the recent martyrs of the cultural movement, both revolutionary and democratic, the All India League of Revolutionary Culture (AILRC) held its Conference just three weeks after the martyrdom of Illanna on Jan.13/14, 2002 at Hyderabad. In fitting tribute to the fallen comrades, the area was called Divakar Nagar, the Hall was named after Illanna; the Gate after Belli Lallita and the Book Stall after Vilas Gogre. Two songs were sung in tribute to Illanna — one by the TKS another by Gaddar. His photos, paintings and quotations were displayed all over the hall. Large numbers of big size photos of Divakar and Purshottam (APCLC secretary murdered by gangsters of the police) were sold. Revolutionary culture lives on, and has spread to nine states of the country. Besides from AP, cultural performances were put on by troupes from Orissa, Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Haryana and Delhi.

<Top>