A. Kameshwar Rao
Verily, he bears a charmed life. The military tribunal ordered that he should be shot for deserting the army. Later on, the sentence was not carried out on a technical detail. Mysterious are the decrees of fate. It is written in heavens that he should serve his motherland.
Mr. A Kameshwar Rao was born in 1902. He was educated at the Guntur High School. His chequered career is full of infinite interest. As a lad he quarreled with his uncle and ran away from the house. He studied at Karnool with the aid of charities. In 1917 he left for Bombay and stayed there for a year.
For a period of four years he joined the army and served in many capacities. When the great War broke out he joined the fighting columns at Mesopotamia. For two years, he lived in trenches and smelt the powder. He left Mesopotamia when the contract expired. He was court-martialed and ordered to be shot and was later released.
K.L. Kamat/Kamat's Potpourri
A. Kameshwara Rao
On August 1921 he landed at Karachi. He piled his foreign clothes and lit a bonfire. He toured on foot preaching the gospel of freedom. He exhorted the peasants not to pay the taxes.
He was arrested and sentenced to one year's imprisonment. Immediately after his release he attended the Gaya Congress. Since then he has evinced particular interest in the constructive work of the Congress. In 1925 he received physical culture education in Manikrao's Akhada at Baroda. He organized the Aryakumar Scouts in Gujarat.
While studying at Baroda he fell in love with Sri Sarla Devi. His romance serves the themes of a novel. He had to sweat much to marry his sweetheart. In the year 1929 he came accompanied by his wife to Gutur and organized the Youth Guards. He participated in the Salt Satyagraha and was sentenced to one year's imprisonment.
After his release he again courted arrest and lathi blows. His wife and child were brutally assaulted. When the Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed he was released. In 1931 he sailed for East Africa. He stayed there for two years. Then he traveled on the continent and was imbued with the political philosophy of the West. He returned back to his native land as an avowed Marxist. He apprenticed his time to the labor cause. While working in a labor colony at Ahmedabad he fell down form a bridge and sustained severe injuries.
In 1936 he was elected a member of the A.I.C.C. He organized the Summer School of politics and economics at Kottapattam. The Dummy Ministry banned the school. The order was disobeyed. There was a lathi charge and Mr. A Kameshwar Rao was severely beaten. The case launched against him was withdrawn by the Congress Government. Mr. A. Kameshwar Rao is a socialist, every inch a full fledged socialist. He believes that mass organization based on class bases is the effective weapon against imperialist forces. He pleads that even exploitation by ‘Man by Man' should go.
Mr. A. Kameshwar Rao is of the opinion that the ministers might change but the steel frame remains the same. So all the forces of the country should be galvanized for an organized anti-Imperialistic fight.
He contends that the present conciliatory policy of the Government is due to the clouds looming large on the European horizon. Further it is a bait to entangle the nation in a bloody conflict. He is a solvent of principles, lonely and unyielding. He is not satisfied with petty triumphs. He is consumed with one passion desire-a Social Revolution. He is unwilling to prune the tree but uproot it.
The Socialist forces cannot forever be kept at bay. If they come to power then Mr. A. Kameshwar Rao will be one of the architects of the new order.
Source: Haripura Congress Souvenir, 1938
