– K. Sajaya
June 17, 1985…Karamchedu village in Guntur zilla (now Prakasam zilla) in Andhra Pradesh state…The day when kamma domination and arrogance, gaining the support of political power, hunted 17 dalits in broad daylight with knives and spears and killed them. The Telugu Desam party was ruling then. The chief minister was Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao.
August 6, 1991…Chunduru village in Guntur zilla in Andhra Pradesh state. The day the upper caste Reddys, with the police as witness, attacked the dalit community there, killed 11 people with knives and axes, stuffed them in gunny bags and dumped them in the Tungabhadra canal. The Congress was ruling then. The chief minister was N. Janardhan Reddy.
What was the period between these two atrocities like? First, there were serious changes that were making a place for liberalization in the country’s economic system. Then there was brahminical ideology which was Hinduizing the society with religious superstitions. There were also increasing attacks on dalits and people belonging to minority religions. Four years after the Karamchedu incident, Nalupu: Prajapaksa Patrika, began as a voice for the lowest classes.
When an important social issue begins to be discussed in the society, there will be many efforts to discuss this issue and to publicize it. Some of these efforts some might be successful, in some disappointment also sets in. Once in a while the efforts are also unsuccessful. When we are thus searching for a solution to the problem, a forum where the search can be immediately presented in writing and a strong voice that says we are on your side become necessary. It is only then that theories necessary for the problem will emerge. Whether that is Marxism, Ambedkarism, Dalitism or feminism…or all at the same time, one problem keeps appearing after another. This forum should function not just to search for a solution or present a solution when a problem emerges but to show ways of resolving all of the people’s problems by giving them a theoretical direction and discussing them. News about such a forum should reach people. The approach will depend on the intensity of the problem. Bojja Tarakam, editor of Nalupu, said they began the magazine to enable such explicit discussion.
In 1990, on the occasion of five years since the Karamchedu incident, Bojja Tarakam wrote in his essay in Nalupu, “Today Karamchedu is not a village; it is not the name of a village. It resonates differently with different people. If it was a bow for some people, for some others it was a shield. If it was useful for some to frighten others, it became something that gave courage to some others. Karamchedu itself split into two. Rich – poor; landlords – laborers; ‘upper’ castes – ‘lower’ castes; those who attack – those who are attacked. It has been exactly five years since the carnage happened. Later, Karamchedu became the reason for a number of social and political changes that came about in the Andhra region. Karamchedu intensified people’s movements that were already ripening. It established resistance and counter-response [pratispandana] in the lives of dalits. It became a weapon in the hands of dalits who were stranded on the path, shocked, and with empty hands.”Today Karamchedu is a protest. It is a resistance, a shaking, a turn”.
In discussion with me he said that when people heard that a magazine titled Nalupu: Prajapaksa Patrika was to be published under the aegis of the Hyderabad Book Trust, there were many who asked “what kind of a name is that, couldn’t they find another name?” Though initially he was also a little hesitant about the name, he said they later decided to use it. “There were also those who asked how they could make it comprehensible only to the dalits as a group when they call it a people’s magazine. Maybe the reason for this is the lack of awareness that ‘people’ [praja] consists of many different collectives. Dalits are a part of the praja, the praja consists of dalits. We the editors of Nalupu are of the opinion that the praja consists of those who are targets of exploitation, those who are suffering, those who are experiencing violence, and everybody who is experiencing these disparities—on the other hand, those who are exploiting should not be called the praja. Bringing out a magazine or writing essays especially for dalits emerged as part of the attempt to do this. Anybody who examines the magazine will understand that it was the aim to make Nalupu into something that is especially for the people who have been suppressed, crushed and for the groups that are the targets of exploitation, to bring them to consciousness from different angles. Nalupu explicitly proclaimed that all those who were being subject to exploitation, violence, those who are losing their rights were the praja. Our entire editorial body consists of people who are in people’s movements, people who are fighting on behalf of the praja’s problems; they are people who are searching in multiple angles for the solution to these problems. Their influence on the running of the magazine is clear.”
Tarakam has a long political relationship with many people’s movements. He works as an advocate in the High Court. He is a lecturer, poet and writer. Taking up the editorship of a magazine in between these many activities is an extremely difficult task. Talking in this regard, he said, “Actually I had long wanted to bring out a magazine. When I was in high school I brought out a written magazine. I used to write it by hand using carbon papers. Two, three, even four double foolscap size papers at the same time. I used to write them myself and sell them in my village. Thus, I have always wanted to run a magazine since my childhood. My father also ran a monthly magazine, Jyoti. He was an MLA at that time. He was deeply immersed in politics. He didn’t have the time. He asked someone to look after the magazine but because they didn’t, the magazine stopped. I used to think about the magazine like this but it wasn’t possible [to run it] because I didn’t have financial resources. This desire remained since then. I was inspired by the Black Movement. Martin Luther King led an extraordinary movement that developed extraordinary intensity in 1964. There are a lot of similarities between this movement and those who are living as an untouchable collective in our Indian society. Though I did not discuss this extensively with friends in the movements with whom I was later involved in bringing out a magazine, the desire remained unfulfilled. In 1985 the inhuman Karamchedu atrocity against dalits jolted people’s lives. Even those who until then did not think about caste and its origins began to think critically after seeing the ugly form of the upper castes. This showed a lot of influence not just in Andhra Pradesh state but across the country. It was a prologue for a united dalit movement. Assemblies, rasta rokos, processions, struggles created unrest. All of these would end at some time. If a record was not made of them then and there we would not find anything about them after, anywhere else. The other magazines did not record these movements, thoughts, struggles and realities of the dalit people. Many like us were fully immersed in the movement against the Karamchedu atrocity. We had no other task—arranging meetings, assemblies, fighting cases, going to courts, collecting evidence, getting witnesses, giving them courage.
Because of this the magazine could not start till four years after. Actually it was only after the Karamchedu incident that this thinking was further strengthened. In the beginning of the 1980s, Hyderabad Book Trust was started by CK, Gita Ramaswamy, Cyril Reddy and a few other friends with the goal of making alternative progressive, political literature available. When I got acquainted with Cyril during this phase, he and I used to have discussions on contemporary politics, especially dalit politics and movements and aspects related to them. Similarly, in discussion with Kancha Ilaiah, Balagopal and other such friends we arrived at a decision to bring out a magazine that was in accordance with our thinking. By then Hyderabad Book Trust had a special place as publishers for alternative people’s movements. By 1989 we began to have some time to spare. All of us felt that there definitely has to be a magazine which is a forum for sharing these movements and thoughts. Actually, Cyril was the inspiration for such thinking. He asked me to head it and said he will take care of all the other tasks as the publisher. The magazine began with his encouragement and initiative. We began Nalupu with me as the editor, Cyril as the publisher, and the editorial board consisting of Balagopal, the leader of the human rights movements, Balagopal; D Narasimha Reddy economics professor at Central University; Kancha Ilaiah, political science professor at Osmania University; PL Vishweswara Rao, professor of journalism at Osmania University; and the journalist R Akhileshwari.
As I had mentioned earlier, after we decided to start the magazine there were a lot of debates about the name. Almost everybody accepted the name Nalupu. Nalupu symbolized oppression and discrimination. It also became a symbol for untouchability. All those who are subject to torture and violence are related to Nalupu. As I said earlier, there were some doubts about the name. Cyril argued strongly that we have to retain this name. Ilaiah too. They argued, and convinced me, that for the issues we want to discuss through the magazine, ‘Nalupu’ would be a good name symbolically. They said that this name will put our magazine in the lead. Once the magazine began, all the hesitations and doubts I had prior to that went away. Right from the first issue there was a wonderful reception. Many people made this magazine their own.
Nalupu ran very successfully for five years, from 1989 to almost 1995. Dalit and identity movements were just then beginning to gather strength. The Left movements were unable to extend assurance to these movements. There used to be a number of doubts about the Left in the dalit groups. We took on the job of bringing caste and class on par with each other. We used to extensively publish the discussions related to this. I think we were successful to a great extent in our writing and in spreading views about this.
Gita Ramaswamy, who oversaw the company responsibilities for HBT [Hyderabad Book Trust] said, “In the Telangana regions where there was influence of the revolutionary parties, there was an unspoken restriction on Nalupu. They used to prevent the magazine from being sold in bookstores. Police took away the copies that were kept. We used to get the news later. Sometimes they would return the books and sometimes they wouldn’t. It used to be extremely difficult to distribute the magazine to places such as Gadwal, Karimnagar, Warangal, Adilabad. There was surveillance of Nalupu subscribers. If an explicit restriction against revolutionary politics was implemented, this kind of an invisible restriction was implemented against people, groups and forums that were raising their voices on behalf of people’s problems. Even though we had all kinds of necessary permissions from the government for the publication of Nalupu, we faced these problems in distributing the magazine. The police never spoke directly to our editorial board. The State always looks at pens and voices that raise questions with suspicion. It tries to crush them if possible.”
Kancha Ilaiah, talking about his connection with Nalupu, said “Karamchedu brought about a major change in the lives and thoughts of people like us. At that time we were all working with Marxist—Leninist groups. We were organizing discussions about the fundamental nature of the caste problem. There was an ongoing difference among us there. When we were thinking about how to analyze the caste problem in India, the thinking of black nationalists and black feminists that ‘Black is beautiful’ inspired us a lot. In the revolutionary politics and Leftist politics here there was no respect towards blackness. This is why when the idea of a magazine was put forth we decided that its name should be ‘Nalupu.’ Discussing the caste system through an angle that made sense to us at that time was one thing. We began writing to powerfully record the exploitation and violence that was happening, record an argument that is theoretical, and to take Phule’s and Ambedkar’s writings, combining Marxist theory with the dalit question in a way that takes these arguments not just to people organizing the movements but to a wide public. At that time except for one or two books written by Dr. Vijaya Bharati, there were no writings about him in Telugu. After this the magazine that widely introduced Phule’s writings in Telugu was Nalupu.”
Nalupu played a powerful role during the Mandal agitation. When Arun Shourie and others were campaigning against reservations and writing about it, I wrote a long essay in Nalupu titled “Paraannabhuktulaku Pratibhekadundi? [“Where is the Merit in Parasites?”]” The magazine turned into a vehicle for discussing a number of issues such as these. As a movement magazine, a number of copies used to be sold in railway stations and bus stands. Before this such magazines were not available there. At that time there was a lot of restrictions against people’s movements and civil rights. With copies of Nalupu being found on Naxalites who were encountered and killed, the police tried a lot to obstruct the distribution of Nalupu. In my understanding, the magazine reached all political sections. Everyone was reading it. Till before Karamchedu, Ambedkarism had remained as welfarism. The term SC/ST connoted only welfare and welfare organizations. Karamchedu transformed that meaning. There were those who combined Marxism and Ambedkarism, examined what was happening in the field and discussed this. Even if in an embryonic form, Nalupu performed the task of combining Marxism, Ambedkarism and feminism. A number of essays in Nalupu were written in a way that the communists could relate to. Nalupu field reports were very useful in discussions in the parties about how a friendship between caste and class struggles could be made possible.
Actually Nalupu’s strength was in the stories that came from the field. It maintained a crucial role in creating a forum for the attack that had to be undertaken against Brahminism. This magazine was a common forum that was capable of making everyone read. We made very strong efforts for the language to be easy enough even to be understood by those who have studied till the X standard—to get rid of vocabulary that is not comprehensible. The magazine played a very important role in people from different groups identifying with their local problems and taking to the path of movements. At that time there were a lot of discussions about feminism. Perhaps our Nalupu was a team that was conducive to feminist philosophy. We used to have a good friendship with Stree Shakti Sanghatana. We collected and published a number of essays about them. In this way it is necessary to recognize that from all angles the magazine played an important role. Though the respect from readers and movements was good, it is very saddening that the magazine had to be stopped because economic resources reduced. Cyril put in a lot of effort to sustain the magazine. He took on the entire responsibility.
The magazine’s first strength was its name. A lot of people identified themselves with it. It was inspired by this name that I named my book Why I Am Not a Hindu. I was able to write this book through examining the field reports in Nalupu. With the same inspiration I named another book Buffalo Nationalism. It is very saddening that the magazine stopped during a key phase in national politics, that too because of economic resources. After Nalupu stopped I began to write more in English. In current political conditions, it is very necessary for magazines such as Nalupu to exist to oppose the frenzy of Hindutva and its politics. It is a huge loss to not have a voice that is our own. To oppose current conditions, if anyone is able to restart this magazine again, if anyone is able to come forward for that, it would be really good.”
Publisher Cyril said, “When we thought that managing the finances will no longer be possible, we called the writers and friends who had until then participated in the management of the magazine and explained why we were thinking of stopping it. If collecting writings is one important part of managing a magazine, economic resources are another important part. For some time we took government notifications. For this we had the help of a few friends who were working in the IAS. We reprinted Hyderabad Book Trust’s Where There is No Doctor. We spent the money from selling the reprint on this magazine’s management. We used to publish 3000 copies of each volume. It was a lot of work to distribute them, search for distributors in the zillas, and collect the money from the copies they sold. In the midst of this there were restrictions by the police. They wouldn’t let us sell the magazine. Because of this, bookstores would be frightened to display the magazine in a way that was visible from the outside. This had an impact on sales. We weren’t getting money immediately. We strongly thought that we should continue but it became difficult financially. Actually for a long time we had economic resources from the Trust. Later we felt that this will be difficult. If the magazine had to come out on time there had to be four or five staff members who worked full time. There had to be coordination between them. A lot of people asked us to continue but it wasn’t possible.”
Nalupu was a magazine that stood as the backbone for identity movements at a historical moment and played an extraordinary part for five years. From April 1989 to June 1993 the publishers ran the magazine with commitment even when they faced financial, political and many other obstacles. That the magazine ceased publication was saddening not only for the editors but also for people like me who were taking their first steps as essayists. As Ilaiah says the contemporary period is a political situation where the necessity for magazines such as Nalupu is brought forth even more forcefully. If one observes the period starting from Karamchedu to the present, there is a necessity for magazines with a democratic voice that examines the struggles which have continued endlessly and their widening political contexts. We have to wait and watch whether we will be able to revive Nalupu or if it will emerge in another form.
K Sajaya is an activist, journalist and a member of the Anveshi Executive Committee.
sajayak@gmail.com
Translated from Telugu by K Sravanthi.