A man who loved Telugu, went home to promote it

Hyderabad: Telugu and the people of Telangana were above everything for him. When it comes to serving the cause of his mother tongue, Vattikota Alwar Swamy from Madaram village in Nalgonda district has the unique distinction of being the first novelist in the Telugu language.

The young Swamy had completed his education working as a cook for his teacher after the death of his father. But the deprivation of self-expression of his people in their mother tongue had irked him enough to take cudgels against the establishment.

While his spirit to serve people had attracted him towards the leftist ideology, his soul remained strongly rooted in the cause of serving his language. This plunged him into the library movement to make Telugu breathe a new lease of life among the people in the rural areas of the State. On the other, the communist movement attracted him to fight against the rulers of the day.

While his opposition to the establishment had got him jailed, the love of his language had made him carry books on different themes like bonded labour, freedom and the like in a basket on his head and go from village to village to sell vegetables.

On his own, he came up with a novel ‘Jailu Lopala’ (inside the jail) and shared his experiences of his days in the jail. His other novels like ‘Gangu’ published between 1940s and People’s Man (Prajala Manishi) in 1950s made him among those in the frontline to fight for the cause of Telugu as well as for the freedom of people.

The majority of the books were known as ‘Ana’ books, sold at six paise during those days. It was the kind of commitment with which he had worked to create awareness among people on various subjects concerning their lives in their own language.

Taking this a step forward he published a series of 35 books establishing ‘Desodharaka Granthamala’ with the backing of the prominent nationalist and journalist Desoddharaka Kasinathuni Nageswara Rao Pantulu, who started Andhra Patrika Telugu newspaper.

Adding to his efforts to publish books, he also started a newspaper called ‘Telangana’ in the Telugu language to create awareness and inspire people to come together for their freedom and for the cause of their mother tongue.