Subbarao Panigrahi (1933 ― 23 December 1969) was a

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

revolutionary poet and leader of Srikakulam peasant uprising.

Career

Panigrahi was born in 1933 in a poor

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests ( purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers ( ...

family at

Sompeta Sompeta is a census town in Srikakulam district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the mandal headquarters of Sompeta mandal in Tekkali revenue division. Geography Sompeta is located at . It has an average elevation of 8 metres ( ...

Srikakulam district Srikakulam district is one of the twenty-six districts of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, located in the Uttarandhra region of the state, with its headquarters located at Srikakulam. It is one of the six districts, located in the extreme n ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to t ...

. Initially, he worked as a priest in a local temple. Panigrahi wrote a number of songs, poems and dramas like ''Kalachakra'', ''Vimukti'', ''Kumkumrekha'', ''Rikshawalla'' and ''Mrigajaal''. He participated in

Naxalbari uprising Naxalbari uprising was an armed peasant revolt in 1967 in the Naxalbari block of Siliguri subdivision in Darjeeling district, West Bengal, India. It was mainly led by tribals and the radical communists leaders of Bengal and further developed in ...

and joined the

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

. In 1969, Subbarao served the secretary of the Sompeta area committee of the party and also took charges to mobilised the people of Uddan and

Paralakhemundi Paralakhemundi shortly known as Parala is district Headquarter of Gajapati district and one of the oldest Municipality established in 1885, in the Indian state of Odisha. Majority of the people in the town speak Odia. The city and the Distri ...

area. He organised the peasant movement in

Srikakulam Srikakulam is a city and the headquarters of Srikakulam district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. census,. it has a population of 165,735. There are many other places of Buddhist Tourism such as Salihundam, Kalinga Patnam, Dabbaka V ...

and Northern Andhra with two prominent Naxal leaders Vempatapu Satyanarayana and Adibhatla Kailasam. Panigrahi played a vital role in cultural wing of the party to form

People's war People's war ( Chinese: 人民战争), also called protracted people's war, is a Maoist military strategy. First developed by the Chinese communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (1893–1976), the basic concept behind people's war is to main ...

in rural Andhra Pradesh. On 23 December 1969, he was killed in a police encounter near Andhra-

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of Sc ...

border.

Popular culture

It is reported that

action drama film ''Acharya'' is set on the uprising led by Panigrahi.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Panigrahi, Subbarao 1933 births 1969 deaths Indian communists Telugu politicians Telugu poets People from Srikakulam district Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) politicians People shot dead by law enforcement officers in India