Mallu Swarajam

Mallu Swarajyam was born in 1931 in Karvirala Kothagudem village, Thungathurthy mandal, then part of the erstwhile Nalgonda district of Hyderabad State. The village is now in Suryapet district, Telangana.

Her parents were Bheemireddy Ramireddy and Chokkamma. Her elder brother Bheemireddy Narasimha Reddy was active in the communist movement and influenced her political development.

Accounts of her early life describe her becoming politically conscious while still young. She was influenced by literature including Maxim Gorky's The Mother and became involved in activities associated with the Andhra Mahasabha.

At about the age of 11, she participated in an effort to distribute rice to poor and bonded labouring families following an Andhra Mahasabha call, according to biographical accounts.

Her mother named her Swarajyam in reference to relatives who had participated in the satyagraha movement. Accounts also report that the family home was burned during violence associated with the Razakars in 1947.

Swarajyam's political activity developed amid agrarian inequality, bonded labour, landlord domination and opposition to the political order of Hyderabad State under the Nizam.

In 1946, at about age 16, she joined the Communist Party of India and became an organizer of the militant movement in Suryapet taluka.

According to biographical accounts, she received firearms training from former military personnel including Major Jaipal Singh. Her activities included village mobilisation, work among poor families and the use of songs and speeches to communicate political messages.

The Telangana People's Armed Struggle developed from 1946 in Hyderabad State. Peasants and communist activists opposed landlord domination, forced exactions, bonded labour and the political and coercive structures of the Nizam's state.

Mallu Swarajyam became associated with communist armed groups known as dalams. Accounts describe her travelling through villages, mobilising peasants, addressing meetings and participating in armed and organisational activities. She became a commander of a guerrilla dalam.

Her memoir records her recollections of work in the Kothagudem coal-mining area, including information supplied by tribal women who entered the forest to collect mahuva flowers.

She also recalled an incident in which she stopped a police bus by puncturing its tyres with her pistol, boarded the bus and took a constable's pistol. These details are presented as her memoir recollections.

Following the Indian military action in Hyderabad State in September 1948, the political and military circumstances changed, but the armed struggle continued. Swarajyam remained underground and, according to biographical accounts, led a guerrilla dalam in forest regions. The Communist Party called off the armed struggle in 1951.

Women participated in the Telangana movement through political mobilisation, communication, cultural activity, support for underground workers and armed work.

Swarajyam's memoir describes women's participation in village-level mobilisation and their role in providing information and assistance to movement workers. Her own work also included mobilising peasants through songs and speeches.

After the armed struggle, Swarajyam continued political work through communist and peasant organisations and became increasingly involved in organising women and agricultural labourers.

She contested the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election from Thungathurthy on the CPI(M) ticket and was elected in 1978 and again in 1983.

Her two reported Assembly terms were 1978–1983 and 1983–1984. The second Assembly was dissolved before the completion of a full five-year term.

During the 1983 Assembly polls, when threatened with a pistol, she is reported to have responded, “Are you going to shoot? Then shoot me.”

At the first state conference of the Mahila Sangham in Nalgonda in 1971, Swarajyam was elected president according to biographical accounts.

She was a founding member of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) in 1981 and served as president of its Andhra Pradesh unit from 1981 to 2001.

She became a member of the CPI(M) Central Committee in 2002 and continued public work concerning women, agricultural labourers and social and economic issues.

Swarajyam remained associated with AIDWA and CPI(M) activities after leaving the Legislative Assembly. She continued speaking publicly about the Telangana struggle, women's issues and agrarian concerns.

Mallu Swarajyam died in Hyderabad on 19 March 2022. Contemporary reports described her as 91 and stated that she had been receiving treatment.

Following her death, her body was taken to Nalgonda and, in accordance with her wishes, donated to Government Medical College, Nalgonda for medical education and research.