Tanguturi Prakasam
Encyclopedia
Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu (Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...

: టంగుటూరి ప్రకాశం పంతులు b. 23 August 1872 – d. 20 May 1957) was an India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n politician and Freedom Fighter and the first Chief Minister
Chief Minister
A Chief Minister is the elected head of government of a sub-national state, provinces of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, notably a state of India, a territory of Australia or a British Overseas Territory that has attained self-government...

 of the Indian province Andhra state
Andhra State
Andhra State was a state in India created on October 1, 1953 from the Telugu-speaking northern districts of Madras Presidency. On November 1, 1956 it was merged with the Telangana region of Hyderabad State to form the united Telugu-speaking state of Andhra Pradesh.- Madras Manade movement :In 1953,...

. He was also known as Andhra Kesari (literally, the Lion of Andhra).

Early life

He was born to Subbamma and Venkata Narasimham, in a Telugu Brahmin Niyogi
Niyogi
Niyogis are a sect of Hindu Brahmins who gave up priestly occupations and are predominantly Telugu language speakers, from Andhra Pradesh, India.-Theories of origin:...

 family in a village called Vinodarayuni Palem (or Vinoda Rayudu Palem) 26 km from Ongole in Andhra Pradesh. When he was 11, his father died and his mother had to run a boarding house at Ongole, a profession that was looked down upon at the time.

When E. Hanumantha Rao Naidu, his teacher at school, shifted to Rajahmundry
Rajahmundry
Rajahmundry is a city and municipal corporation of the Andhra Pradesh state in India. It is located east of the state capital, Hyderabad, on the banks of the River Godavari. Known as the Cultural Capital, Rajahmundry is noted for its intense Veda culture and intellect...

, he took Prakasam along with him as that place had better opportunities for education. He enacted in Gayopakhyanam
Gayopakhyanam
Gayopakhyanam is a Telugu play written by Chilakamarthi Lakshmi Narasimham in 1890. It is also called Prachanda Yadavam . This play is the forerunner in presenting fictional themes in the Hindu Epics...

of Chilakamarthi Lakshmi Narasimham
Chilakamarthi Lakshmi Narasimham
Chilakamarthi Lakshmi Narasimham was an Indian playwright, novelist and author of short stories, who wrote in the Telugu language. He was a romantic and a social reformer in the tradition founded by Veeresalingam...

 in 1890 along with his teacher. He was interested in becoming a lawyer since childhood, Prakasam failed his matriculation
Matriculation
Matriculation, in the broadest sense, means to be registered or added to a list, from the Latin matricula – little list. In Scottish heraldry, for instance, a matriculation is a registration of armorial bearings...

 examination. He however managed to go to Madras and become a second-grade pleader. Returning to Rajahmundry, he eventually became a successful lawyer. He was elected as Municipal Chairman of Rajahmundry in 1904 when he was 31 years old. This election was a tough one at that point in time.

In England

During one of his professional visits to Madras on a court case, a barrister was impressed with his legal acumen and suggested that he become a barrister. As a second-grade pleader, Prakasam could not argue cases at higher courts as only barristers were allowed to do so. Prakasam took the idea to his heart and decided to go to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 to pursue legal studies. It was considered a sacrilege to cross the seas during those days. However, as Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...

 had done before him, Prakasam made a promise to his mother that he would abstain from eating non-vegetarian food, smoking and drinking. He reached England in 1904. In England, he joined the India Society and worked for the election of Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji , known as the Grand Old Man of India, was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early Indian political leader. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India brought attention to the draining of India's wealth into Britain...

 to the House of Commons.

In the service of public

After completing the barrister course with a certificate of honour in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Prakasam relocated to Madras high court. He was one of the prominent Telugu
Telugu people
The Telugu people or Telugu Prajalu are an ethnic group of India. They are the native speakers of the Telugu language, the most commonly spoken language in India after Hindi and Bengali...

 barrister to be successful; until then, most of the successful lawyers were either Europeans or Tamilians. He dealt with both civil and criminal cases. Of the latter, one of the important cases was the Ash murder
Robert William Escourt Ashe
Robert William d'Escourt Ashe I.C.S. was the acting Collector and District magistrate of Tirunelveli district during the British Raj. On June 17, 1911, he was assassinated by Vanchinathan at the Maniyachi railway junction . and died within half an hour...

 case. Ash was the Collector
District collector
The District Collector is the district head of administration of the bureaucracy in a state of India. Though he/she is appointed and is under general supervision of the state government, he/she has to be a member of the elite IAS recruited by the Central Government...

 of Tirunelveli
Tirunelveli
Tirunelveli , also known as Nellai , and historically as Tinnevelly, is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of the Tirunelveli District and the sixth biggest city in Tamil Nadu...

 and was shot dead in 1907. This was at a time when Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal was an Indian nationalist. He was among the triumvirate of Lal Bal Pal.-Early life and background:...

, the nationalist leader from Bengal was touring the region, making fiery speeches on nationalism. Prakasam defended one of the accused and ensured that he got away with a light sentence. Prakasam also edited Law times, a legal magazine. The same year he presided over Bipin Chandra Pal’s lecture at Madras when others were afraid to come forward, given that the government of the day considered Pal’s speeches to border on sedition. He started attending the Congress Party
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 sessions regularly after the Lucknow pact and signed the Satyagraha
Satyagraha
Satyagraha , loosely translated as "insistence on truth satya agraha soul force" or "truth force" is a particular philosophy and practice within the broader overall category generally known as nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. The term "satyagraha" was conceived and developed by Mahatma...

 pledge in October 1921. He gave up his lucrative law practice. He also started and was the working editor of a newspaper Swarajya (literally self-rule). Swarajya was published simultaneously in English, Telugu and Tamil.

He also ran a national school and a Khadi
Khadi
The term khādī or khaddar means cotton. khādī is Indian handspun and hand-woven cloth. The raw materials may be cotton, silk, or wool, which are spun into threads on a spinning wheel called a charkha. It is a versatile fabric, cool in the summer and warm in the winter...

 production centre. He was elected the general secretary of the Congress Party
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 in December 1921 at the Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...

 session. Whenever there was unrest or strife such as a riot, he tried to be there so as to comfort people. He visited Punjab
Punjab region
The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...

 during Akali Satyagraha and the Hindu-Muslim riots in Multan
Multan
Multan , is a city in the Punjab Province of Pakistan and capital of Multan District. It is located in the southern part of the province on the east bank of the Chenab River, more or less in the geographic centre of the country and about from Islamabad, from Lahore and from Karachi...

. He toured Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

 during the Moplah rebellion despite a ban on visitors from outside the area and had his property at Ooty attached by the government as a consequence. In 1922, during the Non-cooperation Movement
Non-cooperation movement
The non-cooperation movement was a significant phase of the Indian struggle for freedom from British rule which lasted for years. This movement, which lasted from September 1920 to February 1922 and was led by Mohandas Gandhi, and supported by the Indian National Congress. It aimed to resist...

, he organised a demonstration by 30,000 Congress volunteers at Guntur
Guntur
Guntur , is a city and a municipal corporation in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, located to the north and west of the Bay of Bengal. It is approximately to the south of the national capital, New Delhi and south east of state capital, Hyderabad. Guntur is the fourth largest city in Andhra...

. In 1926, he was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly
Central Legislative Assembly
The Central Legislative Assembly was a legislature for India created by the Government of India Act 1919 from the former Imperial Legislative Council, implementing the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms...

 on a Congress Party ticket.

Andhra Kesari appellation and struggle for independence

When the Simon Commission
Simon Commission
The Indian Statutory Commission was a group of seven British Members of Parliament that had been dispatched to India in 1927 to study constitutional reform in Britain's most important colonial dependency. It was commonly referred to as the Simon Commission after its chairman, Sir John Simon...

 visited India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, the congress party decided to boycott it with the slogan "Simon, go back". There were a host of reasons for this boycott, the most important being that the commission did not have a single Indian in its ranks. The commission was greeted with demonstration of black flags wherever it went. When the commission visited Madras on 3rd February 1928, the police did not allow protests in some sensitive areas of Madras. Nevertheless, the crowd grew large and restive near the Madras High Court
Madras High Court
The Madras High Court is a senior court located at Chennai , in India. The court buildings, which are believed to be the second largest judicial complex in the world, are located near the beach, in one of the city's major business districts....

 at Parry's Corner
Parry's Corner
Parry's Corner is one of the central business districts in Chennai, India. Often referred to as Parry's, it is situated near the Chennai Port, at the intersection of North Beach Road and NSC Bose Road. It is named after Thomas Parry, a Welsh merchant who set up the EID Parry Company in 1787. The...

 and the police resorted to firing with a view to control it. However, a young man, named, Pardha Saradhi was killed on the spot. The police warned the people that they would shoot if anyone tried to come near the body. At this, Prakasam grew enraged and tore open his shirt, baring his chest and daring the police to shoot at him. Understanding the situation, the police gave way to him and other supporters. After this incident, people respected him with the epithet of "Andhra Kesari" (Lion of Andhra).

In 1930, when the Congress wanted all the legislators to resign, he did so but was not convinced about its alternative programme and hence contested and won the by-election. He joined the Nationalist Party led by Madan Mohan Malaviya
Madan Mohan Malaviya
Madan Mohan Malaviya was an Indian educationist, and freedom fighter notable for his role in the Indian independence movement and his espousal of Hindu nationalism...

 but resigned from it as well and persuaded others to do so after Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Party decided to break the salt tax law with the Dandi March. Prakasam also resigned as a legislator and was at the forefront in breaking the tax law at Madras. In the meantime, he had to suspend the publication of Swarajya due to the high deposit demanded by the government. It was revived after the Gandhi-Irwin pact
Gandhi-Irwin Pact
Gandhi–Irwin Pact refers to a political agreement signed by Mahatma Gandhi and the then Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin on 5 March 1931 before the second Round Table Conference in London...

 of 1931 but it had to be suspended again due to cash flow problems. Unsuccessful attempts were made to restart it again in 1935.

In 1937, Congress Party contested the provincial elections and achieved majority in Madras province, among others. Though Prakasam was in the running for Chief Minister’s post, he made way for Rajaji, who returned to active politics as per the wishes of the Congress Working Committee
Congress Working Committee
Congress Working Committee is the executive committee of the Congress Party in India, it typically consisting of fifteen members elected from the All India Congress Committee or AICC, and is headed by the Working President....

. Prakasam became the revenue minister – his major contribution was the founding and chairing of the Zamindari Enquiry Committee which looked at the structural distortions in agriculture perpetrated due to the Zamindari system followed by the British Government
Permanent Settlement
The Permanent Settlement — also known as the Permanent Settlement of Bengal — was an agreement between the East India Company and Bengali landlords to fix revenues to be raised from land, with far-reaching consequences for both agricultural methods and productivity in the entire Empire and the...

. With the onset of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the Congress ministries resigned from office as they were not consulted by the government about India’s participation. Prakasam was the first prominent leader from South India to offer individual Satyagraha against the war effort in 1941.

He was arrested for more than three years for participating in the Quit India movement
Quit India Movement
The Quit India Movement , or the August Movement was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for immediate independence. Gandhi hoped to bring the British government to the negotiating table...

 of 1942. After his release in 1945, he toured South India to get back in touch with the masses.

Chief Minister of Madras Presidency

In 1946, after the Congress' victory in elections in Madras Presidency
Madras Presidency
The Madras Presidency , officially the Presidency of Fort St. George and also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision of British India...

 Prakasam became the chief minister on 30th April 1946, as he and Kamaraj, a Tamil leader, were against Rajaji — the choice of leaders such as Gandhi and Nehru — becoming the chief minister. However, the government lasted for only 11 months, as it was felt that Prakasam was not accommodating enough to various varying interests.

During his tenure as Premier, Prakasam publicly declared his intention to scrap all textile industries in the province and replace them with khadi manufacturing and weaving units. In February 1947, Communists broke into a full-scale revolt. On Vallabhbhai Patel's advice, Prakasam responded with widespread arrests and tough crackdown on arsonists.

Prakasam's Cabinet
Portfolio Minister
Tanguturi Prakasam (Also Chief Minister)
Labour and Industry V. V. Giri
V. V. Giri
Varahagiri Venkata Giri , commonly known as V. V. Giri, was the fourth President of the Republic of India from 24 August 1969 to 23 August 1974.-Early life:...

Health Rukmini Laxmipathi
Food T. S. S. Rajan
T. S. S. Rajan
Tiruvengimalai Sesha Sundara Rajan was an Indian doctor, politician and freedom-fighter who served the Minister of Public Health and Religious Endowments in the Madras Presidency from 1937 to 1939....



Post-independence

He visited Hyderabad state
Hyderabad State
-After Indian independence :When India gained independence in 1947 and Pakistan came into existence in 1947, the British left the local rulers of the princely states the choice of whether to join one of the new dominions or to remain independent...

 in 1948, while the Nizam
Nizam
Nizam-ul-Mulk of Hyderabad popularly known as Nizams of Hyderabad was a former monarchy of the Hyderabad State, now in the states of Andhra Pradesh , Karnataka , and Maharashtra in India...

 was still in power, although Prime Minister Nehru warned against doing so because of concern for his personal safety. He met Qasim Rizvi, the leader of the Razakar
Razakar
Razakar is an Urdu word for volunteer and may historically refer to:*Razakars : Islamist East Pakistani militia that aided the Pakistan Army against the Mukti Bahini during the Bangladesh Liberation War...

s and warned him about pushing his luck too far. The Razakars were impressed by his courage and accorded him a march of honour.

In 1952, he formed the Hyderabad State Praja Party
Hyderabad State Praja Party
Hyderabad State Praja Party, a political party in the Hyderabad State. HSPP was formed in 1951 when Tanguturi Prakasam and Acharya N. G. Ranga broke away from the Indian National Congress....

 (Hyderabad State People’s party) and ensured that all the sitting ministers of the Congress Party were defeated. However, Praja party could not come into power by its own and the coalition that he cobbled up collapsed even before a show of strength could be contemplated.

Meanwhile, in December 1952, Potti Sriramulu died fasting for the cause of a separate state for the Telugu-speaking people. On 1 October 1953, the state of Andhra was created and Prakasam then Praja Socialist Party member, was offered by Congress to make him Chief minister of Andhra if he leaves PSP and joins Congress. Prakasham Defects PSP and joins Congress to become the CM of Andhra State. (K.C. Suri, Democratic Process and Electoral Politics
in Andhra Pradesh, India Page 14)[ However, due to opposition from the communists and halting support from the socialists, the government fell after a year. Mid-term elections were held in 1955 by which time Prakasam had more or less retired from active politics. On 1 November 1956, Telugu speaking parts of the erstwhile Hyderabad state were merged in the Andhra state to form Andhra Pradesh. Marathi speaking parts (Aurangabad region) of the Hyderabad state were merged with Bombay State (which later split into Gujarat and Maharashtra) and Kannada speaking parts (Gulbarga region) were merged with Mysore State. Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was the sixth President of India, serving from 1977 to 1982 and was the only person to be elected President of India unopposed....

, a future President of India
President of India
The President of India is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. President of India is also the formal head of all the three branches of Indian Democracy - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary...

 and a staunch follower of Prakasam became the chief minister. Though retired from politics, Prakasam was active in touring the state. On one such visit to Ongole, he suffered from severe sunstroke. He was admitted in a Hyderabad hospital and died on 20 May 1957.

Institutions named after Prakasam

  • Sri Prakasam Govt Junior College & High School (1974) - Addanki
    Addanki
    Addanki , is a town and a Mandal headquarters in Prakasam district, in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.- Geography :Addanki town located at...

     , Prakasam Dist
  • Andhra Kesari Centenary Junior College * Degree College - Rajamundry
  • Prakasam Engineering College Kandukur, Prakasam Dist
  • Sri Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu Government Junior College - Yanam, East Godavari
  • Andhra Kesari Yuvajana Samiti, a Socio Cultural Organisation was formed on 30-04-1962.
  • Andhra Kesari Prakasam Junior College,Chirala, Prakasam Dt.
  • Andhra kesari vidaya kendram junior college, Ongole
  • Sri Prakasham Vidya Niketan High School, 6-3-609/150/1, Anand Nagar Colony, Hyderabad
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