Grand old Communist leader from Telangana Mallu Swarajyam passed away due to multiple organ failure at a private hospital in Hyderabad on Saturday. She was 91 and had been ailing for some time.
According to a statement by the hospital, she was admitted on March 1 for treatment of pneumonia and she breathed her last around 8 p.m.
Mallu Swarajyam was born into a feudal family, of Bheemireddy Ramireddy and Chokkamma in 1931 at Karivirala Kothagudem village in Thungathurthy of undivided Nalgonda district.
The Bheemireddy’s house has been a shelter for the poor, and later during the Telangana People’s Armed Struggle (1946-51) the base camp against the Hyderabad Razakars.
Swarajyam early from her teenage, inspired by her brother Bheemireddy Narsimha Reddy, toured the vast Adilabad, Nalgonda, Warangal and Karimnagar districts to advocate against the feudal lords of the time and their private armies who exploited the commoners. A prolific singer of the revolution in mobilising people, she also picked up a rifle and took training to serve as the female commander in the rebellion.
The nonagenarian, in her several interviews in the past, proudly recalled that she carried a prize of ₹10, 000 on her head for her role against the Zamindars. And with a resolution in the Andhra Mahasabha, she had also distributed an entire paddy harvest to the poor.
Ms. Swarajyam later married Mallu Venkata Narsimha Reddy, another Communist stalwart and longtime leader of Nalgonda district, the man who was undercover and planned the actions of the rebellion. In her long public life of more than eight decades, Swarajyam was elected legislator of Thungathurthy Assembly constituency in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh governments twice from Communist Party of India, in 1978 and 1983.
Her brother Narsimha Reddy had also been legislator from Thungathurthy and Suryapet Assembly constituencies and was thrice Member of Parliament from Miryalaguda.
According to Civil rights activist Vasanth Kannabiran, as expressed in Mallu Swarajyam’s auto biography Naa Maate Thupaki Thoota, she was Telangana’s Jhansi Rani.
And for poet-writer P. Lalitha Kumari, popular by her pen name Volga, Swarajyam’s life story was essentially the socio-political story of the 20th century that witnessed oppression and rebellion.
“Women who want to enter politics must be like Mallu Swarajyam. Her career is very different, away from power, ruling and self-interests. Her story is about the power of taking decisions and how to do it,” she wrote of her.
