D.V. Rao

1917 – 1984

Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao was born in Ingurthi village, Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh on June 1, 1917. He was active in the revolutionary student movement from an early age, organizing protests against the Nizam of Hyderabad’s government. He began to study Marxism and joined the Communist Party of India in 1939.

Rao quickly rose in the Party ranks. He was the secretary of the Nalgonda District Committee of the CPI, a secretariat member of the CPI Telangana Committee (formed in February 1952) and a member of the Central Committee from 1950 until he left the CPI (M) in June 1968.

Rao was a key organiser of the celebrated Telangana armed struggle (1940-51) and spent seven years in the underground (1946-1952). He played an active part in the drafting of the 1948 Andhra Thesis of the Provincial Secretariat of CPI, which for the first time in India outlined a revolutionary line inspired by the experiences of the Communist Party of China under Mao Zedong. In 1949 he wrote an important text, Refutation of Wrong Trends Advocating Withdrawal of Telengana Armed Struggle.

Rao served as a CPI Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) representing the Nalgonda Constituency during the period 1957-62 along with his closest comrade–in-arms, Tarimela Nagi Reddy. He was arrested under the Defence of India Rules in 1962 (November 1962 to July 1963) for opposing the Government of India’s war of aggression against China. In 1964, when the CPI split, he left to go with the CPI(M). He was under arrest again from December 1964 to May 1966 during India’s War against Pakistan.

Rejecting the emerging political line within the CPI (M), Rao, along with T. Nagi Reddy, Chandra Pulla Reddy and Kolla Venkaiah, founded the Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (APCCCR) in June 1968. At its 1969 convention he was elected Secretary of the Committee. Later that year he was arrested along with Reddy and others and kept in detention from December 1969 to May 1972.

In an effort bring together various groups of communist revolutionaries, in April 1975 Rao and T. Nagi Reddy founded the Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India (Marxist–Leninist) (UCCRI(ML)). He was its General Secretary from 1975 to 1984. Together with Moni Guha, he also became a founding editor of its journal, The Proletarian Line.

The UCCRI(ML) did not remain long united, suffering a number of splits beginning in 1976. A dispute in the Central Committee that year led Rao and his supporters into leaving and forming their own UCCRI(ML). However, his UCCRI(ML) itself split in September 1979, this time over events in China and the “theory of three worlds.” The majority, led by Rao and his supporters, upheld the “theory of three worlds” while the minority rejected it.

The Rao UCCRI(ML) experienced further turmoil in 1980 over whether or not to participate in national elections. In Andhra Pradesh the UCCRI(ML) promoted non-participation, in reality a boycott, while supporting certain candidates in West Bengal and Orissa. In the aftermath of the elections, yet another split developed with Rao leaving the party with a group of followers in Andhra and setting up another UCCRI(ML) of which he remained the leader.

D.V. Rao died, aged 67, on July 12, 1984. His work, The History of the People’s Armed Struggle of Telangana (1946-51) Volume I was published in Telugu posthumously in 1988.

Works

The Andhra Thesis (1948)

Left Trend Among Indian Revolutionaries [Extract] (1970)

Fundamental Line and Question of Unity [Extract] (1971)

Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought Is Our Outlook [Extract from People's Democratic Revolution in India - An Explanation of the Programme] (1971)

Note to the English Translation of Right Opportunist Trend Inside the Party [Extract] (1973)

Preface to the First English Edition, Telangana Armed Struggle and the Path of Indian Revolution (1974)

Chapter IX, First English Edition, Telangana Armed Struggle and the Path of Indian Revolution (1974)

Comrade Mao Tse-tung [obituary] (1976)

India and China's Continuing Revolution (1978)

October and Chinese Revolutions Show the Path of Revolutions to the People of the World (1979)

On Developments Inside China (1980)

Hold High The Banner of Mao Tse-tung Thought! (1980)

October and November Revolutions: Some Problems Facing the International Communist Movement (1980)

Theoretical Problems [an extract from the foreward to the Second Telegu edition of People's Democratic Revolution in India - An Explonation of the Programme] (1981)

Some Problems Relating to Socialist Revolution in China (1981)

Preface to the 1982 English edition of Refutation of Wrong Trends Advocating Withdrawal of Telangana Armed Struggle (1949) (1982)

Twelfth Congress of Communist Party of China (1982)

Karl Marx's Death Centenary. To Make the Indian Revolution a Success is Our Best Tribute to Marx (1983)

The Indian Revolution Will Succeed Only When the Revolutionary Proletariat Makes Marxism Its Own (1983)

CPI (M) Does not Cease to be Revisionist Simply Because It Could Establish Relations With CPC (1983)

CPI Leaders Continue Their Slanders Against CPC (1983)

Renouncing the Revolution at Home and Demanding Unity of International Communist Movement Cannot Go Together (1983)

Indian Revolution and Proletarian Internationalism (1983)