Cherabanda Raju (1944 - 2 July 1982) was a revolutionary poet, novelist, and songwriter, who wrote in the

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. Spoken by about 96 million people (2022), Telugu is the most widely spoken member of ...

. He was one of the six poets who were known for their Digambara (naked) Poetry that flourished during the mid-1960s in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

Early life

Raju, whose real name was Baddam Bhaskara Reddy, was born into a farming family in Ankusapuram village of

Nalgonda district Nalgonda district is a district in the Telangana state of India. Nalgonda district has the highest number of mandals in the state with 31 mandals. The district shares boundaries with Suryapet district, Suryapet, Rangareddy, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, ...

in 1944. Chera, as he was endearingly called by his friends, was influenced by the literary works of

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (anglicised as Sarat Chandra Chatterjee; 15 September 1876 – 16 January 1938) was a Bengali novelist and short story writer of the early 20th century. He generally wrote about the lives of Bengali family and socie ...

and

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

during his formative years. Even the legendary poet Sri Sri derived a lot of inspiration from him and dedicated his most popular anthology of poems '' Maha Prasthanam'' to Chera.

Political life

Cherabanda Raju was a teacher by profession and held a degree in Oriental Literature. His literary works include Ganjineellu, Nippurallu, Gamyam, Kattipaata, Diksoochi, Muttadi and Kaanti Yuddham. He, through his poetry, advocated the betterment of the oppressed classes such as

Dalit Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold var ...

s and peasants and fought for their rights. After the Digambara School of poetry had lost steam and became a spent force, he cofounded Virasam (Viplava Rachayitala Sangham) along with other revolutionary poets such as Varavara Rao, Sri Sri, Kutumba Rao and Ramana Reddy, and continued his poetic journey. During his lifetime he was harassed by law enforcement agencies, implicated in many cases and jailed. While serving prison sentence his health deteriorated and he died of

brain tumor A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the Human brain, brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign ...

at the age of 38.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raju, Cherabanda Indian male poets 1944 births 1982 deaths Indian male novelists Indian male songwriters Indian songwriters 20th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian novelists Telugu-language writers People from Nalgonda district 20th-century Indian educators Deaths from brain tumor 20th-century Indian male musicians